ABSTRACT

Reducing the volume of drug-related crime has long been a challenge for criminal justice system practitioners and policymakers worldwide. In Australia, this challenge has been tackled using a continuum of early intervention, diversion, and intensive treatment, with drug courts operating as a final alternative to imprisonment for the most serious and frequent drug-dependent offenders. In this study, we explore self-reported dependency and its concordance with the outcomes of a clinical screening tool designed to indicate DSM-V drug dependence in criminal justice populations. We find that not all offenders who self-report their dependency are clinically assessed as dependent. Similarly, not all those who are clinically assessed as dependent identify as such. We also show that these results vary by the frequency, type and longevity of drug use and argue that this discordance has clear implications for the fidelity and success of the drug treatments that are a mandated part of different criminal justice sanctions.

摘要

长期以来，减少与毒品有关的犯罪数量一直是全球刑事司法系统从业者和决策者的挑战。在澳大利亚，这一挑战已通过连续的早期干预，转移和强化治疗来解决，毒品法院是对最严重和最常见的毒品依赖罪犯进行监禁的最终替代方案。在这项研究中，我们探讨了自我报告的依赖性及其与临床筛查工具的结果的一致性，该工具旨在指示刑事司法人群中的DSM-V药物依赖性。我们发现，并非所有自我报告其依赖性的罪犯都被临床评估为依赖性。同样，并非所有被临床评估为依赖者都可以识别。我们还表明，这些结果随频率而变化，