EnGendering Disparities in Drug Court

• In Event: Oppressive Criminal Justice Practices

Abstract

This paper will focus on the convergence of two well-known criminal justice trends which have emerged in the United States in recent decades: a wide expansion of the use of drug courts, and the increasingly punitive treatment of women. This research examines gender dynamics in one drug court site. The study setting offers an excellent opportunity to examine gendered processes in the drug court of a large Midwestern metropolitan county. Many of the men and women who attend this particular drug court reside in the same treatment facility (although they are housed separately and not allowed to communicate with one another). Furthermore, these men and women attend the same drug court with the same drug court staff (prosecutor, public defender, judge) but on different days of the week. Using both ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, this study examines the differential ways in which men and women are treated. Results from the study suggest that drug courts reinforce traditional gender norms. Other gender dynamics become especially apparent when relapse occurs (women are asked if they were with bad men; men are asked what happened). The potentially disparate consequences for men and women have strong implications for drug court practice.

Author

• Veronica L. Horowitz, University of Minnesota