During the past decade, the UK government has increasingly sought to reduce levels of crime and anti-social behaviour through tackling problem drug use among offenders. Despite debates about the precise nature of the relationship between drug use and offending, a multiplicity of interventions have been introduced in an attempt to break the apparent link between problem drug use and crime, particularly acquisitive crime. These interventions have proliferated over time but have now been combined under the umbrella of the Drug Interventions Programme which aims to channel and, many would argue, coerce drug-using offenders into treatment.

The systematic application of behavioral psychology to crime and delinquency was begun only 20 years ago, yet it has already contributed significantly to our practical knowledge about prevention and correction and to our general under standing of a pressing social problem. In this handbook, we review and evalu ate what has been accomplished to date, as well as what is currently at the leading edge of the field. We do so in order to present a clear, comprehensive, and systematic view of the field and to promote and encourage still more effective action and social policy reform in the future. The chapters in this text have been written by professionals who were among the original innovators in applying behavioral psychology to crime and delinquency and who continue to make critical contributions to the field's progress, and by a new generation of energetic, young professionals who are taking the field in important and innovative directions. The contributors have attempted to review and evaluate their areas with critical dispassion, to pro vide thorough but not overly specialized discussion of their material, and to draw implications for how research, application, and social policy might be improved in the future. For our part as editors, we have tried to foster integra tion across the chapters and to provide background and conceptual material of our own.

Get high. Become addicted. Commit crimes. Get arrested and be sent to jail. Get released. Repeat. It’s a cycle often destined to persist, in large part because the critical step that is often missing in the process, which is treatment geared toward ensuring that addicts are able to reenter society without the constant threat of imminent relapse. The Handbook of Evidence-Based Substance Abuse Treatment in Criminal Justice Setting probes the efficacy of corrections-based drug interventions, particularly behavioral treatment. With straightforward interpretation of data that reveals what works, what doesn’t, and what needs further study, this volume navigates readers through the criminal justice system, the history of drug treatment for offenders, and the practical problems of program design and implementation. Probation and parole issues as well as concerns specific to special populations such as women, juvenile offenders, and inmates living with HIV/AIDS are also examined in detail. The Handbook’s wide-ranging coverage includes: Biology and genetics of the addicted brain. Case management for substance-abusing offenders. Integrated treatment for drug abuse and mental illness. Evidence-based responses to impaired driving. Monitoring technology and alternatives to incarceration. The use of pharmacotherapy in rehabilitation. This must-have reference work is a comprehensive and timely resource for clinicians, researchers, and graduate students across a variety of disciplines including clinical psychology, criminology and criminal justice, counseling, and educational policy makers.

This volume documents the more innovative projects, programmes and advances that have become available in the United States for drug offenders. The contributors, outstanding experts in the field, examine the issues that arise in the effort to establish a more effective and humane system of dealing with the alarming rise of drug-related crimes.

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "tough on crime" policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities. Strategies that focus on behavior change are much more productive and cost effective for reducing crime than punishment, and in this book, William R. Kelly discusses the policy, process, and funding innovations and priorities that the United States needs to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, victimization, and cost. He recommends proactive, evidence-based interventions to address criminogenic behavior; collaborative decision making from a variety of professions and disciplines; and a focus on innovative alternatives to incarceration, such as problem-solving courts and probation. Students, professionals, and policy makers alike will find in this comprehensive text a bracing discussion of how our criminal justice system became broken and the best strategies by which to fix it.

In recent years, British drug policy has undergone a transformation: tackling 'drug-driven' crime through criminal justice interventions has arguably become the central priority and focus. The 'criminal justice turn', as the authors refer to current UK drugs policy, is based on three simple and linked assumptions: drug-driven property crime is a major driver of local area crime rates, especially in deprived neighbourhoods; the criminal justice system can be used to target these drug-motivated offenders and direct them into treatment; and treatment can lead to significant reductions in their offending. Tough Choices: Risk, Security and the Criminalization of Drug Policy explores a series of questions about the 'criminal justice' turn in British drugs policy, from why it happened at all to what led policy to unfold in the way that it did, by analyzing policy documents and over 200 interviews conducted with key players in the policy development and implementation process. At the practice level, the authors explore how the strategic vision of the drug-crime 'problem' has shaped the ways in which drug-using offenders are identified, targeted and managed - in other words, why the implementation of the Drug Interventions Programme on the ground has taken the forms that it has. This is addressed through a detailed examination of practice in three local areas. Both the emergence of this new policy direction and its implementation in practice can best be understood as part of a wider transformation in governance in which risk-based thinking has become central to the ways in which we seek to address our contemporary insecurities. The book is based on a 30-month ESRC-funded research project on the Drug Interventions Programme and draws on the extensive empirical data generated during the project.