Treating the Tough Cases in Juvenile Drug Court: Individual and Organizational Practices Leading to Success or Failure

Abstract

Drug Courts are a fundamental change to trial courts. They are considered less adversarial and may alter past notions of treatment for offenders. One goal of drug courts is to provide defendants the opportunity to alter their drug-addicted lifestyles through intense supervision, feedback, treatment, and graduated sanctions and rewards for behavior. This study uses logistic regression to examine measures of failure such as termination from drug court and two measures of offender recidivism. Although the literature on drug courts has been developing for several years, the reality is that universal templates for explanation do not yet exist in the juvenile arena. This paper examines correlates that explain the above measures of failure. The study also proposes the creation of new measures that may assist future research. Findings indicate that participant experiences within the drug court program are the strongest predictors of termination and recidivism.

Keywords: Drug Courts, Specialized Courts, Specialty Courts, Juvenile Courts, Recidivism, failure, therapeutic jurisprudence