Drug treatment outcomes in the criminal justice system: What non-self-report measures of outcome can tell us

Abstract

Coerced drug treatment has become a common route for drug users to enter drug treatment in the UK and has been shown to be effective in reducing drug use and offending. This article presents the non-self-report measures of offending and drug use for one such treatment. The results support the findings of other studies in that those with lower offending rates prior to starting treatment and lower drug use during treatment show reduced offending following treatment commencement. More serious drug-using offenders showed limited changes in their offending following drug treatment. Possible explanations for this are discussed.

• Drug treatment, UK criminal justice, drug use, offending, reconviction, outcomes

Notes

Notes

1. Offenders in drug treatment as part of a court order in the UK have to consent to undergo treatment; hence treatment is not compulsory but due to the limited alternatives available (i.e. custody) is considered coerced. However, offenders in such treatments are not necessarily unwilling participants as they often do not consider themselves to have been coerced into treatment (Gregoire & Burke, 2004; Stevens et al., 2006; Wild, Newton-Taylor, & Alleto, 1998).

2. Pseudo reconvictions are convictions that appear in a time period for offences that were committed outside of that time period. For example, an offence committed before the time period began but not sentenced until after the time period began will appear as a conviction. Similarly however, some offences could be committed in the time period under examination but not sentenced until after the time period has lapsed and hence would not appear as a reconviction in the study.

3. This takes no account of actual time in contact with the team, e.g. an offender could be out of contact with the team prior to a breach hearing.

4. Although UK CJS drug treatment was intended to access new groups of drug users, Hayes (2002).