| Abstract: | This article examines the social and historical significance of coerced drug treatment within the criminal justice system. Drug courts, the most prominent example of this approach, serve as a case study to explore how seemingly contradictory perspectives on substance use—therapeutic and punitive—are merged to justify increased criminal justice oversight of defendants in the name of facilitating recovery. Drawing on an analysis of drug court organizational documents and interviews with key advocates, this article (1) examines the punitive, therapeutic, and medical knowledge drug court advocates draw on and construct to justify an increased role for the courts in solving the problem of addiction, and (2) links these theories historically to broader discussions about the causes of crime and the courts’ role in solving social problems. Overall, this article considers how scientific theories are fused with moral considerations in the name of an “enlightened” criminal justice approach to complex social problems. |
