Citation

Shaffer DK, Hartman JL, Listwan SJ. J. Drug Iss. 2009; 39(4): 803-827.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Florida State University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice)

DOI

10.1177/002204260903900402

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Developing community-based options for drug abusing women is important for a variety of reasons. One option that shows promise is the treatment-oriented drug court. Although drug courts enjoy considerable empirical support, relatively few studies have examined the efficacy of this model for women. The current study uses a quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes between a sample of moderate to high-risk drug court participants (n=91) and probationers (n=80). Over the course of an average two year follow-up period, female drug court participants were found to have significantly lower rates of recidivism than their probation counterparts. The results of an event history analysis confirmed that drug court participants were significantly less likely to recidivate even after controlling for differences in length of follow-up. These findings provide support for the ability of drug court programs to successfully treat drug-involved women.

Language: en