Enforcing Order? The Use of Behavioural Control ‘Contracts’ in Drug Treatment Services

• In Event: Substance Use Treatment Approaches and Policies

Abstract

Located in the wider context of emerging social control strategies, the use of contract-like written agreements between drug treatment service providers and users appears to have spread quite rapidly in recent years. This novel practice of contractual governance may be viewed as having considerable potential for the crucial processes of drug treatment engagement, retention and effectiveness. On the other hand, it may also be seen to raise serious ethical issues and concerns about human rights, as it seems to be based on a model of autonomy and responsibility that is at odds with conventional notions of addition. Drawing on an extensive multi-site, multi-methods study, this paper examines how contractual governance operates in drug treatment settings across England to maintain order and communicate social values, norms and expectations. It details the ways in which services users understand, comply with or resist these mechanisms of control, how breaches of agreements are responded to by drug workers and services managers, and how order is maintained through situated relationships and practices. The findings and arguments put forward contribute to wider debates about self-regulation, procedural justice and the use of discretion.

Authors

• Toby Seddon, University of Manchester (UK)

• Matthew Bacon, University of Sheffield (UK)