Black White Disparities in Criminal Justice Referrals to Drug Treatment Book Review

Analysis of “Black--White Disparities in Criminal Justice Referrals to Drug Treatment: Addressing Treatment Need or Expanding the Diagnostic Net?”

Identify the purpose of the research study, problem, and questions

The major aim of the article; Black--White Disparities in Criminal Justice Referrals to Drug Treatment: Addressing Treatment Need or Expanding the Diagnostic Net? written by Karen Mcelrath, Angela Taylor, and Kimberly K. Tran (2016) is to analyze the racial (Black/White) disparities in the diagnoses of drug abuse against dependence. The article’s objective is to study the way race, and less importantly, related socio-demographic and substance use factors, affect the diagnoses of cannabis use problems, particularly, diagnoses of cannabis dependence against cannabis abuse. The article’s writers equally studied Black/White disparities in diagnoses amongst persons referred to therapy by self, healthcare personnel and several others sources.
The research subject here is, a little over half of the marijuana-related admissions into U.S. state-funded therapy are always referred by the criminal justice system and this has been the situation for around 20 years now (Mcelrath et al., 2016, 4). Across the nations, the population of Blacks makes up almost one-third of the marijuana-related therapy admissions.

This research did not specifically state any research questions.

Describe the design of the study

The design used is a retrospective study design. The word “retrospective” refers to an issue or phenomenon which took place previously. These retrospective studies regularly require secondary data compilation on the basis of available data from previous researches or records (Ary et al., 2013; Creswell, 2013). In this current article, the available data were derived from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).
Identify an operational definition used by the researchers

Here, the dependent variable is diagnosis, and code 1 and 0 was used for cannabis dependence and cannabis abuse respectively. Race was represented by binary variables (0 = White; 1 = Black). More control and independent variables were added due to their ability to influence variations in abuse and dependence diagnoses. Almost all the demographic variables present were divided into two clear categories and they were measured by trait presence (coded 1) and trait absence (coded 0). Some of these include GEB/high school graduate, homelessness when admitted and female gender. Ethnic Hispanics may also go through different treatments therefore a new variable on Hispanic ethnicity was introduced and coded 0 for non-Hispanic and 1 for Hispanic. Age was handled as an interval. Three dummy variables were produced for employment status and they are; unemployed, not in labor force and employed part- or full-time. The remaining mental disorders were coded 0 (no) and 1 (yes). Also included at admission were drug use gauges (three in number) and they are; (1) two or more other substances apart from marijuana (marijuana only = 0; yes = 1); (2) regularity of usage over the last 30 days (dummy coded: no use, less than daily and daily over the last 30 days); and (3) previous treatment (no = 0; yes = 1).

Identify whether the research study is a quantitative or qualitative design. Explain your answer

This research study applies a quantitative design. Quantitative data refers to information on quantities, i.e. information which is measurable and can be represented by numbers in writing (Ary et al., 2013) From the previously stated procedures, it is clear that the derived data will be understandable numerically.

Identify the methodology, population, sampling methods, and return rate, if applicable

First, the authors evaluated Black/White disparities based on North Carolina referral source (N = 12,112) and then compared the derived results with Black/White differences based on the South-Atlantic States referral source (N = 41,170) and lastly, the U.S. (N = 109,287). The reason why North Carolina was selected for this study is due to convenience as medical and recreational marijuana is still outlawed in the State, just like the other states present within south east USA. The treatment referrals from the criminal justice system present in the state of North Carolina are majorly from probation, courts and Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities (TASC).

What were the findings of the study?

The results of this study proves that Black/White disparities regarding diagnoses of cannabis usage problems (dependence or abuse) are significant, most especially in the State of North Carolina within which 49% of Whites are sent for therapy by the criminal justice system against a Black percentage of 69%. In the same vein, Whites are approximately twice more likely to be sent for therapy by healthcare personnel (11%; 5%) or to refer themselves (27%; 14%). Similar trends were identified within the South-Atlantic states and the United States generally; though, the Black/White disparities were majorly seen in the State of North Carolina.
These results proves that; one, blacks sent to therapy by the criminal justice system had considerably less likelihood of cannabis dependence diagnoses in comparison to Whites, with demographic and other drug use factors being controlled. Two, blacks sent to therapy by healthcare personnel, other sources or blacks who go into therapy by themselves have higher likelihood of a cannabis dependence diagnosis. Three; the findings hint at much disparate profiles within referral sources. To be specific, persons sent to therapy by the criminal justice system have been proved to use marijuana with lower frequency over the last 30 days and also to have a lower likelihood of using other substances apart from marijuana, in comparison to persons sent to therapy by the other three means (Mcelrath et al., 2016, 10-1).
Describe the author's conclusions and recommendations
Race does have an effect on cannabis disorder diagnoses. Precisely, in the case of criminal justice system referrals, African American people do not have serious marijuana use problems and thus do not regularly need therapy unlike the Whites. This difference is seen via the DSM-IV, within which cannabis abuse diagnoses were carried out on the basis of legal issues such as participation in the criminal justice system. A result of this difference is “net widening” where higher numbers of African American people are placed under better social control layers. Another result is the creation of a therapy rift, wherein insufficient resources are made available to people with the lowest needs and the people having more chronic substance use problems aren’t attended to. The new development of the analytic categorization of cannabis usage problems, which is seen in the DSM-5, has caused a ditching of the legal criterion. Nevertheless, it is still not known how or whether this development will impact racial differences in criminal justice system referrals to marijuana use therapy, cannabis use related problems’ diagnoses or the connected end results. The nation’s treatment admission information employing DSM V will be accessible for secondary evaluation in December 2017 (Mcelrath et al., 2016, 12).


References
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Irvine, C. K. S., & Walker, D. (2013). Introduction to research in education. Cengage Learning.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Mcelrath, K., Taylor, A., & Tran, K. K. (2016). Black--White Disparities in Criminal Justice Referrals to Drug Treatment: Addressing Treatment Need or Expanding the Diagnostic Net?. Axioms (2075-1680), 5(4), 1-15. doi:10.3390/bs6040021