Doctoral Dissertation Research: Therapeutic Alternatives in the Criminal Courts

这项研究调查了在美国越来越多地使用治疗作为刑事起诉的替代方案。现在，每年有数以万计的被告通过完成治疗活动和在指定时间内通过药物测试，获得避免重罪定罪的途径。通过分析这些审前转移项目的作用和后果，该项目将有助于了解当代刑事司法系统的影响。它还将向决策者、法律从业人员和公众提供信息，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，但很少有社会学研究对其影响进行调查。本研究利用国家和地方的数据集、文献分析、原始调查实验、参与者观察以及对律师、被告和治疗师的访谈，阐明了全国范围内转移的后果，并探讨了项目之间的差异。本文解决了三个问题：1)作为一种促进净化的工具，导流是如何有效的；2)转移对社会不平等的影响；3)转移对被告生活的影响。研究结果将有助于当代美国刑事司法系统改革的学术研究，以及利用法院系统提供心理健康治疗的后果。此外，本研究将为寻求扩大转移选项或设计新方案的司法管辖区、寻求有效刑事司法替代方案的政策制定者以及倡导刑事改革的团体提供经验信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.