Impacts of Perceived Legal Pressure on Retention in Drug Treatment

Abstract

Drug courts, Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime programs, and other mandatory treatment models have proliferated as policy makers strive to reduce reliance on costly custodial responses to drug-related crime. Although past research supports this approach, little is known about different forms of legal pressure used to compel treatment participation and their effects on client outcomes. Results from a study of 161 offenders mandated from different criminal justice sources to attend long-term residential treatment are presented. Scores on an experimental perception of legal pressure measure covaried predictably with the coercive strategies employed by the mandating sources, and multivariate analyses showed these scores to be relatively powerful, independent predictors of retention. Findings suggest providing information to clients about conditions and contingencies of treatment participation and convincing them they will be enforced are effective coercive approaches. There was less support for other forms of coercion—tight monitoring and use of severe penalties for failure.