Comparing the Validity of Self-Reported Recent Drug Use Between Adult and Juvenile Arrestees

Abstract

A large body of literature has explored the validity of self-reported drug use among criminal populations. These works have typically revealed strong underreporting of recent illicit drug use. To date, however, no studies have compared the validity of self-reported drug-using behaviors between adult and juvenile offenders. The authors overcome this limitation by assessing the validity of self-reported recent drug use with data collected from 1,425 adult and 551 juvenile Los Angeles arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in 1997. Kappa statistics were computed and tests for specificity and sensitivity were conducted utilizing urinalysis as the reference standard. Results suggest that adult arrestees are more inclined to underreport their recent use of illicit drugs. Implications for drug use research are assessed in light of the current findings.     

Comparing the validity of self-reported recent drug use between adult and juvenile arrestees

A large body of literature has explored the validity of self-reported drug use among criminal populations. These works have typically revealed strong underreporting of recent illicit drug use. To date, however, no studies have compared the validity of self-reported drug-using behaviors between adult and juvenile offenders. The authors overcome this limitation by assessing the validity of self-reported recent drug use with data collected from 1,425 adult and 551 juvenile Los Angeles arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in 1997. Kappa statistics were computed and tests for specificity and sensitivity were conducted utilizing urinalysis as the reference standard. Results suggest that adult arrestees are more inclined to underreport their recent use of illicit drugs. Implications for drug use research are assessed in light of the current findings.     

Cocaine: A Clinician's Handbook

Abstract

While marijuana and cocaine are the two most prevalent drugs among arrestees, benzodiazepine use has surpassed that of opiates in several jurisdictions across the United States. Despite this proliferation, few scholarly works have focused on benzodiazepine use among individuals under criminal justice supervision. In the present study, the authors used Chi-square statistics and logistic regression to identify significant associations between recent benzodiazepine use (as measured by urinalysis), demographic characteristics, and alcohol and other drug (AOD) use among a sample of 1,572 adult Houston arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in 1999. Compared to nonusers, benzodiazepine-positive arrestees were more likely to be Black, less likely to have a high school diploma, and more likely to be arrested for a drug- or alcohol-related offense. Moreover, analyses indicated that recent barbiturate, heroin, PCP, and marijuana use, as measured by urinalysis, were the strongest predictors of recent benzodiazepine use. Policy implications are assessed in light of the current findings.     

Mitigation of Marijuana-Related Legal Harms to Youth in California

ABSTRACT

If recreational marijuana is legalized for adults in California, a rational implementation of public policy would neither criminalize youth possession, nor medically pathologize it by conflating possession with addiction. The harms of a criminal justice approach to juveniles should not exceed the harms of the drug itself. Juvenile arrests and probation have consequences: (1) arrest records, probation, and juvenile hall; (2) an incarceration subculture, “crime school,” psychological and re-entry costs; (3) school “zero-tolerance” expulsions and suspensions; (4) ineligibility for federal school loans; (5) employment screening problems; (6) racial disparities in arrests; (7) fines and attorney’s fees; and (8) immigration/naturalization problems. Marijuana-related arrest rates in California dropped after a 2011 law making possession under 1 oz. an infraction for all, but juvenile marijuana arrests continue to outnumber arrests for hard drugs. Recommendations for prudent implementation policy include: stable marijuana tax funding for Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) in high schools; elimination of “zero-tolerance” suspension/expulsion policies in favor of school retention and academic remediation programs; juvenile justice transparency discriminating among infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. Criminal sanctions and durations must be proportional to the offense. Probation-based interventions should be reserved for larger possession amounts and recidivist offenders, and outcomes should be independently evaluated.     

Correlates of Ecstasy use among tenth graders surveyed through monitoring the future

Media reports have suggested that the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") is a prodigious problem among youth in the United States. Unfortunately, little scientific evidence exists to support this contention. In the current study, the drug-using behaviors of 3,376 10th graders are examined with data collected through the 1999 Monitoring the Future (MTF) project. Prevalence estimates of Ecstasy use are generated and associations between Ecstasy use, demographic characteristics, and alcohol and other drug (AOD) use are explored. Seven percent of the sample reported lifetime Ecstasy use, 5% reported use within the past 12 months, and 2% reported use within the 30 days preceding the interview. Compared to nonusers, 12-month Ecstasy users were significantly more likely to be White, to have less supervision after school, and to have used all other drugs of abuse during the 12 months preceding the interview. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Heterogeneity in the Development of Drug Use Versatility: Risk Factors for Polydrug Use throughout the Life-Course

Background: Polydrug use is a major public health issue associated with numerous undesirable physical and mental health outcomes. While past research has identified risk factors for polydrug use and elevated drug use variety, there has yet to be any research which seeks to examine this phenomenon from a developmental perspective. There also has yet to be any research which examines the impact of risk factors for predicting differential development. Objectives: Identify developmental subgroups of polydrug use. Identify risk factors predicting heterogeneity in development. Methods: The Pathways to Desistance data were used in this research. The present study used group-based trajectory modeling to elucidate general developmental patterns of drug use variety and sought to identify risk factors predicting the heterogeneity in the development of this outcome using multinomial logistic regression among a sample of juvenile offenders. Results: A six group model best fit the drug use variety count data. Several risk factors were identified which predicted assignment to the most problematic developmental subgroup, including: low self-control, low religiosity, and history of victimization at baseline. White participants were more likely to engage in any level of drug use. Conclusions/Importance: These results indicate that juvenile offenders are at-risk for chronic issues with polydrug use and more general engagement in polydrug use. Public health and criminal justice professionals should work together to develop and implement psychosocial interventions for targeting risk factors associated with accelerating and chronic polydrug use.     

Addiction and crime: The importance of asymmetry in offending and the life-course

The intersection of addiction and crime is pervasive. Not only is there a high prevalence of substance use and substance use disorders among criminal justice populations that is substantially higher than in the general population, but also offenders with substance use disorders are more likely to be rearrested. The authors believe there are several broad points that addiction researchers and criminologists have come to understand that are important to bring together. In this commentary, the asymmetrical nature of crime (i.e., a small subset account for the lion's share of offending) and the value of a developmentally sensitive life-course approach to inform criminal behavior are elucidated and discussed. These 2 themes are intertwined. High-impact offenders have extensive drug use histories and need intervention (policy or individual-level), but the form and content and ultimately the effectiveness of the intervention may depend on what period in the life-course the intervention is to be implemented.     

The misuse of the ‘Gateway Theory’ in US policy on drug abuse control: A secondary analysis of the muddled deduction

Much research (mostly from general population surveys) suggests that people typically use alcohol, tobacco and then marijuana, so called ‘gateway drugs’, prior to any potential use of ‘hard drugs’ like cocaine powder, crack and heroin. Other research (mostly with surveys of special populations) indicates that hard-drug use is associated with numerous social problems such as crime, routine violence, and lower productivity. A muddled interpretation of these separate findings has been widely misused in support of the US drug abuse prevention policies to suggest that gateway drugs cause hard-drug use and its associated problems. This paper superimposes secondary analyses of data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program. The findings indicate that (1) extremely few members of the general population become persistent daily hard-drug-using criminal offenders; and (2) an increasing percentage of daily hard-drug-using criminal offenders did not follow the gateway sequence of substance use progression. These results strongly suggest that the use of gateway drugs by youths is not the central cause of hard-drug use and its associated problems. Thus, fighting the use of gateway drugs by youths may not be a particularly appropriate approach to drug abuse prevention.     

Young Offenders, Drugs and Prevention

There is evidence that drug use by young people is on the increase. As concern about youthful drug use has heightened, so increased attention has been paid to providing education and treatment with the aim of preventing or reducing use, or reducing harm. Although targeting interventions is problematic it is important and, consequently, the focus on 'high risk' groups has intensified. As research confirms the link between drug use and delinquency, it is therefore felt that the criminal justice system provides one possible means of identifying a ueiy significant target population: young offenders. This paper looks at what is known about the levels and types of drug use among young offenders, examines drug-related interventions within the youth justice system, and concludes by looking at tuio developing programmes in the East and West Midlands which are currently being evaluated by the author.     

Integrating substance abuse treatment and criminal justice supervision

Proponents of a pure public safety perspective on the drug problem hold that drug-involved offenders require consistent and intensive supervision by criminal justice authorities in order to stay off drugs and out of trouble. In contrast, proponents of a thoroughgoing public health perspective commonly argue that clients perform better if they are left alone to develop an effective therapeutic alliance with counselors. Both may be correct, but with respect to different groups of offenders. One approach has shown consistent promise for reducing drug use and criminal recidivism: an integrated public health-public safety strategy that combines community-based drug abuse treatment with ongoing criminal justice supervision. This article presents promising findings from programs implementing this strategy and discusses best treatment practices to meet the needs of both low-risk and high-risk clients.     

The role of drug courts in promoting desistance and recovery: a merging of therapy and accountability

Abstract

Criminal behavior and substance abuse are closely connected and many offenders have substance use disorders and related problems. Reducing drug-related crime in this population requires attention to the determinants and processes of both recovery from substance use disorders and desistance from crime, and the provision of individual and social services that can promote and facilitate recovery and desistance. Traditional criminal justice system models do not generally focus on both substance use and criminal behavior, nor do they address the individual and social factors that can affect desistance and recovery. Drug treatment courts represent a therapeutic model of justice that have become popular in many countries over the past two decades. This paper argues that the drug court is an important criminal justice innovation that has the potential to promote both desistance from criminal behavior and recovery from drug use. The drug court model incorporates and implements many of the processes and interventions that are theoretically associated with desistance and recovery. Despite some limitations and the need for additional research, drug courts have the potential to address many of the factors associated with reductions in both drug use and criminal behavior.     

Examining the Prevalence and Perceived Harm of Ecstasy and Other Drug Use Among Juvenile Offenders

ABSTRACT

To date, few studies have examined the use of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or “ecstasy”) among criminal populations. In the current study, self-report drug use data and urine specimens were collected from 86 male juvenile offenders surveyed through Maryland's Offender Population Urinalysis Screening (OPUS) Program. Prevalence estimates of ecstasy use were generated and associations between ecstasy use, demographic characteristics, and alcohol and other drug (AOD) use were explored. Nineteen percent of the sample reported lifetime ecstasy use, 14% within the past 12 months, and 8% within the past 30 days. One percent of the sample reported ecstasy use in the two days preceding the interview, and none tested positive for MDMA via urinalysis. Compared to non-users, past-year ecstasy users were significantly more likely to be white and to have used alcohol, marijuana, powder cocaine, and heroin within the 12 months preceding the interview. The use of marijuana once or twice and regularly was associated with the least amount of risk of physical and/or psychological harm for both the past-year ecstasy users and the non-users in the sample. Policy implications are discussed.     

‘Following the money’: The political economy of gambling research

Although clear relationships have been identified between dependent drug use and crime, the relationship is less evident in young offenders, particularly for less physically dependent users. This study investigated a sample of young drug-using offenders (aged 18–24; n = 36) accessing drug treatment through the criminal justice system in Birmingham, UK, using structured interviews for the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. It identified high levels of heroin dependence, with frequency of use linked to both acquisitive crime and willingness to engage in treatment. The relationship between crack cocaine use and offending was less clear with more client ambivalence regarding desire to stop using the drug. Whilst most praised their treatment, and their workers, substitute prescribing was less positively endorsed. The study offers some support for diverting young dependent opiate users from criminal justice services into drug treatment, but presents a less positive prognosis for primary stimulant users.     

Exploring benzodiazepine use among Houston arrestees

While marijuana and cocaine are the two most prevalent drugs among arrestees, benzodiazepine use has surpassed that of opiates in several jurisdictions across the United States. Despite this proliferation, few scholarly works have focused on benzodiazepine use among individuals under criminal justice supervision. In the present study, the authors used Chi-square statistics and logistic regression to identify significant associations between recent benzodiazepine use (as measured by urinalysis), demographic characteristics, and alcohol and other drug (AOD) use among a sample of 1,572 adult Houston arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in 1999. Compared to nonusers, benzodiazepine-positive arrestees were more likely to be Black, less likely to have a high school diploma, and more likely to be arrested for a drug- or alcohol-related offense. Moreover, analyses indicated that recent barbiturate, heroin, PCP, and marijuana use, as measured by urinalysis, were the strongest predictors of recent benzodiazepine use. Policy implications are assessed in light of the current findings.     

An international perspective on the rights of juvenile offenders or "children living in exceptionally difficult conditions"

Substance user treatment providers, researchers, policy makers, and educators working in the juvenile justice field may be unaware of international policies governing the protection of youthful offenders. This presentation reviews the international rights of detained and incarcerated youth outlined in a variety of United Nations documents. Adolescents in contact with criminal justice systems have the right to the "highest attainable standard of health, both physical and mental." When substance abuse is involved they have the right to receive appropriate community-based treatment. Periods of contact with the criminal justice system may be one among very few opportunities to provide services for youth and these opportunities should not be wasted.     

Chemicals and the Law — Retribution or Rehabilitation?*

Recent research indicates that there is a far higher incidence of alcoholism and drug dependence among criminal offenders than among the general population. Also, many criminal offenders have taken alcohol, other drugs, or both, before committing the offence in question. Alcoholic and drug addicted offenders are more likely to reoffend. This paper describes and assesses the effectiveness of various legislation and sentencing options for dealing with such offenders. Modern drink-driving legislation is based largely on retribution — improving the detection and prosecution of offenders and imposing increasingly heavier penalties. Alternatively, court-induced treatment programmes, such as that available under section 13 of the Victorian Alcoholics and Drug Dependent Persons Act, focus on rehabilitation. The effectiveness of both types of legislation is considered, with reference to recent road accident and offence statistics and the attendance rate for treatment of section 13 clients. It is ultimately suggested that the most effective disposition for alcoholic and drug dependent offenders is not based solely on either retribution or rehabilitation, but on a balance of the two.     

Treatment retention in the Drug Intervention Programme: Do primary drug users fare better than primary offenders?

Aims: The Drug Intervention Program (DIP) was set up to reduce drug-related crime by engaging drug-using offenders in treatment. However, the limited evidence that exists would suggest that reconviction rates are high, and are linked to failure to complete the treatment programme. This study examined completion rates in one DIP programme by crime behaviours and drug use.

Method: A retrospective case-note method based on all files opened over a three-month window, examining outcomes three months after the last case was opened. A total of 123 files were examined.

Results: While less than 5% of cases were successfully completed, some form of positive outcome was reported in 14% of cases, 57% had negative outcomes (such as breaching the requirements of the order or failure to attend) and 29% were still open 6 months after the start of the programme. Negative outcomes were associated with more intensive criminal histories and lower levels of drug use in the month prior to intake to DIP. Open cases were typically associated with fewer previous incarcerations but higher levels of current drug use.

Conclusions: Relatively few cases had positive outcomes, although treatment retention exceeded expectations in around one quarter of cases. The analysis provides tentative support for the suggestion that drug users accessing treatment through the criminal justice system can be broadly split into drug-using offenders and offending drug users, and these two groups have differing outcomes in criminal justice treatment interventions.     

Concurrent use of methamphetamine, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, GHB, and flunitrazepam among American youths

BACKGROUND: The magnitude and the characteristics of the use of methamphetamine, MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide), ketamine, GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate), and flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) were examined in a probability sample of the U.S. civilian population that included multiethnic urban, suburban, and rural youths aged 16-23 (N=19,084). METHODS: Data were drawn from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the characteristics associated with the use of each of these drugs and of multiple drugs. RESULTS: Approximately 20% of youths aged 16-23 reported having ever used one or more of these drugs. Less than 1% of club drug users used club drugs only, and 82% of them had ever used three or more drug classes. Females were more likely than males to report using multiple club drugs. Recent users of methamphetamine were most likely to be females and adolescents aged 16 or 17. Recent users of MDMA tended to be young adults aged 18-21 and residents of metropolitan areas. Most recent users of LSD were adolescents aged 16-19 and those in low-income families. Ketamine users were primarily employed youths. Staying in school and getting married were associated with decreased odds of club drug use. Club drug use was highly associated with the presence of criminal behaviors and recent alcohol abuse or dependence. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents are more likely than young adults to use multiple drugs. The clustering of multidrug use and alcohol use disorder is a cause of concern.     

An International Perspective on the Rights of Juvenile Offenders or "Children Living in Exceptionally Difficult Conditions"

Substance user treatment providers, researchers, policy makers, and educators working in the juvenile justice field may be unaware of international policies governing the protection of youthful offenders. This presentation reviews the international rights of detained and incarcerated youth outlined in a variety of United Nations documents. Adolescents in contact with criminal justice systems have the right to the "highest attainable standard of health, both physical and mental."’ When substance abuse is involved they have the right to receive appropriate community-based treatment. Periods of contact with the criminal justice system may be one among very few opportunities to provide services for youth and these opportunities should not be wasted.     

A comparative review of best practice guidelines for the diversion of drug related offenders

In recent decades rates of imprisonment have increased throughout the industrialised world as has the proportion of people whose imprisonment is linked to their use of illicit drugs. While the relationship between drug use and crime remains unclear, it has been argued that punitive responses alone are unsuccessful in reducing illegal drug use and associated crime. Disillusionment with traditional criminal justice approaches to drug-using offenders has renewed interest in programmes diverting drug related offenders from the criminal justice system. In the 1990s a number of diversion best practice guidelines became available, largely preceding the emerging evaluation literature. This represents a challenge for policy makers committed to evidence-based standards of best practice. This paper is a comparative analysis of best practice guidelines for various diversionary programmes delivered in different parts of the world. Consistent themes running through the guidelines and the relationship between these themes and the available evaluation literature were identified. The results of this qualitative meta-analysis suggest that sufficient evidence exists to support the principles outlined in these guidelines.