Adult and veterans treatment court training and technical assistance (2024-2025)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Zachary Hamilton

Many drug and other specialty courts have eligibility criteria, preventing/limiting the inclusion of individuals with a violent offending history. Although violence risk assessments have become more prevalent over the two decades, within therapeutic courts assessments are often used to identify risk of recidivism generally but are rarely specified for the population or the prediction of future violent behavior. A recent countertrend in assessment development is to create specialized tools by crime type, jurisdiction, gender, and other relevant factors. The proposed study focuses on the identification of relevant factors that predict violence for individuals involved in therapeutic courts. Moreover, categories of individuals, such as veterans and active-duty service members, or persons with substance abuse and/or mental health needs, carry experiences and trauma which provide a unique profile of risks and needs governing their likelihood to commit violence. Under this study, All Rise and the ARC Lab will develop a violence assessment tool, using a six-state sample to be used in determining treatment eligibility for drug and veterans’ courts.

This is a two-year study sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).