Classification of individuals who offend: Limitations on current rehabilitation efforts.

The classification of individuals, their actions and action contexts has been largely overlooked in forensic research and practice. This is a problem as ideally classification systems and their component categories provide significant information about clinical problems and as a result are crucial explanatory targets. Currently, classification systems in forensic psychology are based on offence types and risk levels and factors, for example sexual offender or high-risk offender. An individuals entire correctional experience is affected by these systems of classification. I argue that this is a flawed approach as these are not psychologically meaningful categories for planning effective rehabilitation interventions. I argue that a move to epistemic pluralism, a position that recognises the value of pursuing multiple models and theories for any given phenomenon, is the best way to adequately guide research and practice. More specifically, I argue that developing a functional classification system of offending behaviour has the potential to better inform the practice of forensic psychologists as it will elucidate potential mechanisms for change to target in treatment. I outline two frameworks to aid in the development of multiple task- specific classification systems to better meet the needs of the various stakeholders interested in offending behaviour and one framework that can provide the architecture to house these multiple systems of classification. By utilising these frameworks, I propose that forensic practitioners will have the conceptual space to develop more effective rehabilitation strategies.