Title : ASSESSING THE CITY - LEVEL IMPACT OF DRUG COURTS ON CRIME RATES , 1985 - 2000

Title: ASSESSING THE CITY-LEVEL IMPACT OF DRUG COURTS ON CRIME RATES, 19852000. Erin Anderson Orrick, Master of Arts, 2005 Directed By: Professor Gary LaFree Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Drug court effectiveness is widely debated within the literature. Numerous evaluations of individual drug courts have been conducted, however, only recently has a consensus begun to emerge about the effectiveness of the drug court model in reducing recidivism and future drug use among participants. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of drug courts in reducing drug-related crime. This analysis will add an additional level of understanding about the value of drug courts by examining the possible effects a city can attain by implementing a drug court. In this research, I tested whether cities with drug courts have significantly lower crime rates for drug-related offenses than similarly sized cities with comparable crime rates without drug courts. The results indicate that as a group, drug courts do not significantly reduce drug-related crime, however, some drug courts show promise for significantly reducing certain types of crime. ASSESSING THE CITY-LEVEL IMPACT OF DRUG COURTS ON CRIME RATES, 1985-2000.