INTRODUCTORY NOTE
It is with pride that the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crimeand the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI) offers to the international community the Resource
Material Series No. 82.
This volume contains the work produced in the 145th International Training Course, conductedfrom 12 May to 18 June 2010. The main theme of the 145th Course was “Effective Resettlement ofOffenders by Strengthening ‘Community Reintegration Factors’”.
Since the 1990s, scientific trends measuring the efficacy of rehabilitative programmes foroffenders from the viewpoint of ‘what works’ have spread in many countries. As a result, many
have come to believe that adequate treatment can change offending behaviours and reduce thepossibility of repeat offences. Particularly, programmes based on cognitive behavioural theory havecome to be widely utilized in both institutionalized and community-based settings. However, it
has become gradually apparent that these programmes alone are not sufficiently effective unlesscoupled with programmes aimed at strengthening community reintegration factors, such as stableaccommodation, basic skills (literacy and numeracy), employment, and budgeting/debt counselling.
Strengthening these factors reduces the possibility of repeat offences, increases the possibility
that cognitive behavioural programmes are successfully completed, and could complement andreinforce the efficacy of such programmes. The Japanese government’s White Paper on Crime
2009 statistically demonstrates lower rates of repeat offences for offenders who have proper
employment, who have stronger ties with family members, or who have a guarantor who swears
supervision of the offender in court.
Strengthening community reintegration factors cannot be appropriately implemented by a singleagency. Co-operation with a wide range of agencies, organizations and individuals is indispensable.
The Japanese government’s White Paper on Crime 2007 states that “a multidisciplinary approach”
for wide-ranging support is to be carried out with the close collaboration of the criminal justiceagencies and other relevant agencies responsible for employment, welfare, education, health andmedicine and so forth. For the international community, the Bangkok Declaration, adopted by theUnited Nations on the occasion of the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice recognizes the role of individuals and groups outside the public sector incontributing to the prevention of and fight against crime. Strengthening community reintegration
factors, through establishing co-operation with such a wide range of agencies, organizations andindividuals in both the public sector and the private sector, is, however, difficult to accomplish, and
it is a great challenge in the treatment of offenders at present.
Based on the above, this course aimed to clarify the current situations and problems existing inparticipating countries’ treatment of offenders systems, mainly in terms of ways of strengtheningcommunity reintegration factors. It also aimed to study good measures to improve these kinds oftreatment for offenders, including ways of co-operating with concerned agencies, organizations andindividuals in the public sector and the private sector, and by doing so, aimed at further promotion
and development of the administration of both institutional and community-based treatment ofoffenders in the participating countries.
In this volume, papers contributed by visiting experts, selected individual presentation papers
from among the participants, and the Reports of the Course are published. I regret that not all thepapers submitted by the Course participants could be published.
I would like to pay tribute to the contributions of the Government of Japan, particularly theMinistry of Justice, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Asia Crime Preventioniv

Foundation for providing indispensable and unwavering support to UNAFEI’s international trainingprogrammes.
Finally I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who so unselfishly assisted in thepublication of this series; in particular, the editor of Resource Material Series No. 82, Ms. GraceLord.
December 2010Masaki Sasaki
Director of UNAFEIv