NCJ Number
253196
Date Published
May 2018
Length
172 pages
Annotation
This inaugural issue of the Journal for Advancing Justice, a publication of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), presents six articles that focus on understanding and eliminating racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in drug court procedures.
Abstract
The first article reports findings from a meta-review of racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in 142 treatment courts serving just over 20,000 participants. The study identified a range of court policies and procedures associated with better outcomes and reduced disparities in treatment court processing for some racial, ethnic, and gender groups. The second article reports on a study of racial and ethnic disparities in 11 family treatment courts that have served just over 3,500 children in out-of-home foster or kinship care. Analyses are provided of court programs that produced exemplary outcomes for African-American and multi-racial children. The third article reports on the examination of graduation rates and 2-year recidivism outcomes in a representative statewide sample of just over 500 drug court participants, with attention to variables that often correlate with race. The fourth article reports and discusses findings from focus groups conducted with 70 African-American drug-court participants, who discussed why they believe African-Americans may be less likely than Caucasians to enter or succeed in drug court programs. The fifth article reports findings from two pilot studies that examined a culturally proficient curriculum for young African-American men in drug court. The curriculum incorporates participants' African-American cultural heritage and life experiences with discrimination as core elements of the intervention. The final article reports findings from a randomized controlled experiment that involved a trauma-focused intervention for mostly Hispanic male drug court participants.