Drug abuse treatment

The assumed relationships between drug use and crime (Ball et al. 1981; Gandossy et al. 1980; Panel on Drug Use and Criminal Behavior 1976), the finding that successful drug abuse treatment reduces crime (Simpson et al. 1978; McGlothlin et al. 1977; Nash 1976), and criticisms of traditional criminal justice approaches to dealing with drug-abusing offenders (Lipton et al. 1975; Carter and Klein 1976) led to the development of programs to refer drug abusers in the criminal justice system to treatment. Clients referred from the criminal justice system have been shown to stay in treatment longer than other clients (Collins et al., in press). Their longer retention leads to an expectation that these criminal justice system clients will have better treatment outcomes than other clients. The literature has not provided consistent results to support this expectation.