Robert Granfield

Conceptualizing Recovery Capital: Expansion of a Theoretical Construct

In order to capture key personal and social resources individuals are able to access in their efforts to overcome substance misuse, we introduced the construct of recovery capital into the literature. The purpose of this paper is to further explore the construct and include discussions of implications unexplored in our previous writings. In this paper we reveal the relationship between access to large amounts of recovery capital and substance misuse maintenance and introduce the concept of negative recovery capital. In doing so, we examine the relationships between negative recovery capital and gender, age, health, mental health, and incarceration.

Natural Recovery from Substance Dependency

Abstract The literature on cessation of drug and alcohol dependency without benefit of treatment or participation in self-help groups spans nearly forty years. While this literature is substantial and analyses of the processes of natural recovery well-developed, discussions directed at treatment providers around the value of these analyses for practice has been sparse. Drawing on our study as well as the research of others, this paper explores two dimensions of natural recovery that hold important implications for treatment providers who work with substance dependent clients. These include the common strategies used by remitters and the concept of recovery capital as a way to capture the embeddedness of these natural recovery strategies within a unique structural context of personal attributes and social environments.

An Examination of the Denver Drug Court: The Impact of a Treatment‐Oriented Drug‐Offender System

This paper reports on a retrospective study of the Denver Drug Court that was conducted to assess the court’s impact on court processing, treatment matching, and offender recidivism. A sample of 300 offenders from the Denver Drug Court and drug offenders from two previous years prior to the drug court was obtained. Quasi-experimental procedures were used to examine differences in measured variables across each offender cohort. Data for this study were collected from court records as well as through on-line arrest records. This paper begins with an exploration of the organizational framework of the Denver Drug Court and the court’s related treatment options. It also examines the extant literature on the effectiveness of drug courts. Analysis of the data indicates that the Denver Drug Court has reduced case processing time and it has slightly reduced the amount of time offenders spend in presentence confinement. Unlike previous studies of drug courts, this study attempted to examine the court’s ability to match offenders to treatment needs. Analysis of the available data, although limited, suggests that offenders are being matched to appropriate levels of treatment. Finally, data analysis indicates no significant differences in revocation or rearrest rates. This article concludes with a discussion of the controversial nature of drug courts. Directions for future research are offered.

The Fate of Elite Idealism: Accommodation and Ideological Work at Harvard Law School

Most self-described left-wing Harvard law students accept lucrative jobs in large corporate law firms rather than public service employment upon graduation. These students do not wish their career choice to be interpreted (either by themselves or by their peers) as evidence that they are hypocritical, unprincipled, materialistic, and/or uncaring. This paper outlines a series of psychological accommodation strategies these students use to create and manage role definitions in ways that reduce the tensions resulting from their career choices.

LOSING SAMSON: Nature, Crime, and Boundaries

This article examines a communitys reaction to the poaching of a large elk. Extending the Durkheimian approach to nature, crime, law, and social control, this study discusses the anguish and anger provoked by the infraction, tributes to the fallen animal, calls for more severe and certain sanctions for poaching, and the boundaries affirmed in the incidents aftermath. The implications of this communal response to a wildlife offense for criminalization and conceptions of community are considered.

From Activism to Pro Bono: The Redirection of Working Class Altruism at Harvard Law School

Although a substantial proportion of incoming working class students at Harvard Law School plan careers in public service law, few actually pursue this course after graduation. Through a survey and in-depth interviews with 23 working class students we illustrate some of the ways they are rechannelled toward careers in high status commercial law firms and the ways they deal with the internal contradictions caused by their resocialization.

Natural Recovery from Addiction Treatment Implications

At a 1993 conference on addiction treatment held at the University of Denver, a significant number of participants reported believing that the dominant treatment approaches for alcoholand drug-addicted persons were deficient. Of the more than 500 participants in attendance, many of whom were nursing or social work professionals, more than 70% expressed the belief that the traditional model of addiction treatment needs to be changed. Over the years dissatisfaction with the medical model of addiction and related forms of treatment has been growing. Despite this increasing dissension over traditional treatment approaches, there have been few attempts at developing treatment approaches that correspond to alternative conceptualizations of addiction. This has been particularly true in the area of natural recovery research. While research has demonstrated the process of natural recovery, there is a paucity of work that attempts to derive treatment implications from this process. As Sobell et al. (1993) have recently argued, treatment providers have a lot to learn from self-healers who have terminated their addictions without the benefit of treatment or organized self-help. This article outlines some of the potential implications of this notion. The authors discuss ongoing research on the population of self-healers and then explore the treatment implications that flow from the findings.

Building Recovery Capital: The Role of Faith-Based Communities in the Reintegration of Formerly Incarcerated Drug Offenders:

Recovery capital is an important concept in the field of addiction studies. A person’s access to recovery capital can mean the difference between the termination of addiction and successful reintegration or ongoing criminality and drug use. Increasingly, religious institutions are playing a vital role in the provision of social services, including addiction services that provide access to recovery capital. This article begins by exploring the concept of recovery capital and its utility in the successful reintegration of offenders. It then uses a case study to show how one’s religious organization plays an important role in providing the necessary recovery capital for the desistance of drug abuse and for a successful reintegration into the community. Through in-depth interviews with several persistent adult offenders, this article demonstrates that religious organizations may play an important role in providing the recovery capital that so many persistent drug offenders are lacking.

Lawyers and Power: Reproduction and Resistance in the Legal Profession@@@Managing Legal Uncertainty: Elite Lawyers in the New Deal@@@Gender and Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives@@@Divorce Lawyers and Their Clients: Power and Meaning in the Legal Process

Based on over 100 lawyer-client conferences this book charts the complicated and shifting relationships between lawyers and clients as they work out the strategy and tactics of divorce. As observers, Felstiner and Sarat were present when lawyers and clients confronted the full range of issues that occur during a divorce. This book examines the relationship between lawyer and client, the nature of the marriage and why marriages fail, the nature of the legal process, and the best way to resolve divorce.

The phenomenon of self-change: overview and conceptual issues

We should also consider those who have a more fleeting contact with deviance, whose careers lead them away from it into conventional ways of life. Thus, for example, studies of delinquents who fail to become adult criminals might teach us even more than studies of delinquents who progress in crime [1, pp. 24–25].