Abstract Specialty courts are a popular alternative to traditional solutions for addicted offenders and a large body of research exists regarding the effectiveness of these courts. Specialty court effectiveness is contentious, but methods used to investigate it commonly focus on recidivism while neglecting other aspects of court performance. The major purposes of this study are to determine the correlates to court clients’ drinking behavior and to explore how specialty court programing can be beneficial to clients beyond impacts on recidivism. We examined 154 clients from a South Texas DWI court. Participants were interviewed by trained researchers during intake, 6-month follow up, and the time of completion/discharge. Findings indicate that life circumstances such as employment, mental issues, and military experience influenced clients’ tendency to drink. Further, client drinking and drug use were substantially reduced by the end of the program and clients reported committing less crime. Finally, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety were alleviated by the time of the program’s conclusion. The findings contribute to the literature by complimenting previous findings on the correlates of problem drinking and substantiating benefits of specialty courts that go beyond recidivism.

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专门法院的预期和非预期收益：德克萨斯州DWI法院的结果

摘要专门法庭是对成瘾罪犯的传统解决方案的一种流行替代方法，关于这些法庭的效力存在大量研究。法院的专业效力是有争议的，但是用于调查它的方法通常侧重于累犯，而忽略了法院绩效的其他方面。这项研究的主要目的是确定与法庭当事人饮酒行为的相关性，并探讨专业法庭程序如何在不影响累犯的情况下对当事人有利。我们从南德克萨斯州DWI法院审查了154位客户。在摄入，六个月的随访以及完成/出院的时间里，接受过训练的研究人员对参与者进行了采访。调查结果表明生活情况，例如就业，精神问题，军事经验影响了客户的饮酒倾向。此外，到该计划结束时，客户的饮酒和吸毒情况已大大减少，客户报告的犯罪更少。最终，随着计划的结束，诸如抑郁症和焦虑症等心理健康问题得到了缓解。通过补充先前关于饮酒问题的证据和专门法庭超越累犯的实质性利益，这些发现为文献做出了贡献。