Relationship between Drug Treatment Engagement and Criminal Thinking Style among Drug-Using Offenders

Abstract

There has been considerable debate about the effectiveness of drug treatment in reducing offending and drug use, with limited support for the effectiveness of the UK Drug Intervention Programme to reduce offending through diversion into treatment. The current paper examines drug users diverted into treatment in one UK city to assess their treatment engagement and criminal thinking styles. There is an association between higher criminal thinking and both poorer engagement in treatment and worse client functioning. The key implication is that to address offending-prone behaviour as a determinant of ongoing drug use, it is essential that criminal thinking styles are addressed.

Texas Christian University (TCU) Short Forms for Assessing Client Needs and Functioning in Addiction Treatment

“…The present sample reported slightly lower levels of criminal thinking than found in previously surveyed CJ populations, and score differences between males and females were small with an exception for cold heartedness where males tended to score higher than females. All six scales measured at intake were correlated significantly with subsequent measures of treatment engagement and process, consistent with previous findings from CJ-settings in the U.S. as well as England (Best, Day, Campbell, Flynn, & Simpson, 2009). Scales with the strongest predictive relationships (negative) represented attitudes of entitlement and personal irresponsibility, identifying challenges that should be addressed by cognitive rehabilitation interventions.…”

The Influence of Client Risks and Treatment Engagement on Recidivism

“…Unlike criminal history, more criminal thinking has been consistently reported to be predictive of poor treatment engagement and deficient client functioning (Best, Day, Campbell, Flynn, & Simpson, 2009; Garner, Knight, Flynn, Morey, & Simpson, 2007). A study by Joe, Rowan-Szal, Greener, Simpson, and Vance (2010) assessing the efficacy of in-prison treatment for male methamphetamine abusers demonstrated that criminal thinking predicts treatment engagement better than other variables, including psychosocial functioning.…”

Male methamphetamine-user inmates in prison treatment: During-treatment outcomes

“…However, the construct most consistently related to early engagement and recovery indicators represented pretreatment criminal thinking orientation. This adds merit to the emphasis given to criminal thinking changes in the modified TCs treatment programs of the IN DOC and to a call for extending similar research in England (see Best, Day, Campbell, Flynn, & Simpson, 2009). …”