Edinburgh Napier University

  The book’s concluding chapter revisits some of the take-away messages from earlier chapters. The reader is left with the message ‘One essential task is to extend the limited evidence base through practitioners and researchers combining forces to develop our knowledge and understanding of what works, who it works for, why it works and how effects can be maximised’. For all the anecdotal evidence of treatment effects that keeps forensic therapists motivated, Davies and Nagi are correct in highlighting the absence of a robust evidence base. In a world in which cost-per-treatment is becoming the metric on which many decisions are based, we as criminal justice professionals need to develop more of a businesslike side to our practice. In summary, this book is a well-written clarion call for outcomes evidence relating to forensic therapies.