Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Access Criminology and Criminal Justice journals now

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Criminal Justice and Behavior
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hall, E. A.
Right arrow Articles by Warda, U.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Reinforcing Abstinence and Treatment Participation Among Offenders in a Drug Diversion Program

Are Vouchers Effective?

Elizabeth A. Hall

University of California, Los Angeles, ehall{at}ucla.edu

Michael L. Prendergast

University of California, Los Angeles

John M. Roll

Washington State University, Spokane

Umme Warda

University of California, Los Angeles

This study assessed a 26-week voucher-based intervention to reinforce abstinence and participation in treatment-related activities among substance-abusing offenders court referred to outpatient treatment under drug diversion legislation (California’s Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act). Standard treatment consisted of criminal justice supervision and an evidence-based model for treating stimulant abuse. Participants were randomly assigned to four groups, standard treatment (ST) only, ST plus vouchers for testing negative, ST plus vouchers for performing treatment plan activities, and ST plus vouchers for testing negative and/or performing treatment plan activities. Results indicate that voucher-based reinforcement of negative urines and of treatment plan tasks (using a flat reinforcement schedule) showed no statistically significant effects on measures of retention or drug use relative to the standard treatment protocol. It is likely that punishment and reinforcement operating within the criminal justice context had a stronger impact on participants’ treatment retention and drug use than the relatively low-value vouchers awarded as part of the treatment protocol.

Key Words: drug diversion treatment • Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act • California • contingency management • voucher-based reinforcement therapy • experimental design

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 36, No. 9, 935-953 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0093854809338769
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?