NCJ Number
177020
Journal
Notre Dame Law Review Volume: 74 Issue: 2 Dated: January 1999 Pages: 439-538
Date Published
1999
Length
100 pages
Annotation
This article uses the emerging academic field of "therapeutic jurisprudence" as an analytical tool to examine the rationale for and operation of drug treatment courts (DTCs).
Abstract
After Part I provides an introduction to the article's topic and thesis, Part II explains "therapeutic jurisprudence" and discusses the history and literature on the subject. It notes that Professor David Wexler first used the term in 1987 in a paper delivered to the National Institute of Mental Health. Wexler used the term to refer to the study of the extent to which substantive rules, legal procedures, and the roles of lawyers and judges produce therapeutic or anti-therapeutic consequences for individuals involved in the legal process. Professor Christopher Slobogin later refined the definition of "therapeutic jurisprudence" as "the use of social science to study the extent to which a legal rule or practice promotes the psychological and physical well-being of the people it affects." Part II describes the DTC movement in depth. This includes an examination of the societal, law enforcement, and legal problems that led to the DTC movement, looks at the basic principles and components of a DTC, and describes the inner working of five operational DTCs. Throughout this section, the authors point out how DTCs currently and unknowingly apply therapeutic-jurisprudence principles to the problems of drug-addicted and alcohol-addicted defendants to encourage treatment-seeking behavior and reduce crime. After discussing five DTCs, the article reviews some of the significant achievements the burgeoning DTC movement has amassed in a relatively short period of time. Finally, the last portion of this section discusses some of the problems and concerns that are confronting DTCs, followed by recommendations for DTCs based in the concepts of therapeutic jurisprudence. 524 footnotes