The effectiveness of Australia’s drug courts

Abstract

Operating in Australia since 1999, drug courts are now present in the majority of Australian jurisdictions. This paper takes stock of the impact evaluations of Australia’s drug courts to date, and considers to what extent these evaluations support drug courts as being more effective than ‘conventional’ sanctions in reducing recidivism. While Australian evaluations indicate drug courts reduce recidivism more than conventional sanctions, certainty in these findings is tempered by mixed results and methodological limitations.