Role of Race in Criminal Justice Referrals to Treatment

说明(申请人提供)：刑事司法系统已成为转介戒毒治疗的主要来源。尽管有大量证据表明，少数族裔，特别是非裔美国人在毒品被捕人口中的比例过高，但他们在刑事司法转介中所占的比例仍然相对较小。尚未确定这一较低的代表性是刑事司法系统中种族和族裔差异的作用，还是一些常见的案件一级因素造成的，这些因素降低了少数群体获得治疗转介的资格。我们建议审查1982-2005年间加利福尼亚州对毒品罪犯的判决，以确定种族/族裔在最终处置和转介药物治疗方面发挥的作用程度。加利福尼亚州是一个独特的环境，可以在其中审查这些联系，因为它的人口和区域多样性，可以获得详细的行政数据，代表被逮捕和处理的个人的普查，以及通过两项重要政策--毒品法庭和分流--促进治疗而不是监禁。拟议的研究大大改进了现有的研究，因为它考虑了在同一法治下的单一国家内裁决进程每个阶段的时间和地理差异的模式。它综合考虑了种族/族裔在裁决过程每个阶段的作用，以及对少数群体最终接受治疗的净影响，因此可以查明为什么以前的研究提供了不一致的结果。最后，通过考虑毒品法庭和分流等恢复性司法政策对按种族/族裔处理毒品罪犯的影响，该项目将协助决策者努力减少刑事司法和治疗系统中的差异。消除健康差距是2010年《健康人》的首要目标。刑事司法系统对于消除不平等至关重要，因为少数群体，特别是非裔美国人在这一人口中的比例过高，而且刑事司法系统是转介治疗的最大来源。仔细审查毒品罪犯的裁决程序将有可能确定被捕者之间是否确实存在差别待遇，以及造成这种情况的因素是什么。此外，通过使用加利福尼亚州的大型小组数据集审查裁决做法的趋势，这项研究将能够明确考虑最近旨在改善特别是少数群体获得治疗的机会的政策改革是否确实做到了这一点。

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.