Should group membership be considered for treatment to be effective

This chapter explores the question of whether the groups that offenders belong to need to be taken into consideration in order for treatment to be effective. For example, if an offender is Maori, is treatment likely to be more effective for that offender if it is tailored to the needs of Maori? And if an offender is religious, should treatment incorporate the offender’s particular religious perspective? Along with an investigation into ethnic and religious groups, this chapter discusses the signifi cance of group identifi cation (defi ned below) in the context of group treatment.