What "Works" in Drug Court

A Bottom-up Female Participants' Perspective

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2168402
AutoresMichael Fischer (0000-0002-7754-890X), Brenda Geiger (0000-0001-5378-381X)
Año2011
Volumen21
Número7
Páginas752-765
Fecha de publicación2011-10-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1091-1359 • E-ISSN: 1540-3556
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10911359.2011.615678
OpenAlexW2139373457
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas19

More than just numbers and statistics are needed to understand what works in drug court. This article stresses the importance of qualitative studies that take an inside look from the perspective of drug court participants to find out why and how drug court works. Focused interviews, participant observation, and analysis of video-taped interactions were the vehicles used to capture the subjective experience of 11 female clients in a California drug court. To foster empowerment and promote strategies and services to reinforce treatment goals, sanctions must be perceived as reasonable by participants and must be responsive to their needs. This article addresses motivation of involuntary clients, a core issue social workers and other change agents face within the criminal justice system. Dedicated staff, graduated supervision, accurate drug testing, wraparound services, resources, and referral, treatment facilities that accepted children and individualized treatment plan and therapists who are ex-addicts, and preferably females, increased these women's sense of self-efficacy perception and confidence in their ability to lead a drug-free life. Despite victimization, pathology, poverty, and oppression, these women found support in the drug court framework that facilitated their search for the various dimension of agency, empowerment, and resilient self efficacy

Agency (philosophy · Criminal justice · Criminology · Drug court · Empowerment · Medical education · Political science · Psychiatry · Public relations · Sanctions · Sociology · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Medicine · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes · Law · Social Psychology