Book Review: Juvenile Drug Courts and Teen Substance Abuse

• Published date: 01 December 2006
• Date: 01 December 2006
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016806295587
• Author: Leslie Paik
• Subject Matter: Articles

justice or procedural rights. The only downside to case law books this reviewer can offer is

the somewhat time-consuming task of needing to keep case law updated on a fairly regular

basis. This problem is universal for printed material, however; it is not one that would deflect

from the substantive value and merit of the work published by Hemmens et al.

Melissa W. Burek

Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Butts, J., & Roman, J. (Eds.). Juvenile Drug Courts and Teen Substance Abuse.

Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016806295587

This collection of essays provides a comprehensive policy overview of juvenile drug

courts. The essays are based on findings from the National Evaluation of Juvenile Drug

Courts, a National Institute of Justice (NIJ)–funded evaluation of juvenile drug courts in six

states conducted by the Urban Institute.

The book states that it does not presume to evaluate the efficacy of juvenile drug courts

but rather observes juvenile drug courts to develop a conceptual framework upon which to

do future policy evaluations. It contains several chapters to set up and outline that frame-

work. The first chapter outlines the rapid expansion of juvenile drug courts in the United

States, suggesting some critical questions that any juvenile drug court should consider such

as “Why juvenile drug courts?” and “What is a ‘drug involved’offender?” The second chap-

ter discusses the evolution of such courts from their adult drug court predecessors and within

the context of a U.S. drug policy that conceptualizes drug use as a medical and legal prob-

lem and links drug treatment programs increasingly to the justice system. Chapter 3 com-

pares six juvenile drug courts’ policies and procedures to a generalized model of juvenile

drug courts, noting several areas of difference in how they screen, assess, and work with the

youth participants. Chapter 4 takes stock of current evaluations of adult and juvenile drug

courts, highlighting key findings to date and methodological weaknesses in several studies

limited by inadequate funding and imprecise measures. Chapters 5 and 6 take different

approaches to answer the same question: How do juvenile drug courts and treatment practi-

tioners distinguish between and work with youths who may or may not actually have sig-

nificant drug problems? Chapter 7 takes a look to the future, presenting “a new conceptual

framework” for future evaluations of juvenile drug courts. Chapter 8 concludes with an

assessment of the current policy scene, suggesting the need to devote the scarce resources to

fewer, higher quality evaluations, versus spreading them out over several studies. The book

ends with an extensive appendix summarizing the drug court literature from 1993 to 2004.

The book addresses many important issues that policy makers and practitioners should

definitely consider if they are thinking of starting a juvenile drug court or if they currently

operate one. Despite its breadth, there are a couple areas of untapped potential to the book.

Chapters 1 and 2 provocatively discuss theoretical issues about juvenile drug courts, in

terms of how their popularity is linked to the ambiguity of U.S. drug policy and the histor-

ical context for such a phenomenon. If, as Butts and Roman write in chapter 1, the U.S.

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