Doctoral Dissertation Research: Therapeutic Alternatives in the Criminal Courts

本研究探讨了越来越多的使用治疗作为替代刑事起诉在美国。现在每年都有成千上万的被告通过完成治疗活动和通过指定时间段的药物测试来避免重罪定罪。通过分析这些审前分流方案的作用和后果，该项目将有助于了解当代刑事司法系统的影响。它还将为决策者、法律的从业者和公众提供信息，帮助他们确定审前分流在刑事司法改革努力和提供精神保健方面应发挥的作用。尽管审前分流计划在美国越来越受欢迎，几乎没有社会学研究探讨过这些影响。本研究借鉴了国家和地方的数据集，文件分析，原始调查实验，参与者观察，并与律师，被告和治疗师的访谈，以阐明全国分流的后果，并探讨程序之间的变化。 讨论了三个问题：1）作为一种促进解除监禁的工具，转处有多有效; 2）转处对社会不平等有什么影响; 3）转处对被告的生活有什么影响。 调查结果将有助于奖学金当代美国刑事司法系统改革和使用法院系统提供心理健康治疗的后果。此外，这项研究将提供经验信息的司法管辖区寻求扩大分流的选择或设计新的方案，政策制定者在寻找有效的刑事司法替代品，并参与倡导刑事改革的团体。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This study examines the growing use of therapy as an alternative to criminal prosecution in the United States. Tens of thousands of defendants each year are now offered a pathway to avoid felony convictions by completing therapeutic activities and passing drug tests for designated periods of time. By analyzing the role and consequences of these pretrial diversion programs, this project will contribute to knowledge about the impacts of the contemporary criminal justice system. It also will provide information to policymakers, legal practitioners, and the public as they determine the role that pretrial diversion should play in criminal justice reform efforts and in the provision of mental healthcare. Despite the growing popularity of pretrial diversion programs across the U.S., little sociological research has yet examined their impacts. This research draws on national and local datasets, document analysis, an original survey experiment, participant observation, and interviews with attorneys, defendants, and therapists to illuminate the consequences of diversion nationally and to explore variation between programs. Three questions are addressed: 1) how effective diversion is as a tool to promote decarceration; 2) what the implications of diversion are for social inequality; and 3) what effects diversion has on the lives of defendants. Findings will contribute to scholarship on contemporary U.S. criminal justice system reform and on the consequences of using the court system to provide mental health treatment. In addition, this research will provide empirical information to jurisdictions seeking to expand diversionary options or to design new programs, to policymakers in search of effective criminal justice alternatives, and to groups involved in advocating for penal reform.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.