Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand, 2016, 7(1): 59-69

Psychological treatment programs targeting sexual, violent and general offending can only be effective to the extent that clients are engaged in treatment. Beyond the obvious issues inherent in engaging clients in a program that they may feel coerced into, engaging Māori clients presents additional challenges. In response to the well documented over-representation of Māori people in New Zealand prisons, attempts have been made to integrate Māori ideas and practices into the
operation of treatment programs for offenders. However, the extent to which Māori models of health and well-being have been successfully integrated into treatment programs is limited. In this article we explore why Māori models are often absent from offending treatment programs, and how they might be better incorporated. We argue that the best practice rehabilitation framework (i.e., the Risk Needs Responsivity model) is largely incompatible with Māori models of health and wellbeing, and that the contemporary Good Lives Model better accommodates the incorporation of Māori models into the operation of treatment programs for offenders. (Authos' abstract). Record #6124