Source: (2006) Crime & Delinquency. 52(1): 114-134
The drug court model assumes that most drug offenders are addicts, and that drug use
fuels other criminal activity. As a result, drug court clients must satisfy an intensive regimen
of treatment and supervisory obligations. However, research suggests that roughly
one third of drug court clients do not have a clinically significant substance use disorder.
For these clients, standard drug court services may be ineffective or even contraindicated.
Instead, these clients may be best suited for a secondary prevention approach
directed at interrupting the acquisition of addictive behaviors. Unfortunately, there are
no established secondary prevention packages for adults in criminal justice settings. This
article presents a conceptual framework for developing and administering secondary
prevention services in drug courts and proposes a platform of prevention techniques that
can be tailored in a clinically relevant manner for the sizeable population of drug court
clients who are low risk.
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