Examining the validity of sanctioning behavior among VTC staff

• In Event: Sanctioning in Veterans Treatment Courts: Policies, Implementation Fidelity, Impact, and Experience

Abstract

Sanctions play a large role in managing client noncompliance in treatment courts.  While previous research has explored the impact of sanctions on program outcomes and clients' perceptions of fairness, investigators have not explored whether similar behaviors result in similar types of sanctions, and whether clients who receive harsher sanctions than similarly situated clients are less likely to be successful in the program.  The current study uses sanctioning data from a felony level veterans treatment court to examine: (1) staffs' perception of 20 acts of noncompliance, (2) whether sanctioning practices are valid (i.e., low level offenses (per staff data) leading to low level sanctions), and (3) whether invalid sanctioning practices impact clients' success in the program. 

Authors

• Kevin Rumley, Buncombe County Veterans Treatment Court

• Jamie Vaske, Western Carolina University