Reshaping Court Systems: Issue Environments and the Establishment of Drug Courts

IF 0.7 4区社会学 Q3 Social Sciences

Justice System Journal Pub Date : 2022-08-01 DOI:10.1080/0098261X.2022.2104671

Tracy L. R. Lightcap

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract State court systems are being reshaped by the widespread adoption of drug courts. However, there has been limited attention to what drives the decision to create drug courts in the states. I link the establishment of drug courts to local issue environments found in each state that support proactive judicial and legal elites. I propose hypotheses that link the density of drug courts to judicial professionalization, state funding of courts, drug arrest rates, and levels of court consolidation. I test these hypotheses with panel data from 2009 to 2014. I find that states with more professional judiciaries and higher rates of drug arrests are more likely to adopt drug courts, that higher levels of court consolidation show a small negative effect and, finally, that higher levels of state funding for court systems do not have consistent effects. I conclude that there is support for (a) using the issue environments approach to analyze the establishment of drug courts and (b) considering issue environments when analyzing other community oriented changes in state court systems.

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重塑法院系统:问题环境和毒品法庭的建立

由于广泛采用毒品法庭，州法院系统正在重塑。然而，人们很少关注是什么促使了在各州设立毒品法庭的决定。我将毒品法庭的建立与各州的地方问题环境联系起来，这些环境支持积极主动的司法和法律精英。我提出了一些假设，将毒品法庭的密度与司法专业化、国家对法院的资助、毒品逮捕率和法院整合水平联系起来。我用2009年至2014年的面板数据检验了这些假设。我发现拥有更专业的司法机构和更高的毒品逮捕率的州更有可能采用毒品法庭，更高水平的法院合并显示出较小的负面影响，最后，更高水平的国家对法院系统的资助并没有持续的影响。我的结论是支持(a)使用问题环境方法来分析毒品法院的建立，(b)在分析州法院系统中其他面向社区的变化时考虑问题环境。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Justice System Journal LAW-

CiteScore

0.90

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Justice System Journal is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original research articles on all aspects of law, courts, court administration, judicial behavior, and the impact of all of these on public and social policy. Open as to methodological approaches, The Justice System Journal aims to use the latest in advanced social science research and analysis to bridge the gap between practicing and academic law, courts and politics communities. The Justice System Journal invites submission of original articles and research notes that are likely to be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of law, courts, and judicial administration, broadly defined. Articles may draw on a variety of research approaches in the social sciences. The journal does not publish articles devoted to extended analysis of legal doctrine such as a law review might publish, although short manuscripts analyzing cases or legal issues are welcome and will be considered for the Legal Notes section. The Justice System Journal was created in 1974 by the Institute for Court Management and is published under the auspices of the National Center for State Courts. The Justice System Journal features peer-reviewed research articles as well as reviews of important books in law and courts, and analytical research notes on some of the leading cases from state and federal courts. The journal periodically produces special issues that provide analysis of fundamental and timely issues on law and courts from both national and international perspectives.