Role of Race in Criminal Justice Referrals to Treatment

描述（由申请人提供）：刑事司法系统已成为转介药物治疗的主要来源。尽管有大量证据表明，少数民族，特别是非洲裔美国人，在毒品被捕人口中所占比例过高，但他们在刑事司法转介中所占比例仍然相对较小。目前尚不确定这种较低的代表性是刑事司法系统中种族和族裔不平等的结果，还是一些降低少数群体转诊治疗资格的常见案件因素的人为产物。我们建议检查毒品罪犯在加州1982年至2005年的裁决，以确定在何种程度上种族/民族发挥了作用，最终处置和转介药物治疗。加州代表了一个独特的环境，在其中检查这些协会，因为它的人口和区域多样性，详细的行政数据的可用性代表了一个人口普查的个人逮捕和处理，并通过两个重要的政策-毒品法庭和分流-促进治疗，而不是监禁。拟议中的研究显着改善现有的研究，考虑在同一个国家的法律规则的裁决过程中的每个阶段的时间和地理模式的差异。它全面考虑了种族/族裔在裁定过程的每个阶段的作用以及对少数群体在治疗中的最终安置的净影响，因此可以确定为什么以前的研究提供了不一致的结果。最后，通过考虑恢复性司法政策（如毒品法庭和转送）对按种族/族裔处理毒品罪犯的影响，本项目将协助决策者努力减少刑事司法和待遇制度中的差异。消除健康差距是《2010年健康人民》的首要目标。刑事司法系统对于消除差异至关重要，因为少数群体，特别是非洲裔美国人在这一人口中所占比例过高，而且刑事司法系统是最大的转诊来源。对毒品罪犯的审判程序进行仔细审查，将有可能确定被捕者之间在获得治疗方面是否确实存在差别，以及造成这种差别的因素是什么。此外，通过使用加州的大型面板数据集审查审判做法的趋势，这项研究将能够明确考虑最近旨在改善获得治疗的机会，特别是在少数民族中，是的

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The criminal justice system has become the primary source of referrals to drug treatment. Despite substantial evidence that minorities, particularly African Americans, are over-represented in the drug arrestee population, they remain a relatively small share of criminal justice referrals. It has yet to be determined if this lower representation is a function of racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system or an artifact of some common case-level factors that reduce minority eligibility for treatment referral. We propose to examine the adjudication of drug offenders in California from 1982- 2005 to determine the extent to which race/ethnicity has played a role in final disposition and referral to drug treatment. California represents a unique environment in which to examine these associations because of its demographic and regional diversity, availability of detailed administrative data representing a census of individuals arrested and processed, and adoption of two important policies - drug courts and diversion - that promote treatment in lieu of incarceration. The proposed study significantly improves existing research by considering temporal and geographic patterns in disparities at each stage of the adjudication process within a single state subject to the same rule of law. It comprehensively considers the role of race/ethnicity at each stage of the adjudication process and the net effect on the final placement of minorities in treatment, and so may identify why previous studies have provided inconsistent results. Finally, by considering the impact of restorative justice policies, such as drug courts and diversion, on the processing of drug offenders by race/ethnicity, this project will assist policymakers with efforts to reduce disparities in the criminal justice and treatment system. The elimination of health disparities is an overarching goal of Healthy People 2010. The criminal justice system is critical to eliminating disparities because minorities, particularly African Americans, are substantially over-represented in this population and because the criminal justice system is the largest referral source to treatment. A careful examination of the adjudication process for drug offenders will make it possible to determine if differential access to treatment truly exists among arrestees and what factors have caused it. Further, by examining trends in adjudication practices using a large panel data set in California, this study will be able to explicitly consider whether recent policy reforms aimed at improving access to treatment particularly among minorities have indeed done so.