The Family Framework in a Drug Treatment Court:

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

DaanikaGordon¹ 

关键词: drug court;    family;    institutional practices;    race;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2378023118761462

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

Drug courts reflect an expanding effort to transform the state’s response to drug crimes. Such programs merge punitive and therapeutic strategies in efforts to rehabilitate clients. The author takes the case of one drug court to elaborate on a set of institutional practices characterizing this mode of intervention. On the basis of ethnographic observation of the court’s weekly review hearings, interviews with program professionals, and analysis of documents and media accounts, the author describes the centrality of the “family framework”—the idea that clients are childlike and “grow up” in the context of the program—to the priorities, norms, and practices of drug court professionals. The family framework relied on raced and classed constructs of dependence and deservingness. These constructs shaped program selection and completion, enabling the court to focus on a predominately white and often middle-class client base. The author suggests that this case clarifies how state projects can both intensively regulate and circumscribe their scope to a population deemed worthy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY