NCJ Number
145964
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1993) Pages: 239-250
Date Published
1993
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The authors describe five types of offenders according to substance abuse status, and make recommendations for treating each type.
Abstract
A regionally representative sample of 275 inmates from nine Federal correctional institutions were interviewed about substance abuse. The five groups, their proportion of the sample, and summaries are as follows: 1) Non-abusers (20.9 percent), who used alcohol or drugs in moderation with no negative impacts, would benefit from Health Promotion programs to maintain their low-risk patterns; 2) Drug abusers (25.2 percent), who were not severely drug-dependent but exhibited severe drug-related dysfunction, would require broad-spectrum, multimodal interventions such as Community Reinforcement or Azrin; 3) Alcohol abusers (23.0 percent), who viewed their alcohol consumption as having played a significant role in their criminality, could use a behavioral self-control training program such as Alcohol and Drug Abusers; 4) Emotionally distressed polysubstance abusers (13 percent) would require treatment for psychological distress followed by Broad Spectrum Treatment Program; and 5) Organically impaired alcohol and drug abusers (17.6 percent), who need long-term, conceptually simple treatment, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or aversion therapy. 3 tables and 30 references