THE R&R PROGRAM

REASONING & REHABILITATION

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The Reasoning & Rehabilitation (R&R) program is a group program designed for
youths and adults who are evidencing antisocial behaviours or delinquent or
criminal offending behaviour. It is an internationally accredited, evidence-based,
multi-faceted, cognitive-behavioural program for teaching cognitive skills, social
skills and values. R&R is a manualized program that provides 35, highly
stuctured, two hour sessions for groups of 6-12 participants.

The program can be conducted in institutions, including special hospitals and

prisons; or in community settings including schools, special schools, group
homes and probation. All that is required is a qualified Trainer working in a
supportive context; an overhead projector; and a flip-chart .

R&R is a product of an ongoing, long-term, multi-stage research project begun at

the University of Waterloo in 1966 that involves a sequential series of empirical
studies of the efficacy of programs designed to reduce antisocial behaviour.

The R&R program was based on analysis of more than a hundred rigorously
evaluated programs that have been found to be effective in the rehabilitation of
juvenile delinquents and adult offenders. It is also based on forty years of
research demonstrating the relationship between cognition and offending.

R&R has been delivered over the past twenty years to more than seventy
thousand offenders in twenty countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark,
England, Estonia, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Jersey, Latvia, Lebanon,
New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Channel Islands,
the Canary Islands, the United Arab Emirates, Wales and most of the states in the
USA.

The program materials are available in several languages including Arabic, Danish,
Dutch, German, Estonian, Chinese and Swedish.

Efficacy: R&R is the most widely disseminated and the most frequently evaluated
cognitive behavioral offender rehabilitation program. Its efficacy has been
demonstrated in numerous international, independent, controlled evaluations; in
meta-analyses; and in cost-benefit analyses. A recent review concluded that

"R&R is one of the most frequently evaluated programs. Its efficacy has
been examined in a remarkable number of independent international
evaluations not only in Canada where it was developed but also in
 California, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Germany, Scotland, Spain, Sweden
and the United Kingdom. It is clear that the cognitive model and the R&R
program that it spawned has been well received in the criminal justice
community for more than eighteen years - a remarkable achievement given
the typical short shelf-life of many if not most offender treatment programs.
This review would indicate that the enthusiasm has been reinforced by
evidence of its efficacy in a variety of settings, with a variety of types of
offenders in a variety of countries". Antonowicz (2005).

Metanalyses: A recent meta-analysis of sixteen evaluations of R&R conducted

over the past twenty years found a 14% decrease in re-offending by R&R
participants in institutional settings compared with controls and a 21% decrease
for participants in community settings (Tong & Farrington, 2006). The program
was found to be effective in different countries, in community and institutional
settings, in smaller and larger evaluation studies, older and newer studies and
with a variety of types of offenders. A second metanalysis also found an overall
reduction in recidivism of 14% (Tong & Farrington, 2007).

Cost-benefits: The cost-effectiveness of R&R was analyzed by the Washington

State Institute for Public Policy (Aos, Phipps, Barnoski & Lieb, 2001). It examined
benefit-to-cost ratios, and rates of return on investment and concluded:

the cost per participant is low, about $300 … effect sizes, coupled with the low
cost of the program, produce attractive … economic bottom lines of about
$2,400 in net taxpayer-only benefits per participant.

Accreditation: R&R was one of the first programs to be approved by program

Accreditation Panels in England and Wales; Scotland; and Canada.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

R&R participants are taught the following:

1. Self-Control: to stop and think before they act; to consider all the
consequences before making decisions.
2. Meta-Cognition: to realize that how they think determines what they
think, how they feel and how they behave.
3. Critical Reasoning: how to think objectively and rationally without
distorting the facts or externalizing blame.
4. Social Skills: skills which help achieve positive reinforcement rather
than rejection in social situations.
5. Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills: analyzing
interpersonal problems, understanding and considering other people's
values, behavior and feelings; recognizing how their behavior affects
other people.
 6. Creative Thinking: considering alternative, prosocial rather than
antisocial ways of responding to problems.
7. Social Perspective-taking: considering other people's views, feelings
and thoughts.
8. Values Enhancement: developing beyond egocentric world view to a
consideration of the needs of others.
9. Emotional Management: anger management techniques

PROGRAM KIT

The materials for conducting the R&R program are presented in a Trainer's Program Kit
that includes the following:

• A PROGRAM HANDBOOK that articulates the program principles and provides

complete and detailed step-by-step instructions (including a suggested script) for
Trainers to deliver the complete program.

• SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: reproducible materials required to conduct the

program such as overhead transparency Masters.

• PARTICIPANTS' WORKBOOK – reproducible by Trainers

• FLASH CARDS: - reproducible wallet size cards for participants that list the steps that
they are trained to follow in solving problems.

• CERTIFICATES OF ACHIEVEMENT – reproducible by Trainers

Information on training, certification, materials and training schedules can be

obtained from the Cognitive Centre of Canada:
www.cognitivecentre.ca Email: cogcen@canada.com