No abstract

Alcoholics Anonymous has greatly informed the individual, social, and political landscape of the contemporary self-help or mutual-aid movement. There has emerged, in turn, a vast, though largely uncritical, body of research examining AA and its 12-step recovery model. A close look inside a virtual AA community, however, reveals that not all AA members embrace formal AA discourse. Through an examination of dialogue and discourse on a public Usenet newsgroup, this study demonstrates that in contrast to research that depicts AA program practices as necessarily harmonious, members' experiences of program wisdom are frequently negotiated and reassessed outside larger AA dicta. The data examined show that what becomes constituted as members' practice can be fraught with questions, tensions, and separations from conventional or ideal AA.

No abstract

Currently, Nova Scotia Correctional Services offers little by way of programming or treatment for adult offenders incarcerated under its authority, despite research showing a positive correlation between substance abuse and crime. Through both qualitative and quantitative data, this research report (1) situates the case of Nova Scotia within other literature that addresses crime and substance abuse; (2) presents a snapshot of the demographics and programming needs of provincially incarcerated adult offenders in Nova Scotia; (3) speaks to the need for accredited substance abuse programming for provincially incarcerated offenders; and (4) asserts that "warehousing" inmates may be addressed and potentially ameliorated through a population health approach to addiction policy, programming, and related treatment services. The purpose of this article is to report findings from research conducted with adult offenders incarcerated provincially across Nova Scotia, with a view to exploring links among crime, addiction, and population health. It is found that a large majority of provincial inmates in Nova Scotia are challenged by substance abuse, that crime in Nova Scotia, as elsewhere, is largely correlated to addiction, and that adult offenders appear to be motivated to participate in substance abuse programming while in custody. Prospects for future research are also considered.