An Evaluation of Successful Program Completions across Types of Problem-Solving Courts

Abstract

Variations of problem-solving court programs have been created to address a wide variety of offense-related problems, such as drug addiction, mental health, domestic violence, homelessness, and many others. Yet there is little knowledge as to whether this model is equally effective across these many versions of the model. This study uses data from the 2012 Census of Problem-Solving Courts to assess whether there is variation in the proportion of successful program completions across program types. Additionally, this study examined what program-level characteristics are associated with increased successful program completions. The findings of this study suggest that, while there is some variation in program success across program types, there is also substantial variation within types of programs. That is, not one type of problem-solving court program is more effective than any other. The results of this study also found that the programs that offer a larger variety of services are likely to have higher levels of successful program completions. Future research should follow these preliminary findings by examining variations in other outcomes measures of success.

Keywords:

• Problem-solving courts
• program evaluation
• drug court
• veteran court
• mental health court

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The survey questionnaire can be accessed from the Bureau of Justice Statistics website (https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/CPSC_Survey_Final_Hard_Copy.pdf, last accessed October 7, 2019).

2 Models were ran including these other types of exits and no substantive differences were noted.

3 A full list of service types can be found on page 11 of the Census of Problem Solving Courts survey instrument found at https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/CSCP_Survey_Final_Hard_Copy.pdf (last accessed October 7, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kimberly Kaiser

Kimberly Kaiser is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests include procedural justice, judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, and problem-solving court programs. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Law & Human Behavior, Criminology & Public Policy, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and others.