New South Wales drug courts: once a novelty – today, its business as usual

This study relied upon semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 professionals who work in the DC field from NSW. The sample represented various stakeholders responsible for the delivery of drug court programs (DCPs) in NSW. A qualitative analysis was conducted, this analysis uncovered practices adopted by the DC that go beyond those that were standardised in the closed-ended questions but nevertheless fell within the TKCs. The qualitative analyses added weight to the results determined by the descriptive statistics. The results confirm that DCs in NSW adhere to the TKCs that describe successful DCPs internationally. In spite of this, several key components accomplished higher adherence rates than others. What can be said is that over 60% of the component’s benchmarks achieved the 80% target determined by the writer. The key components that have lower adherence rates are anticipated and must not be interpreted as undesirable results. DCs are encouraged to modify their programme characteristics to ensure further adherence to the specified benchmarks. To this extent, high regard is given to the practices adopted and identified through the qualitative data analysis. The recommendations made to DCs in NSW are consistent with implementing model DCPs as defined by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in 1997. The TKCs are fundamentally standards for implementation and open an opportunity for discussion and are open for opportunity and examin...
Source: Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research