Collaboration Within Drug Courts: A National Survey of Drug Court Professionals

Abstract

Abstract Collaboration across diverse agencies is a foundational attribute of drug courts. It requires individuals and agencies to build trust, share resources and power, as well as maintain consistent participation to produce positive criminal justice interested outcomes. As past criminal justice and social service research has shown, the requirement to collaborate can produce negative impacts when criminal justice professionals are conflicted and required to still carry out their traditional adverse roles and responsibilities. To date, no empirical research has systemically evaluated the advantages and drawbacks of participation in a collaborative environment in the drug court model, and what elements combine to create stronger collaborative outcomes. By using a national sample and set of validated measures of professional benefits and drawbacks, we found that certain variables, such as level of training, gender and propensity/interest towards collaboration were predictive of greater professional benefits. Structural Regression Analysis (SRA) and Monte Carlo Simulation were utilized in the current study, creating empirical support for internal and external validity of the scales.