Book Review: Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion in the Justice System

• Date: 01 December 2013
• Author: Byung Lee
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567713508407
• Published date: 01 December 2013
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

only a minority turn to violence. Moreover, the violence which has occurred in some Muslim com-

munities, the Parisian banlieues particularly, has not been encouraged or sanctioned by the local

Muslim clergy. Those riots seem to be little more than unfocused large-scale acts of urban juvenile

delinquency.

Disappointingly, none of the case studies reveals a successful strategy for the peaceful integration

of Muslim communities into European secular cultures. Yet, there are some programs revealed

within the case studies which do appear to ease the tensions that exist between secular European

values and orthodox Islamic values. Thus, the book is a useful guide to the political and social

leadership of other cities in Europe and the Americas who face similar challenges, and one that is

refreshingly distinct in its frankness.

Tiger, R. (2013).

Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion in the Justice System. New York, NY: New York University Press. x, 208

pp. $23.00, ISBN 978-0-814-78407-5.

Reviewed by: Byung Lee, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567713508407

Judging Addicts is a scholarly work written by Tiger (2013) on the drug court’s contradictory

approach to drug addiction and abuse, the criminalization of deviance, and the social control and

oversight of rule breakers through the use of coerced treatment. Tiger attributes the emergence of

drug courts not only to the failure to rehabilitate drug offenders but also, and more importantly,

to the transition toward a medical theory of addiction that criminalizes drug use. Moreover, Tiger

thoroughly examines how the drug court’s therapeutic, yet punitive approach to addiction, impacts

the outcomes for drug court participants in terms of the sanctions imposed by the criminal justice

system. She argues that the supporters of the drug court program justify their approach based on the

assumption that drug users are best treated through coercion and force rather than traditional

sanctions. Utilizing a sociology of knowledge perspective, Tiger not only constructs knowledge

on how the idea of punishment has been transformed within different cultural ideologies that put

their emphasis on sobriety and coercion but also documents the limitations and gaps in the study

of addiction. Tiger’s book provides a critical assessment of the framework and principles under

which contemporary drug courts use punitive measures to manage addiction and enforce abstinence.

The author also offers examples of the contradictory goal of coercive drug treatments.

The book is organized into six chapters, along with an introduction and a conclusion. In the intro-

duction, the author describes drug court as being a central component of the criminal justice system

with increasing financial support from the federal government in a number of states. In the current

era of punitive drug policy, there is a consensus that drug courts are the best available alternative

to imprisonment and are an effective means of reducing and discouraging drug use and deviant

behavior.

In the first chapter, the author provides a historical background of drug courts, the biased

coverage and flawedevaluations of drug court programs,the criminalization of drugs throughpunitive

practiceand coercive treatment, and thequalitative methodologyemployed to understand thereformist

ideas about punishment promotedby drug court advocates. Afterexamining several reports evaluating

drug court,Tiger points out that some of its elements,including legal coercion,are believed to enhance

treatment outcomes by falsely assuming that addiction is a disease that requires coercive treatment.

This is evidencedby the common practice of making treatment available to the drug addict afterbeing

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