Drexel University, Department of Psychology, MS 626, 245 N. 15th St, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2011 Nov-Dec;29(6):806-20. doi: 10.1002/bsl.1011. Epub 2011 Oct 4.
Since their inception in the late 1980s, drug courts have become the most prevalent specialty court in the United States. A large body of outcome research conducted over the past two decades has demonstrated that drug courts effectively reduce drug use and criminal recidivism, which has led to the rapid proliferation of these courts. Importantly, drug court research has flourished despite the many challenges faced by researchers when working with a vulnerable population of justice-involved substance users. In this article, we highlight the most common methodological, ethical, and legal challenges encountered in drug court research, and discuss ways in which researchers can overcome these challenges to conduct high-quality research. Drug court research exemplifies how rigorous empirical investigation can be accomplished in the criminal justice system, and it can serve as a useful model for researchers working in other parts of the judicial system.
自 20 世纪 80 年代末成立以来，毒品法庭已成为美国最普遍的专门法庭。过去二十年进行的大量结果研究表明，毒品法庭有效地减少了吸毒和犯罪再犯，这导致了这些法庭的迅速扩张。重要的是，尽管研究人员在与涉及司法的弱势物质使用者群体合作时面临许多挑战，但毒品法庭的研究仍蓬勃发展。在本文中，我们重点介绍了毒品法庭研究中遇到的最常见的方法学、伦理和法律挑战，并讨论了研究人员如何克服这些挑战以进行高质量研究的方法。毒品法庭研究例证了严格的实证调查如何在刑事司法系统中完成，它可以为在司法系统其他部门工作的研究人员提供有用的模式。
