Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in the United States, 1998 (ICPSR 2826)

Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)

Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection

Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes

Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program was designed to estimate the prevalence of drug use among persons in the United States who are arrested and booked, and to detect changes in trends in drug use among this population. ADAM is a redesigned version of the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) Program (DRUG USE FORECASTING IN 24 CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1987-1997 [ICPSR 9477]), upgraded methodologically and expanded to include 35 cities. Research addressing the prevalence of drug use typically does not include the population of offenders and therefore may underestimate levels of drug use in the United States. The ADAM program makes an important contribution to research on the prevalence of drug use by sampling persons who are not sampled by other surveys of drug use. Moreover, the ADAM data provide important information that may be used by law enforcement and drug treatment officials to allocate resources, design prevention strategies, and gauge the impact of local efforts to reduce drug use. The following is a sample of the questions addressed by the data: What types of drugs do arrestees use? Among arrestees reporting drug use, how many report that they are dependent on drugs? To what extent do arrestees report a need for alcohol/drug treatment? Is the likelihood of drug use greater for persons arrested for certain types of offenses? Finally, what is the relationship between self-reported drug use and indicators of drug use based on urinalysis?

Study Design View help for Study Design

The ADAM program is a nonexperimental survey of drug use among arrestees. In addition to supplying information on self-reported drug use, at the conclusion of the interview arrestees are asked to provide a urine specimen, which is screened for the presence of ten illicit drugs. Between 1987 and 1997 the ADAM/DUF program collected information about drug use among arrestees from booking facilities in 24 sites across the United States, although the number of data collection sites varied slightly from year to year. Prior to 1998, samples of arrestees for the ADAM/DUF program were drawn from booking facilities within each of the sites and thus were limited to the types of arrestees booked at these facilities. In 11 sites (Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Omaha, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Washington, DC), the catchment area represented the central city. (Kansas City ceased being a DUF site after 1992). In ten additional sites (Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Miami, New Orleans, Manhattan [New York City], Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, and San Jose), the catchment area was the county, parish, or borough. The data from Denver included Denver County in its entirety, and the St. Louis data also encompassed the county. In 1998, ADAM expanded to 35 sites, making a concerted effort to add sites west of the Mississippi River. The 12 new sites included Albuquerque, Anchorage, Des Moines, Laredo, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Spokane, and Tucson. The data collection area for each site included the county within which the city is located. (Anchorage and New York are the exceptions: Anchorage represented the city only and New York included all five boroughs, which represent five separate counties. The name of the New York site was changed from Manhattan to New York City to reflect the inclusion of all boroughs.) Each quarter, trained local staff at these sites obtain voluntary and anonymous urine specimens from detained arrestees who have been in a booking facility for not more than 48 hours. The number of persons interviewed and the demographic composition of those interviewed varies somewhat across the 35 sites participating in the ADAM program. On average, each site attempts to obtain a sample of 225 adult males per quarter. Data are collected from about 100 adult females each quarter at 33 of the 35 sites. Each quarter, 13 sites collect data from juvenile males and 8 collect data from juvenile females. Sites in which juveniles are interviewed attempt to obtain samples of 100 boys and 100 girls, although in many sites these quotas are not met due to the small number of juvenile detainees from which to draw samples. Beginning in 1998, all arrestees booked into a facility within the previous 48 hours were eligible to be interviewed, including those arrested on warrants only. The eligibility criteria differ substantially from past years. For eligibility criteria employed from 1987-1997, users are encouraged to see the user guides for ICPSR 9477.

Sample View help for Sample

The data were collected from booked arrestees as follows: 20,715 adult males at 35 sites, 6,699 adult females at 32 sites, 3,134 juvenile males at 13 sites, and 466 juvenile females at 8 sites. All arrestees were eligible for the ADAM program.

Universe View help for Universe

Arrestees in 35 sites in the United States.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

Data Source View help for Data Source

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

The data include the age, race, sex, educational attainment, marital status, employment status, and living circumstances of a sample of persons arrested and booked in the United States. The modified DUF/ADAM interview instrument (used for part of the 1995 DUF data and all of the DUF 1996, DUF 1997, and ADAM 1998 data) also included detailed questions about each arrestee's self-reported use of 15 drugs. For each drug type, arrestees were asked whether they had ever used the drug, the age at which they first used the drug, whether they had used the drug within the past three days, how many days they had used the drug within the past month, whether they had ever needed or felt dependent on the drug, and whether they were dependent on the drug at the time of the interview. Data from the new interview instrument also included information about whether arrestees had ever injected drugs and whether they were influenced by drugs when they allegedly committed the crimes for which they were arrested. The data also include information about whether the arrestee had been to an emergency room for drug-related incidents and whether he or she had prior arrests in the last 12 months. Data that continue to be collected with the new version of the ADAM/DUF interview provide information about arrestees' histories of drug/alcohol treatment, including whether they ever received drug/alcohol treatment and whether they needed drug/alcohol treatment. A urine specimen provided by the arrestee was screened (by the drug-testing system EMIT, Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Testing) for the following ten drug types: marijuana, opiates, cocaine, PCP, methadone, benzodiazepines (Valium), methaqualone, propoxyphene (Darvon), barbiturates, and amphetamines. All positive results for amphetamines were confirmed by gas chromatography to eliminate positives that may be caused by over-the-counter drugs. Finally, the precinct (precinct of arrest) and law (penal law code associated with the crime for which the subject was arrested) were collected for use by local law enforcement officials at each site.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Approximately 80 percent of eligible arrestees agreed to be interviewed. This agreement rate is down from approximately 90 percent in previous years, due to the elimination of the sampling method used in prior years. With all arrestees eligible for the ADAM program, an increased number of arrestees do not agree to participate. Of those who consented to the interview, approximately 80 percent provided a urine specimen. The dataset includes only those persons who both agreed to be interviewed and provided a urine specimen.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

None.

Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

1999-11-10

Version History View help for Version History