The impact of Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts (JDTC) implementing Federal Evidence-Based Guidelines on recidivism and substance use: multisite Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) and Regression Discontinuity (RDD) Designs

Abstract

Background Juvenile drug treatment courts (JDTC) have struggled to define themselves since their inception in 1995. Early courts followed a format similar to adult drug courts, but these did not address the unique needs of juveniles, which led to the creation of 16 Strategies by a consensus panel of practitioners and researchers. But, like the first JDTCs, research with courts following these strategies failed to provide convincing evidence that this “model” was associated with significant reductions in recidivism or drug use. More recently, a new set of evidence-based guidelines were developed through meta-analyses commissioned by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP, 2016). Method OJJDP provided funding for a rigorous multi-site evaluation of the guidelines. This study protocol paper for the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court (JDTC) Guidelines Cross-Site Evaluation presents research designs for the comparison of youth outcomes from 10 JDTCs compared with 10 Traditional Juvenile Courts (TJCs) in the same jurisdictions. Two sites opted into a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and eight sites chose to follow a regression discontinuity design (RDD). Youth data are captured at baseline, and at 6- and 12-month follow-ups using an interview comprised of several standardized assessments. The youths’ official records also are abstracted for recidivism and substance use information. The degree to which the evidence-based guidelines are implemented at each site is assessed via an in-depth court self-assessment collected at baseline and again 2 years later and via structured site visits conducted once during implementation. Discussion As a field-based trial, using both RCT and RDD designs, findings will provide important, policy-relevant information regarding the implementation of the OJJDP evidence-based guidelines, including the degree to which JDTCs adopted and/or modified these practices, their relative impact on recidivism and substance use, as well as the degree to which JDTCs differ from TJCs. Specific inferences may be drawn about whether following or not following specific guidelines differentially impact youth outcomes, yielding recommendations about the translation of this information from research-to-practice for potentiating the broader adoption of these guidelines by JDTCs nationwide. Clinical trials registration This was not an NIH supported trial. The funder, OJJDP/NIJ, instead required publishing the design with even more information at https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/juvenile-drug-treatment-court-jdtc-guidelines-cross-site-evaluation.

Outcomes of a Court-Based Substance Use Disorder Diversion Pilot Program: A Cost Analysis

“…Diversion programs are an important part of the growing movement in the criminal justice system aimed at providing alternatives to incarceration for substance and justice-involved individuals. Previous research has shown court-based programs, and drug courts in particular, have the potential to lower costs relative to incarceration (Downey & Roman, 2010; Hiller et al, 2021; Trood et al, 2022), although they often present negative externalities including increased supervision and, consequently, an increased likelihood of technical violations (Hamilton, 2010).…”

A new approach to urinalysis: effectiveness of a contingency management program among adolescent offenders in Spain

“…Similarly, Dopp et al (2017) affirm that family-based treatment programs can successfully mitigate the social and economic consequences of crime committed by adolescents. Despite these findings, research comparing the effectiveness of the different intervention models have not found statistically significant differences between them, without any particular model showing greater levels of effectiveness compared to the rest (Tanner-Smith et al, 2016;Hiller et al, 2021).…”

“…Drug consumption has been extensively studied as one of the primary risk factors associated with juvenile delinquency (López and Rodríguez-Arias, 2012;Bonta and Andrews, 2017;Aebi et al, 2021;Hiller et al, 2021). A high prevalence of severe drug consumption is evident among youths involved in serious crimes (Pérez and Ruiz, 2017), as well as among those with a history of early and persistent criminal behaviour (Kerridge et al, 2020;Brislin et al, 2021).…”

The Impact of Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts on Substance Use, Mental Health, and Recidivism: Results from a Multisite Experimental Evaluation

“…Following development of the guidelines, the OJJDP funded the National Cross-Site Evaluation of JDTC Guidelines project. 31,32 Implementation of the Guidelines was assessed via the repeated administration of the Court Self-Assessment (focused on JDTCs) and a Traditional Juvenile Court (TJC) self-assessment, and a multi-day site visit by researchers conducted between these survey administrations. 31,32 The data for the current study come from this project.…”