Money Matters: Cost-Effectiveness of Juvenile Drug Court with and without Evidence-Based Treatments

• NCJ Number: 238222
• Journal: Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: January - March 2012 Pages: 69-90
• Author(s): Ashli J. Sheidow; Jayani Jayawardhana; W. David Bradford; Scott W. Henggeler; Steven B. Shapiro
• Date Published: January 2012
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): K23DA015658; R01DA13066; R01AA122202
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; National Institute on Drug Abuse; US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This investigation provides an economic evaluation of the treatment programs for substance abusing delinquents.

Abstract

The 12-month cost-effectiveness of juvenile drug court and evidence-based treatments within court were compared with traditional Family Court for 128 substance-abusing/dependent juvenile offenders participating in a 4-condition randomized trial. Intervention conditions included Family Court with community services (FC), Drug Court with community services (DC), Drug Court with Multisystemic Therapy (DC/MST), and Drug Court with MST enhanced with a contingency management program (DC/MST/CM). Average cost-effectiveness ratios for substance use and criminal behavior outcomes revealed that economic efficiency in achieving outcomes generally improved from FC to DC, with the addition of evidence-based treatments improving efficiency in obtaining substance use outcomes. (Published Abstract)