Church-State Partnerships Promoting Drug and Alcohol Treatment: The Role of Values

• In Event: Values in Criminal Justice Policy, Values in Our Research

Abstract

As the field of drug and alcohol treatment has been established and institutionalized since Prohibition in the United States, religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state agencies have formed partnerships for policy-making and the delivery of treatment services. Why have each of these kinds of actors been drawn to work together to respond to activities and individuals that were highly stigmatized and often criminalized? This paper investigates the role of values held by each of these kinds of actors in the formation of such relationships by examining missions, goals, and mandates, and justifications from actors about their involvement in such partnerships. The results will analyze case studies of collaborations that occurred between the 1930s and the present, that occurred in three metro areas in Ohio (Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati) which have had large and concentrated populations receiving treatment. In the process, the paper will argue for bringing ideas about the importance of values in explaining action from critical realism into criminology, and from the level of individual to the level of the institution.

Author

• Nicole Kaufman, Ohio University