Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion in the Justice System

by Rebecca Tiger

Overview

The number of people incarcerated in the U.S. now exceeds 2.3 million, due in part to the increasing criminalization of drug use: over 25% of people incarcerated in jails and prisons are there for drug offenses. Judging Addicts examines this increased criminalization of drugs and the medicalization of addiction in the U.S. by focusing on drug courts, where defendants are sent to drug treatment instead of prison. Rebecca Tiger explores how advocates of these courts make their case for what they call “enlightened coercion,” detailing how they use medical theories of addiction to justify increased criminal justice oversight of defendants who, through this process, are defined as both “sick” and “bad.”

Tiger shows how these courts fuse punitive and therapeutic approaches to drug use in the name of a “progressive” and “enlightened” approach to addiction. She critiques the medicalization of drug users, showing how the disease designation can complement, rather than contradict, punitive approaches, demonstrating that these courts are neither unprecedented nor unique, and that they contain great potential to expand punitive control over drug users. Tiger argues that the medicalization of addiction has done little to stem the punishment of drug users because of a key conceptual overlap in the medical and punitive approaches—that habitual drug use is a problem that needs to be fixed through sobriety. Judging Addicts presses policymakers to implement humane responses to persistent substance use that remove its control entirely from the criminal justice system and ultimately explores the nature of crime and punishment in the U.S. today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814785966
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/03/2012
Series:	Alternative Criminology , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	358,254
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rebecca Tiger is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College and co-editor of Bioethical Issues, Sociological Perspectives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Both Bad and Sick 15

2 Criminalizing Deviance: Reconciling the Punitive and Rehabilitative 41

3 "The Right Thing to Do for the Right Reasons": The Institutional Context for the Emergence of Drug Courts 58

4 "Enlightened Coercion": Making Coercion Work 73

5 "Force Is the Best Medicine": Addiction, Recovery, and Coercion 88

6 "Now That We Know the Medicine Works": Expanding the Drug Court Model 115

Conclusion 133

Appendix 151

Notes 157

Bibliography 173

Index 183

About the Author 198

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In a compelling narrative, Judging Addicts shatters the prevailing assumptions about the novelty and success of contemporary drug courts. This brave and fascinating book is a must-read for scholars, practitioners, and advocates in the criminal justice and public health fields."-Mona Lynch,Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, University of California, Irvine

"Calling addiction a disease has not reduced stigma and suffering but rather widened the drug war's net of punitive social control. This brilliant book shows the uneasy coexistence of punishment and recovery—a sociologically rich story told in crystalline prose." -Craig Reinarman,Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

"Judging Addicts traces the intellectual genealogy of our latest criminal justice reform ‘fix’ to a constellation of ideas about illness and crime, freedom and responsibility, that have driven American justice policies since the Progressive era. An essential read for all of those looking for a real exit to mass incarceration."-Jonathan Simon,Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law, Berkeley Law School

Editorial Reviews

"[Judging Addicts] is interesting and well written, and perhaps its greatest strength lies in the way in which its author sets her discussion of the drug court initiative in a historic context."

Prevention and Policy Drugs: Education

"[T]his is an excellent book that will be of interest to sociologists who study punishment, health, deviance, and social control. It is well written and persuasive. Tiger effectively brought the sociology of knowledge to bear on a contemporary, policy-relevant question. This is no small accomplishment. While there are other critical books on drug courts available, Tigers approach is fresh and unique and therefore should be required reading by anyone studying the drug court movement."

Social Forces

"Calling addiction a disease has not reduced stigma and suffering but rather widened the drug war's net of punitive social control. This brilliant book shows the uneasy coexistence of punishment and recovery—a sociologically rich story told in crystalline prose."-Craig Reinarman,Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

“[T]his is an excellent book that will be of interest to sociologists who study punishment, health, deviance, and social control. It is well written and persuasive. Tiger effectively brought the sociology of knowledge to bear on a contemporary, policy-relevant question. This is no small accomplishment. While there are other critical books on drug courts available, Tiger’s approach is fresh and unique and therefore should be required reading by anyone studying the drug court movement.” - Social Forces

"In a compelling narrative, Judging Addicts shatters the prevailing assumptions about the novelty and success of contemporary drug courts. This brave and fascinating book is a must-read for scholars, practitioners, and advocates in the criminal justice and public health fields."-Mona Lynch,Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, University of California, Irvine

"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections."-P. Lermack, CHOICE

From the Publisher