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Steven Belenko

Professor of Criminal Justice, Temple University

Areas of Expertise

  • Substance abuse treatment
  • HIV risk behaviors
  • Public health and criminal justice
  • Implementation science
  • Diversion programs
  • Drug policy

Key Findings

  • Drug courts have been able to empirically support drug and criminal rehabilitation in offenders. MORE
  • Drug offenses account for a substantial amount of inmates in prisons but the severity, recency of use, and consequences of drug use vary widely among inmates. MORE
  • Approximately one-third of incarcerated men were in need of residential drug treatment. MORE
  • Approximately half of incarcerated females were in need of residential drug treatment. MORE
  • Nearly half the incarcerated men and one-third of incarcerated women needed a range of short-term to no drug treatment options. MORE
  • The Cascade framework has the potential to guide informed change in behavioral health services that are available to juvenile offenders. MORE

Biography

Steven Belenko, Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University, is an expert in substance abuse treatment, HIV risk behaviors and the integration of treatment and other services in criminal justice settings.

Belenko was a Senior Scientist at the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and a Fellow at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He worked at the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, New York City Office of the Mayor, Vera Institute of Justice and Mathematica Policy Research.

He has published numerous articles and authored books including, Crack and the Evolution of Antidrug Policy; Drugs and Drug Policy in America: A Documentary History; Implementing Evidence Based Addiction Treatment in Community Corrections and Drugs, Crime and Justice.

Belenko received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology and B.S. in applied mathematics from Columbia University.