Studies dealing with the reduction of challenging behaviour, over a 10 year period, from six leading journals, were analysed. It was found that most studies deal with target behaviours more frequent than once a minute. This finding contrasts with the results of surveys that suggest most people with learning disabilities, who show challenging behaviours, do so less frequently than once a day. There was no clear relationship found between the use of punitive or non punitive interventions and the frequency of the target behaviour.