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
AuthorsHarwin, Judith, Broadhurst, Karen, Cooper, Caroline and Taplin, Stephanie
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.

Keywordsfamily drug treatment courts; parental substance misuse; court reform; child protection; neglect and abuse
Year2019
JournalInternational Journal of Drug Policy
Journal citation68, pp. 101-108
PublisherElsevier B.V.
ISSN0955-3959
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.04.019
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85049299950
Open accessPublished as green open access
Page range101-108
Author's accepted manuscript
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Open
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All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online29 Jun 2018
Publication process dates
Accepted25 Apr 2018
Deposited10 Oct 2022
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