Different Substance Abusing Offenders Require a Unique Program

• NCJ Number: 141381
• Journal: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Dated: (1993)
• Author(s): W Loza
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, 1992, New Orleans

Annotation

This study investigated whether alcohol, drug, or combined alcohol and drug abusing offenders differed from each other and from other nonsubstance abusing offenders, with the eventual goal of suggesting treatment strategies.

Abstract

A total of 191 offenders incarcerated in federal correctional institutions in Ontario, Canada, were classified into four groups: alcohol abusers, drug abusers, combined alcohol and drug abusers, and nonalcohol/nondrug abusers. Study instruments included the Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI) and the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL). Results supported previous findings about the prevalence of substance abuse problems among incarcerated offenders. Combined alcohol and drug abusing offenders had the highest scores among all groups for items and total scores of the LSI and the PCL. This group was followed by drug abusers, alcoholics, and nonalcohol/nondrug abusing offenders. Implications of the findings for the treatment of substance abusing offenders are discussed. 30 references and 1 table