Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 31, Issue 1 , Pages 75-85, July 2006

Is the drug court model exportable? The cost-effectiveness of a driving-under-the-influence court

  • Christine Eibner, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1 703 413 1100x5913.
    • ,
  • Andrew R. Morral, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
    • ,
  • Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation and National Bureau of Economic Research, P.O. Box 2138, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, USA
    • ,
  • John MacDonald, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, USA

Received 25 October 2005; received in revised form 20 March 2006; accepted 22 March 2006.

Abstract 

We assessed the cost-effectiveness of the Rio Hondo driving-under-the-influence (DUI) court, a therapeutic court intervention in Los Angeles County targeted to repeat DUI offenders. The effectiveness of this court intervention was determined through a randomized controlled field experiment. Although prior research does not identify differences in alcohol-related or criminal behavior between treated and control individuals at follow-up, we found improvements in behavior for all program participants regardless of treatment status. A cost-minimization analysis found that, on average, costs of the DUI court exceeded traditional court expenditures for second-time offenders but produced cost savings for third-time offenders. This suggests that implementing a DUI-specific court intervention for serious DUI recidivists is a worthwhile investment of public resources. The unique legal treatment of DUI offenders in California may hide additional cost savings that could be accrued in other jurisdictions through the adoption of DUI court programs.

Keywords: DUI courts, Driving under the influence, Randomized experiment

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PII: S0740-5472(06)00090-0

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2006.03.011

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 31, Issue 1 , Pages 75-85, July 2006

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