Substance Use Treatment for Indigenous Offenders: The Effects of Race on Drug Court Treatment Outcomes

With drug offenders making up a large portion of cases in the criminal justice system, efforts to reduce recidivism among this population has been a sizable topic within research. Within this literature, drug courts continue to be shown to be an effective method of dealing with substance use offenders. The current study seeks to examine whether drug courts are similarly effective in treating White and Native American offenders. To do so, a quasi-experimental study with a matched comparison group is used to compare the 1- and 2-year recidivism rates of White and Native drug court participants. Results indicate that there are significant demographic differences between the two groups which lead to higher recidivism rates among Native American participants. However, once demographic and other control variables are accounted for, recidivism rates are not significantly different. Further implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.