Abstract
Background: This is the first English national study of change in criminal offending following treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Methods: All adults treated for AUD by all publicly funded treatment services during April 2008-March 2009 (n = 53,017), with data linked to the Police National Computer (April 2006-November 2011). Pre-treatment offender sub-populations were identified by Latent Profile Analysis. The outcome measure was the count of recordable criminal offences during two-year follow-up after admission. A mixed-effects, Poisson regression modelled outcome, adjusting for demographics and clinical information, the latent classes, and treatment exposure covariates. Results: Twenty-two percent of the cohort committed one or more offences in the two years pre-treatment (n = 11,742; crude rate, 221.5 offenders per 1000). During follow-up, the number of offenders and offences fell by 23.5% and 24.0%, respectively (crude rate, 69.4 offenders per 1000). During follow-up, a lower number of offences was associated with: completing treatment (adjusted incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.79-0.85); receiving inpatient detoxification (IRR 0.84; CI 0.80-0.89); or community pharmacological therapy (IRR 0.89; CI 0.84-0.96). Reconviction was reduced in the sub-population characterised by driving offences (n = 1,140; 11.7%), but was relatively high amongst acquisitive (n = 768; 58.3% reconvicted) and violent offending sub-populations (n = 602; 77.6% reconvicted). Conclusions: Reduced offending was associated with successful completion of AUD treatment and receiving inpatient and pharmacological therapy, but not enrolment in psychological and residential interventions. Treatment services (particularly those providing psychological therapy and residential care) should be alert to offending, especially violent and acquisitive crime, and enhance crime reduction interventions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 67-76 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Drug and Alcohol Dependence |
| Volume | 161 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The study was commissioned by the English National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and analysis and report production costs were supported by the Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Division, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health England. The contents of this article do not necessarily reflect the views or stated position of PHE or the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Funding Information:
John Marsden works in an integrated university and National Health Service academic health sciences centre (Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience [IoPPN], King’s College London and King’s Health Partners). He is supported by research grants from the Department of Health, Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust (SLaM MHFT) and has part-time employment as Senior Academic Advisor for the Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco Division, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health England. He declares untied educational grant funding from the pharmaceutical industry at IoPPN and SLaM MHFT for a study of psychological interventions in opioid maintenance (2010–2016; Indivior PLC via Action on Addiction). He has received honoraria from Merck Serono in 2013 and 2015 (clinical oncology medicine) and from Indivior via PCM Scientific in relation to the Improving Outcomes in Treatment of Opioid Dependence conference (faculty member, 2012–2013; co-chair, 2015; 2016). He holds no stocks in any company.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Alcohol use disorder
- Crime
- Outcome
- Re-offending
- Treatment
