Jamie Rowen, professor of legal studies and director of the Center for Justice, Law and Societies, has published a new book examining what Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) reveal about inequality in U.S. institutions. “Worthy of Justice: The Politics of Veterans Treatment Courts in Practice” (Stanford University Press, December 2025) is the product of research Rowen conducted with a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, which she won with support from the Center for Research on Families.
The book explores the rise of VTCs, specialized courts that offer alternatives to traditional criminal procedures for veterans with substance use and mental health disorders, and the social and political assumptions that underpin them.
Drawing on fieldwork at three U.S. courts, Rowen argues that support for VTCs rests not on the crimes veterans commit but on who they are, and on the belief that their military service, rather than personal decisions, drives their involvement with the criminal system. This perception, she writes, grants veterans a level of public sympathy and access to services that other defendants often do not receive, revealing contradictions in how society decides who is deemed deserving of social welfare services and different kinds of punishments.
“Rowen beautifully illustrates constructions of deservingness and the nexus of intersecting social policies,” says Corey Shdaimah, Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland Baltimore. “This book is useful for policymakers and stakeholders who are involved with or are considering engagement with VTCs, as well as for those who are interested in or work with veterans, or veterans themselves.”
“Worthy of Justice” is available from the publisher and booksellers nationwide. It is Rowen’s second book; she is also the author of “Searching for Truth in the Transitional Justice Movement” (Cambridge University Press, August 2017).