Data
collected in the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program on alcohol
and other drug use among arrestees provide a valuable opportunity to examine
the relationship between alcohol use and violence. The data are used to explore
the combined use of alcohol and other drugs among offenders and the relationships
between substance use and the offenders demographic characteristics
and offenses. These findings are used to identify changes in the offenders
alcohol and other drug use over time.
KEY WORDS: AODR (alcohol or other drug [AOD] related) crime; arrest; offender;
AODR violence; self-report; AOD abuse; demographic characteristics; gender
differences; ethnic differences; age differences
Although
and crime is alcohol is legally available to adults age 21 and older and is
the most widely used drug in the United States, the relationship between alcohol
use the focus of less criminal justice research and receives less public attention
compared with the research and attention devoted to the links between illicit
drug use and crime. This article examines data collected from arrestees concerning
their alcohol and other drug use prior to their offenses and explores the
relationships among alcohol use, illicit drug use, arrestee characteristics,
and charges filed at arrest as well as the implications of these findings.
Since
the mid-1980s, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has tracked drug use
by the persons arrested (i.e., detained by police) and booked (i.e., taken
to central police facility for a preliminary judicial hearing) in the United
States through its Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) system. In 1995 the survey instrument
was modified and expanded. In 1998 the system was renamed the Arrestee Drug
Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program and increased from 24 to 35 cities with improved
sampling procedures. Although the ADAM program continues to focus primarily
on illicit drug use--including types of drugs used by arrestees, self-reported
dependence, and the relationship between drug use and certain types of offenses--
self-reported alcohol-use information is also collected. Such data allow researchers
to examine the association between recent alcohol consumption and intoxication
(both alone and in combination with other drugs) and arrests for various types
of crimes. This article explores those associations.
The
ADAM data provide a unique perspective on the relationships between alcohol
and other drug use and crime. Most other studies of alcohol and crime rely
on the victims reports of offenders drinking (e.g., the National
Crime Victimization Survey [NCVS], conducted annually by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics [BJS]); self-report surveys of correctional populations or periodic
BJS censuses of Federal, State, and local correctional facilities; arrest
data from the Federal Bureau of Investigations Uniform Crime Reporting
program; archival data from arrest records in specific jurisdictions; or select
data on specific crimes.
Studies
based on victimization data may understate alcohols presence, particularly
in cases where the offender was a stranger, because the victim is less likely
to have observed the offender drinking or to have known his or her drinking
status. Studies based on correctional populations self-reports tend
to suffer from problems with retrospective recall that may either underestimate
or overestimate alcohols presence1 (1 Although
most studies find that underreporting increases when the length of the recall
period is more than 1 year, a BJS survey of prisoners calculated their blood
alcohol concentration (BAC) based on self-reported drinking at the time of
the offense and estimated that men had an average BAC of 0.27 percent and
women had an average BAC of 0.37 percent (Greenfeld
1998).) and, subsequently, form a
sample skewed toward the most serious offenders (i.e., people who have been
convicted of crimes for which they have been incarcerated). Studies that rely
on archival arrest report data also may understate alcohols presence,
because the studies accuracy depend on how accurately police monitor
and report the information, a process which is not consistent. Conversely,
ADAM data are gathered from a representative sample of people who have been
arrested for a wide spectrum of offenses and the arrestees reports on
their alcohol or other drug use shortly after the substance-use occurs. In
addition, the arrestees urine is tested for the presence of illicit
drugs.
Methods
Arrestees
who participate in the ADAM program are surveyed concerning their substance
use and, at the conclusion of the interview, are asked to provide a urine
specimen, which is screened for the presence of 10 illicit drugs. In 1998
data were obtained from 20,715 adult male arrestees who were interviewed at
35 sites and 6,699 adult female arrestees who were interviewed at 32 sites.
The data collection area for each site included the county within which the
city was located.2 (2 Two
exceptions exist: (1) Anchorage
data represent only that city, and (2) because New York
City includes five separate counties, data are drawn
from each of those boroughs.)
For
each quarter in 1998, trained local staff at each site obtained voluntary
and anonymous interview data and urine specimens from detained arrestees who
had been in the booking facility for not more than 48 hours. On average, each
site sought to obtain a sample of 225 males and 100 females per quarter. All
arrestees booked at a facility within the previous 48 hours were eligible
for interviews. However, because more male arrestees were available than could
be interviewed, the sample of men was selected on the designated interview
days using the following order of priority based on reason for arrest: (1)
nondrug felony, (2) nondrug misdemeanor,
(3) drug felony, and (4) drug misdemeanor. Sites were asked to survey no more
than 20 percent of the males charged with drug offenses. All women arrestees
were eligible for an interview regardless of their charges.
Approximately
80 percent of eligible arrestees agreed to be interviewed. Of those who agreed
to the interview, about 80 percent also provided a urine specimen. Only persons
who agreed to the interview and provided a specimen were included in the data
(i.e., nearly two-thirds of eligible arrestees). (For further
information about data collection procedures and the data set, see the U.S.
Department of Justice 1999.)
During
the ADAM interview, arrestees were asked about their use of both legal and
illegal drugs, including alcohol. Alcohol-related questions addressed the
interviewed arrestees lifetime, past year, and past month alcohol use
as well as alcohol use within the previous 72 hours (termed recent alcohol
use throughout this article). Interviewers also asked arrestees if they
were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense
for which they were arrested. Similar questions were asked about each of a
number of illicit drugs.
We
analyzed two alcohol-related ADAM items: (1) recent alcohol use and (2) being
under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense (also
termed alcohol abuse or intoxication). In this article, we present findings
for both measures in order to provide a more complete picture of the role
of alcohol in crime.
The
ADAM survey instrument does not include questions related to quantity of alcohol
consumed. Because the arrestees who reported recent alcohol use may have consumed
an unspecified amount of alcohol and done so at any point during the 72 hours
before being arrested, one cannot infer from this question that alcohol use
affected the arrestees behavior. Asking arrestees whether they were
under the influence yields a subjective self-report measure that
may be systematically biased. In contrast to the self-reported alcohol measures,
the illicit drug data are based on positive urinalysis. However, neither urinalysis
nor breath testing for alcohol use is practical as part of the ADAM data collection,
because alcohol is metabolized so quickly.
To
address threats to the validity of the data that may be associated with self-reporting
alcohol use, we employed three strategies. First we examined self-reports
of persons whose responses to drug-use questions were inconsistent with their
urine specimens and compared them with consistent reporters to determine if
their levels of alcohol use differed. Second, we compared ADAM self-reported
alcohol use and abuse data by age group with similar data from a nationally
representative survey of alcohol and other drug use. Third, we reported both
alcohol use and abuse, based on the assumption that recent use (i.e., drinking
any alcohol in the 72 hours before the arrest) overstated the possible effect
of drinking on criminal behavior, whereas self-reported being under
the influence at the time of the arrest probably understated alcohols
effects.
We
examined the ADAM data to uncover subjects with discrepancies between urine
test findings and self-reported use of marijuana, crack, and cocaine and labeled
them as inconsistent. We then compared consistent and inconsistent
arrestees regarding several measures of drug use. Using two cocaine-related
variables, respectively, we identified (1) persons who admitted having used
crack or cocaine but denied using it in the past 30 days although their urine
tested positive (5.8 percent of the total sample) and (2) persons who denied
ever using crack or cocaine in the previous month but whose urine tested positive
(an additional 8 percent of the sample).3 (3
Although cocaine can be detected in urine for approximately 36 hours, metabolites
of cocaine can be detected for up to 2 or 3 weeks in heavy users. For that
reason, as well as to be consistent in measures across drugs, we adopted a
conservative consistency measure for recent cocaine use.) Similarly, two marijuana consistency measures
identified (1) arrestees who denied use in the past month, admitted to having
tried marijuana in the past, but tested positive (4.5 percent of the total)
and (2) arrestees who denied ever using marijuana but tested positive for
the drug (an additional 1.2 percent of the total). Three additional variables
were created to identify arrestees who admitted ever using any of the aforementioned
drugs but denied recent use (9.9 percent); arrestees who denied ever using
either marijuana, crack, or cocaine but tested positive (9.5 percent of the
sample); and arrestees who gave an inconsistent report on any of the validity
checks (18.7 percent of the sample).
Like
Harrison (1995) who studied DUF arrestees, we found reasonable congruence
between self-report and urinalysis among respondents and drug-use underreporting
based on social desirability. Thus, marijuana use was more likely to be reported
than cocaine use, and ever use was more likely to be reported than recent
use.
To
assess how much arrestees underreported their alcohol use and abuse, we compared
the self-reports of alcohol use and abuse for the
respondents who gave consistent self-reports and urine with the inconsistent
reporters. In our ADAM sample, no statistical difference existed in the percentage
of respondents who reported recent alcohol use among those who had inconsistent
self-reports and urine tests regarding recent or lifetime use of marijuana,
cocaine, or crack and respondents whose drug tests and self-reports were congruent.
With respect to being under the influence at the time of the offense, no difference
existed between respondents who gave self-reports about recent drug use inconsistent
with their urine tests and those who did not. However, respondents who denied
ever using marijuana, cocaine, or crack but who tested positive for one of
those drugs were significantly less likely to report being under the influence
of alcohol (16.6 percent) than were the consistent reporters (21.1 percent).
Because the number of persons in this group was quite small, however, we did
not adjust the data or delete this group from the data reported here.4
(4 We estimate that the maximum
number of persons who may have been dissimulating about alcohol intoxication
was 107 respondents out of more than 27,000.) To address possible greater underreporting of
alcohol consumption by underage offenders than those persons legally permitted
to drink, we compared ADAM data on drinking during the previous 30 days, broken
down by age group, with similar data from the 1998 National Household Survey
of Drug Abuse (NHSDA) (SAMHSA 1999). Although the percentage of respondents
who reported using alcohol in the past month was consistently higher among
ADAM arrestees than the house-hold survey respondents for each age category,
the age-related patterns of use for both samples were similar. For example,
in the NHSDA for 1998, 32 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds, 54 percent of 18-
to 20-year-olds, 65 percent of 21- to 25-year-olds, and 53 percent of people
age 35 and older reported drinking in the past month. Among the ADAM arrestee
sample, the comparable figures are 54 percent for 16- and 17-year-olds, 67
percent for 18- to 20-year-olds, 73 percent for 21- to 25-year-olds, and more
than 70 percent for arrestees older than 25. Thus the lower rate of self-reported
alcohol use among persons less than age 21 is consistent with national data
and is not likely to be caused by reporting bias.
Findings
The
ADAM data provide an opportunity to explore the combination of alcohol use,
drug presence, and offense data among recent arrestees; to examine possible
links between alcohol use and abuse--alone and in combination with other drugs--and
specific types of criminal behavior; and to identify changes in these associations
since 1989, when the only DUF report containing alcohol data was published
(Visher 1990). Given the ample literature indicating
an association between alcohol use and violence (Murdoch et al. 1990; Parker
and Rehbun 1995; Pernanen
1991; Roizen 1993; Lipsey
et al. 1997), we focused specifically on the presence and influence of alcohol
in violent crimes compared with other offenses, particularly property crimes.
A
View of the Arrestees
The
sociodemographic characteristics of the 1998 ADAM arrestees
are shown in table 1.
Table
1 Characteristics of 1998 ADAM* Program Arrestees
|
Characteristics
|
Number
|
Percent
|
|
Age
|
|
|
|
Mean
|
31.1
|
NA
|
|
Median
|
30.0
|
NA
|
|
Range
|
1582
|
NA
|
|
Gender
|
|
|
|
Male
|
20,715
|
75.6
|
|
Female
|
6,699
|
24.4
|
|
Race/ethnicity
|
|
|
|
Black
(non-Hispanic)
|
12,460
|
45.6
|
|
White
(non-Hispanic)
|
8,456
|
30.9
|
|
Hispanic
|
5,484
|
20.7
|
|
Other
|
737
|
2.9
|
|
Education
|
|
|
|
Less
than high school graduate
|
12,045
|
47.7
|
|
High
school diploma or GED
|
8,372
|
33.3
|
|
Some
college
|
4,706
|
18.7
|
|
Employment
|
|
|
|
Working
full time
|
11,589
|
42.5
|
|
Other
sources of legal income
|
11,524
|
42.3
|
|
Illegal
sources of income
|
2,359
|
8.7
|
|
No
income
|
1,790
|
6.6
|
|
Arrest
in the previous year
|
10,926
|
39.9
|
*ADAM
= Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring. The ADAM program is a system used by the
National Institute of Justice to track drug use by a representative sample
of people in the United States
who have been arrested and charged for a wide variety of criminal offenses.
NA
= not applicable; GED = general equivalency diploma.
The
arrestees tended to be young (i.e., median age of 30), but ranged in age from
15 to 82. Most arrestees were male (75.6 percent), African-American (45.6
percent), had limited education (48 percent had not finished high school),
and were employed either full time (42.5 percent) or part time (18 percent)
during the month prior to their arrests.
The
vast majority of both male and female 1998 arrestees reported that they tried
alcohol at some time during their lives (94 and 89 percent, respectively),
and most had also consumed alcohol during the past year (80 and 70 percent,
respectively). As shown in table 2, more than one-half of all male arrestees
(54 percent), but somewhat less than one-half of the female arrestees (43
percent), reported drinking in the 72 hours prior to their arrests, and 22
percent of the males and 16 percent of the females reported being under the
influence of alcohol at the time of their offenses.
Table
2
Alcohol
and Cocaine Use/Abuse Among Percentages of 1998 ADAM1
(1ADAM = Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring. The ADAM
program is a system used by the National Institute of Justice to track drug
use by a representative sample of people in the United
States who have been arrested and charged
for a wide variety of criminal offenses.) Arrestees by Gender and Charge
|
|
Recent
Alcohol Use2
(2Recent
alcohol use refers to alcohol use within the previous 72 hours.)
|
Under
the Influence3
(3Respondents
are also asked whether they were under the influence of
alcohol at the time of the offense for which they were arrested.)
|
Cocaine
Use
|
|
Arrest
Charge
|
Female
(n = 6,659)
(%)
|
Male
(n = 20,612) (%)
|
Female
(n = 6,659) (%)
|
Male
(n = 20,612)
(%)
|
Female
(n = 6,664)
(%)
|
Male
(n = 20,630)
(%)
|
|
Violent
Offense
|
44
|
55
|
23
|
26
|
26
|
26
|
|
Assault
|
47
|
57
|
24
|
29
|
28
|
29
|
|
Homicide
|
37
|
52
|
16
|
14
|
21
|
17
|
|
Robbery
|
39
|
54
|
13
|
21
|
51
|
39
|
|
Sexual
assault
|
NA
|
52
|
NA
|
19
|
NA
|
16
|
|
Weapons
|
23
|
46
|
7
|
18
|
20
|
24
|
|
Family
violence
|
42
|
57
|
26
|
30
|
18
|
20
|
|
Other
violence
|
49
|
54
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
25
|
|
Property-Related
Offense
|
36
|
51
|
14
|
18
|
40
|
40
|
|
Burglary
|
35
|
50
|
8
|
19
|
41
|
41
|
|
Theft
|
34
|
52
|
8
|
16
|
37
|
42
|
|
Auto
theft
|
42
|
45
|
13
|
16
|
39
|
40
|
|
Forgery/fraud
|
29
|
41
|
5
|
10
|
24
|
28
|
|
Other
property
|
49
|
62
|
18
|
30
|
64
|
41
|
|
Other
Offense DUI/DWI
|
71
|
80
|
61
|
64
|
27
|
20
|
|
Drug
sale/possession
|
43
|
49
|
12
|
|