A Preliminary Follow-up Study on Recidivism after the Substance Abuse Treatment Program / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Using recidivism rate, we investigated the outcome after our substance abuse treatment program had been implemented. METHODS: Our target population was substance abuse criminals referred by probational office. They either received the parole and probation order, treatment order or social service order from the court. We divided 104 substance abuse criminals into treatment group and non-treatment group. We examined their recidivism rate. RESULTS: We reached a conclusion that treatment group had lower recidivism rate than non-treatment group (p<.05). We examined the effectiveness of short-term and long-term programs. However, no effectivess of long-term program was found because the sabject number was too small. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the strategies for substance abuse should be changed to more educative ones. The Government and Ministry of Justice must provide education and treatment to the substance abuse criminals.