Criminality and Addiction: Selected Issues for Future Policies, Practice, & Research

• Author: M. Douglas Anglin,Carl Leukefeld,Barry S. Brown,Richard Dembo
• Date: 01 January 2009
• Published date: 01 January 2009
• DOI: 10.1177/002204260903900108
• Subject Matter: Article

© 2009 BY THE JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES

JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES 0022-0426/09/01 89-100

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M. Douglas Anglin was the Founding Director of the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center and has

been an Associate Director of ISAP since 1998. He has been conducting research on substance abuse

epidemiology, etiology, treatment evaluation, and social policy. He has served as an advisor to many

national treatment evaluation studies. Barry S. Brown, after working in prisons, mental hospitals, and

NIDA, is currently an adjunct professor with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Richard

Dembo is a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He has a long-term

interest in developing, implementing and evaluating intervention programs for high risk youth. Carl

Leukefeld is Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science and Bell Chair on Alcohol and

Addictions at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. His research interests include treatment

outcomes, HIV, criminal justice, health services, and rural populations.

CRIMINALITY AND ADDICTION: SELECTED ISSUES FOR

FUTURE POLICIES, PRACTICE, & RESEARCH

M. DOUGLAS ANGLIN, BARRY S. BROWN, RICHARD DEMBO, CARL LEUKEFELD

The high cost of incarceration and a general conf‌i dence in the effectiveness of

drug abuse treatment have led many states to adopt community-based drug abuse

treatment as part of, or as an alternative to, incarceration. Community re-entry

and aftercare have therefore received increasing attention from both practitioners

and researchers. This article examines possibilities for encouraging change in

both adult and juvenile justice treatment. Four issues are highlighted: (1) relapse

and aftercare, (2) co-occurring disorder, (3) juvenile justice programming, and (4)

women’s treatment. The success of U.S. drug treatment policy depends on a capacity

to resolve these and related issues.

INTRODUCTION

The widespread acceptance of a link between drugs and crime, coupled with the

emphasis on treatment for individuals identif‌i ed as drug users in the criminal justice

system, have long been associated with an emphasis on rehabilitating the drug-using

offender (Leukefeld, Tims, & Farabee, 2002). Diversion strategies for referring drug

users from the general prison population to public health facilities date back to the

opening of the Lexington and Fort Worth treatment facilities in the 1930s (Martin

& Isbell, 1978). As described in the legislation establishing treatment options for

an offender population, there was the expectation even then that treatment could