Intellectual Abilities and Motivation Toward Substance Abuse Treatment in Drug-Involved Offenders: A Pilot Study in the Belgian Criminal Justice System

• NCJ Number: 209821
• Journal: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2005 Pages: 277-297
• Author(s): Stijn Vandevelde; Eric Broekaert; Geert Van Hove; Gilberte Schuyten
• Date Published: June 2005
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This Belgian study examined any link between the intellectual abilities of drug users and their motivation toward treatment in a sample of nontreatment, drug-involved inmates.

Abstract

The study was conducted in four prisons located in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Data were obtained from 116 drug-involved inmates between November 2001 and December 2003 through face-to-face interviews. The semistructured interviews focused on physical health, education and employment, alcohol use, drug use, the justice system and police, family and social relationships, and psychological health. Motivation for drug treatment was measured with the CMR (Circumstances, Motivation, and Readiness) Scales for Substance Abuse. Intellectual ability was assessed with the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), which is a nonverbal test that assesses general ability to reason without taking verbal capacities or academic education into account. Nearly half of the group scored definitively below average on Raven's SPM. Although this study drew no conclusions about whether intellectual abilities and deviant behavior were generally related, the results did indicate that drug-involved offenders generally had problems in several life areas in addition to substance abuse, such as legal and psychological difficulties. Further, they displayed low to moderately low motivation and readiness to enter substance abuse treatment. This could be due to the lack of a persuasive and concrete, short-term perspective on what is offered in prison-based treatment communities. Still, participants with high intellectual abilities were less motivated to enter and stay in substance abuse treatment compared to those with average and low intellectual abilities. The authors caution that this is a pilot study with significant limitations, so further research in this area is needed. 3 tables and 53 references