Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice.

Harwin, J; Broadhurst, K; Cooper, C; Taplin, S

Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice.

Harwin, J Broadhurst, K Cooper, C Taplin, S

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Publisher:: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Int J Drug Policy, 2019, 68, pp. 101-108
Issue Date:: 2019-06

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Harwin, J
dc.contributor.author	Broadhurst, K
dc.contributor.author	Cooper, C
dc.contributor.author	Taplin, S https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8752-009X
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-26T01:41:08Z
dc.date.available	2018-04-25
dc.date.available	2022-09-26T01:41:08Z
dc.date.issued	2019-06
dc.identifier.citation	Int J Drug Policy, 2019, 68, pp. 101-108
dc.identifier.issn	0955-3959
dc.identifier.issn	1873-4758
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/162061
dc.description.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.
dc.format	Print-Electronic
dc.language	eng
dc.publisher	ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
dc.relation.ispartof	Int J Drug Policy
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.04.019
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	11 Medical and Health Sciences, 16 Studies in Human Society, 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
dc.subject.classification	Substance Abuse
dc.subject.mesh	Drug Users
dc.subject.mesh	Family
dc.subject.mesh	Humans
dc.subject.mesh	Judicial Role
dc.subject.mesh	Humans
dc.subject.mesh	Family
dc.subject.mesh	Judicial Role
dc.subject.mesh	Drug Users
dc.title	Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice.
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	68
utslib.location.activity	Netherlands
utslib.for	11 Medical and Health Sciences
utslib.for	16 Studies in Human Society
utslib.for	17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Health
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-09-26T01:41:06Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	68

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.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/162061