Citation

Mei X, van Wormer JG, Lu R, Abboud MJ, Lutze FE. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2019; 63(11): 1990-2017.

Affiliation

Washington State University, Pullman, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X19836547

PMID

30938214

Abstract

Drug courts aim to significantly address drug abuse and drug-related criminality. However, the effectiveness of drug courts varies from court to court. The variation of success demands insights regarding what is going on inside the "black box" of drug court practices. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate to what extent drug courts are operated in adherence with guiding principles and strategies. Using a national sample and validated measures, the current article examines the "black boxes" of adult and juvenile drug courts across the country. We found that, in general, adult drug courts face less model adherence challenges in comparison with juvenile courts, which may, in part, explain why adult drug courts perform better than juvenile drug courts overall.

Language: en

Keywords

drug court; measurement validation; model adherence; program challenge