NCJ Number
179814
Journal
National Drug Court Institute Review Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: Summer 1999 Pages: 1-31
Date Published
1999
Length
31 pages
Annotation
While many believe that the use of graduated sanctions is at least in part responsible for the success of drug courts, the body of research on this question is extremely limited; relatively few controlled studies of punishment and negative reinforcement have been conducted with non-institutionalized adults, either in drug courts or in other settings.
Abstract
Although circumstances and contexts of basic behavioral research differ from the drug court environment, principles that have emerged appear to apply across a variety of settings, including drug courts. Based on this research, several findings and recommendations are offered on the use of graduated sanctions in drug court programs: (1) Sanctions need not be painful, humiliating, or injurious; (2) Sanctions are perceived according to the individual; (3) Sanctions should be of sufficient intensity; (4) Sanctions should be delivered immediately and for every infraction; (5) Undesirable behavior should be reliably detected; (6) Sanctions should be predictable and controllable; (7) Sanctions may have unintended side effects; and (8) Behavior does not change by punishment alone. Behavioral research on the effects of punishment and negative reinforcement for predicting and controlling behavior is reviewed, and the need for more research is emphasized. 53 references