Social Relations and Motivation for Substance Abuse Treatment Among Prisoners (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Narevic proposes that motivation for substance abuse treatment involves complex social factors rather than being solely an internal attribute of an individual. She offers a model for evaluating how characteristics of prisoners relationships with parents, siblings, sexual partners, and peers affect their problem recognition and desire for help. Analyses of data from 661 interviews with Kentucky state prisoners yield surprising results, for example, having social relations, particularly siblings, with a history of substance abuse increases recognition of the problem and desire for help. Naevic s findings have implications for criminal justice and health care practices and include suggestions for motivational assessment questions and reentry planning strategies that aim to facilitate released prisoners entry into aftercare programs.