A Qualitative Measure of Veterans Treatment Courts Efficacy

Abstract

A lack of empirical evidence lending to the development of best practices for Veterans Treatment Courts (VTC) programs has stifled potential efficacy towards reducing recidivism rates amongst justice-involved veterans. The use of a qualitative, semistructured interview served to identify what programmatic factors of VTC lend to the success of the participants in preventing recidivism. Conversely, the interview design further evaluated what factors might be perceived as preventing success in and through the program. The resulting findings led to the realization of several programmatic factors identified by participants as contributing to success in the VTC program, as well as those that were noted as likely being detrimental to success. Recommendations for the role of these factors in the court are addressed, and the methods of this study as a viable research design to be promulgated through further research to that same end are presented..