FACTORS PREDICTING SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A COUNTY DRUG COURT PROGRAM

Drug treatment courts have become a vital part of the trend towards rehabilitative criminal justice and spawned numerous other rehabilitative courts since starting in Dade County, Florida over 23 years ago. The growth and increased use came out of a strong research foundation that looked at the factors that led to the ability to complete the program and avoid rearrest. This study used archival data on 183 individuals who had previously completed the drug court program either successfully or unsuccessfully and examined factors that predicted successful graduation, focusing on those that could be modified. Predictors included age, gender, employment at entry, drug of choice, level of risk, depression, anxiety, and defensiveness. The predictors were grouped into three different areas: demographics, level of risk, and mental preparedness to enter treatment. Logistic regression was used to examine whether the predictor variables were predictive of completion status. Findings show that individuals with alcohol as drug of choice and individuals with higher anxiety scores were significantly more likely to successfully complete the drug treatment court program. Individuals with higher level of risk, depression, and defensiveness scores were found to be significantly more likely to unsuccessfully complete the drug treatment court program. These findings support previous research on individual factors and drug treatment court program outcome, and the results show that further exploration is necessary to understand why these variables are predictive and whether changes to treatment can address the needs they highlight.M.S. in Psychology, December 201