When two measures of drug dependency do not accord: prevalence, correlates, and implications for treatment in the criminal justice context

Reducing the volume of drug-related crime has long been a challenge for criminal justice system practitioners and policymakers worldwide. In Australia, this challenge has been tackled using a continuum of early intervention, diversion, and intensive treatment, with drug courts operating as a final alternative to imprisonment for the most serious and frequent drug-dependent offenders. In this study, we explore self-reported dependency and its concordance with the outcomes of a clinical screening tool designed to indicate DSM-V drug dependence in criminal justice populations. We find that not all offenders who self-report their dependency are clinically assessed as dependent. Similarly, not all those who are clinically assessed as dependent identify as such. We also show that these results vary by the frequency, type and longevity of drug use and argue that this discordance has clear implications for the fidelity and success of the drug treatments that are a mandated part of different criminal justice sanctions.