Specialty Courts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Specialty Courts - Essay Example Specialty courts have different goals depending on the category of specialty courts they are. There are therapeutic courts and nontherapeutic courts. The aim of therapeutic courts is the improvement of personal health in various areas such as treatment of mental health and substance problems. The courts also seek to try to increase court efficiency. As for nontherapeutic courts, their main objective is to increase court efficiency. Judges and court staff with special training would make this objective achievable, as they would decrease the time required to solve cases. Efficiency would, in turn, minimize uncertainty, disruptions and even stress associated with cases dragging on for long. The main aim of unified family courts is to have the management of all issues that pertain to a single family in one place. Such issues include divorce, equitable division of property, child custody and juvenile delinquency. The emphasis of these courts is on rehabilitation and safeguarding the inter ests of children. On the other hand, DTCs aim at treating people under criminal charges and who have problems with drugs and alcohol. They aim at reducing the rates of rearrest for offenses related to substance abuse.The authors planned to evaluate the specialty courts in two steps. First, they would assess how the presence of unified family courts and drug treatment courts in a North Carolina influenced the time children stayed under foster care and the placement they got when leaving foster care.