Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents : The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice
Journal article
Harwin, Judith, Broadhurst, Karen, Cooper, Caroline and Taplin, Stephanie. (2019). Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents : The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice. International Journal of Drug Policy. 68, pp. 101-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.04.019
Authors | Harwin, Judith, Broadhurst, Karen, Cooper, Caroline and Taplin, Stephanie |
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Abstract | Parental substance misuse is a leading factor in child abuse and neglect and frequently results in court-mandated permanent child removal. Family drug treatment courts, which originated in the USA and are only found in adversarial family justice systems, are a radical innovation to tackle this problem. Unlike ordinary court, they treat parents within the court arena as well as adjudicating, and in this way they seek to draw a new balance between parental needs and the child’s right to timely permanency. Family drug treatment courts have spread to England, Australia and Northern Ireland and international research has found they have higher rates of parental substance misuse cessation and family reunification and lower foster care costs than ordinary courts. Yet their growth has been far from straightforward. In the USA they have not kept pace with the rise of criminal drug treatment courts and in England and Australia their numbers remain small. The central purpose of this article is to explore why the family drug treatment movement has not achieved wider impact and to consider opportunities and challenges for its future development. To address these questions we draw on evidence and experience from the USA, England and Australia. We discuss the operational challenges, tensions between children’s needs for stability and parental timescales for recovery, the impact of wider economic and political change, and issues in data evaluation. We conclude that despite the promise of family drug treatment courts as a new paradigm to address risky parenting, effecting systemic change in the courts is extremely difficult. |
Keywords | family drug treatment courts; parental substance misuse; court reform; child protection; neglect and abuse |
Year | 2019 |
Journal | International Journal of Drug Policy |
Journal citation | 68, pp. 101-108 |
Publisher | Elsevier B.V. |
ISSN | 0955-3959 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.04.019 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85049299950 |
Open access | Published as green open access |
Page range | 101-108 |
Author's accepted manuscript | License File Access Level Open |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 29 Jun 2018 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 25 Apr 2018 |
Deposited | 10 Oct 2022 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8y4zy/tensions-and-contradictions-in-family-court-innovation-with-high-risk-parents-the-place-of-family-drug-treatment-courts-in-contemporary-family-justice
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Author's accepted manuscript
AM_Harwin_2019_Tensions_and_contradictions_in_family_court.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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