NCJ Number
215866
Journal
Drug Court Review Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: 2006 Pages: 83-112
Date Published
2006
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This article discusses important methodological considerations for measuring recidivism among drug court clients.
Abstract
Four methodological questions emerge when drug courts attempt to measure recidivism among their clients: (1) what is recidivism; (2) which drug court participants should be included in the analysis; (3) what is an appropriate comparison group; and (4) how does one ensure that the final drug court and comparison group samples are truly comparable? Recidivism is generally defined as the rearrest of the drug court client following drug court intervention. Measurements of recidivism generally focus on rearrest data while taking into account the timeframe of the drug court intervention and the subsequent rearrest of the client. In order to measure recidivism among drug court clients, the author recommends gathering data on a representative sample of drug court clients that includes both successful graduates of the drug court program as well as clients who failed. To make the analysis methodologically sound, the recidivism data of the drug court client sample should be compared to the recidivism data of a comparison sample of drug offenders who did not receive the drug court intervention. This comparison group should be matched as closely as possible to the drug court client group. The author describes several statistical models that can be used to ensure the comparison, that drug court groups are matched and recommends that a trained evaluator conduct the appropriate statistical tests. Indeed, a strong partnership between drug court practitioners and drug court researchers can lead to significant improvements in the quality of resulting evaluations. Table, references