ABSTRACT
The objective is to promote Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) as a theory and method that can, perhaps, join the league of forensic psychotherapies and improve clinicians’ choices for effective intervention and conceptualisation of criminals and their offences. The debate about 'what works' in psychological therapies for offenders and the impetus to collect an 'evidence base' of efficacy and effectiveness within the criminal justice system are of primary importance because of the human cost of failure in forensic settings. Although the evidence base is scant for CAT as a form of forensic psychotherapy, the descriptions of the model and therapy here were intended to provide a novel, perhaps even innovative, illustration of a different form of psychotherapy for offenders. An accumulation of evidence of the effectiveness of CAT and its expansion into other areas of forensic work is required.
