Date of Completion
2016
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Community Development and Applied Economics
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Janet Murnane
Keywords
Vermont, Drug Court, Recidivism
Abstract
This paper analyzes the effectiveness of the four drug courts in Vermont using the program studies conducted by the Vermont Center for Justice Research, interviews, journal articles, and case studies. My goals were to identify how Vermont drug courts are run, to determine whether the programs are effective at keeping participants and graduates drug-free and free from repeat criminal activity, to identify issues that impede drug court’s effectiveness, and to understand how Vermont’s efforts compare to those in other states. My conclusions are that (1) the evaluations of Vermont drug courts are positive indicators that the programs are effective in reducing and treating the opioid problem and that (2) drug courts are a less expensive alternative to criminal sanctions, but (3) that there is a need for standardized definitions for the terms used to evaluate effectiveness and (4) for increased analysis of crime statistics to allow for better comparisons with program outcomes.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Collins, Jacqueline A., "The Effectiveness of the Implementation of Drug Courts on the Opioid Epidemic in the State of Vermont" (2016). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 99.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/99