Is a change in social competencies associated with a change in drug use and crime in substance-abusing offenders? Evidence from the breaking the cycle demonstration project

BACKGROUND The Breaking the Cycle (BTC) Demonstration Project is an intensive drug intervention programme designed to break the cycle of drug use and offending in which many substance-abusing offenders find themselves trapped, by providing them with alternatives to drug use and crime. AIMS To determine whether an increase in social competencies mediates between any relationship involving enrolment in the Breaking the Cycle Demonstration Project and subsequent drug use or self-reported offending. METHODS A group of 1088 Project participants (847 males and 241 females) were compared to a set of 987 offenders who received standard probation services alone (756 males and 231 females) using a quasi-experimental research design. RESULTS Project participants reported a significant rise in social competencies and significant reductions in both drug use and self-reported offending compared to the comparison group. While social competencies mediated the BTC-subsequent drug use association, drug use did not mediate the BTC-subsequent social competencies association. The direction of the social competencies-offending relationship was more equivocal in that both progressions (from BTC to social competencies and from BTC to offending) were significant. CONCLUSIONS These findings add to the evidence of the success of the Breaking the Cycle Demonstration Project in reducing drug use and offending by finding that improvements in social competencies among substance-abusing participants may be a critical step in reducing drug use. The route to reducing reoffending is not so dependent on a single pathway, although findings suggest that more attention should be paid to both changing and measuring social competencies in future interventions with substance-misusing offenders.