Characteristics predicting completion of a small treatment unit underpinned by the Good Lives Model

With the rise in violence and anti-social behaviour in custodial settings, new initiatives have been considered to address this. A psychologically informed unit underpinned by the Good Lives Model (Ward, 2002) was created for male prisoners involved in custodial violence and anti-social behaviour to have access to a strengths-based intervention grounded in this theory. The present study considers the individual characteristics of Age, Ethnicity and Sentence Type and if these are predictive of the likelihood of completing the intervention. Ethnicity and Sentence Type were not found to be statistically significant. The results showed that age was statistically significant, demonstrating that as age decreased the likelihood of completion decreased. Research regarding the process of maturation, aligned with the neurological evidence base is explored to make sense of this outcome highlighting the difficulties young adults are likely to experience within this transitional period. Consideration is given to the desistance needs of young adults with the conclusion that treatment providers need to ensure they are engaging young adults at the right time in their developmental journeys and in a way, being attuned to their developmental needs. Methodological limitations of the research are presented as well as suggestions for future research.