Virker ART i svenske fengsler?

Abstract

This paper discusses a report on the effect of Aggression Replacement Training (ART) in Swedish prisons (Danielsson, Fors, & Freij, 2011). The report compared two samples: An »ART group« that received ART in the period 2003-2006, and a »control group« that was selected to match the ART group at a later time from the general Swedish prison population. A close examination of the report reveals that it failed to specify the nature and quality of the treatment given to the ART group. Attrition from the ART group was very high, indicating that the quality of the intervention was low. The report reveals that the two groups were very different, with significantly higher level of violence and aggression history in the ART group compared to the control group. We conclude that this difference is a likely cause of the higher rate of violent recidivism in the ART group, and that the ART intervention most probably had nothing to do with the observed differences between the groups. This case illustrates the risks of making important policy decisions based on findings from reports published outside the peer review system of established journals