COERCION TO ENTER TREATMENT FROM PROBATION OFFICERS

Haight Ashbury Drug Detox &Rehab Center, San Francisco CA

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Abstract

Drinking problems are highly prevalent among the criminal justice population. Although studies indicate that increasing numbers of clients enter alcohol treatment under some form of criminal justice coercion, only a small fraction of problem drinkers in the criminal justice system receive help. The primary aim of this study is to investigate criminal justice probation officers' use of coercion as a means of improving alcohol treatment utilization among individuals on probation. The study also identifies factors that predict the use of coercion to enter treatment. The term "coercion" as used in this study refers to using the threat of legal sanctions if individuals refuse to comply with a referral to enter treatment. The sample consists of probation officers in seven California Counties, and data are collected by using self-administered questionnaires. Hypotheses address how individual characteristics of probation officers, organizational characteristics of different probation departments, and probation officers' caseload characteristics (i.e., prevalence of alcohol problems and alcohol related arrests) predict the use of coercion to enter treatment. Individual factors include probation officers' demographic factors, personal and family experiences with alcohol, beliefs about treatment and the use of coercion, and professional training and experience in treating alcohol abusers. Organizational factors address whether departments use screening instruments, the availability of treatment resources, officers' normative beliefs about the extent to which their peers use coercion, and perceptions of whether state laws and judges support coercive treatment. Multiple regression examines the power of individual officer variables to predict coercion and analysis of covariance is used to assess organizational differences among the seven departments in the study. A hierarchical linear model is then used to explore the cross-level effects of individual probation officers nested within institutions. This research has important implications for improving the organization and utilization of treatment services for individuals with alcohol problems in the criminal justice system.