Criminal justice and alcohol treatment: results from a national sample

This study investigates the associations of recent criminal justice involvement with perceived need for alcohol treatment and alcohol treatment utilization, adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics. We examined a national sample of adults with alcohol use disorders (N=4390) from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Almost 15% reported criminal justice involvement in the past year. Generalized logit models regressed perceived need for alcohol or drug treatment and past year treatment utilization (versus neither) on past year legal involvement, demographic, and clinical information. In general, results found stronger associations between frequency of criminal justice involvement for treatment utilization compared to perceived need for treatment alone. Treatment utilization was also associated with being on probation, arrests for drug possession/sale and driving under the influence but perceived need was not. Study results suggest opportunities for interventions to increase treatment rates or treatment need, a major correlate of treatment utilization.