Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program in the United States, 1999 (ICPSR 2994)

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 an expanded and redesigned version of the Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) Program (DRUG USE FORECASTING IN 24 CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1987-1997 [ICPSR 9477]) that has been upgraded methodologically and was expanded to 35 cities in 1998. 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 a 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 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, arrestees are asked to provide a urine specimen at the conclusion of the interview, 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. The data from the city of Denver included Denver County in its entirety, and the St. Louis data also encompassed a county. (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. In 1998, ADAM expanded to 35 sites, making a concerted effort to add sites west of the Mississippi River. The 12 new sites were 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 represents 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. In 1999, St. Louis was temporarily on hiatus from the ADAM program, resulting in a total of 34 sites for 1999. Data collection took place four times a year (once each calendar quarter) in each site on a staggered schedule, with collection periods for any single population (male, female, or juvenile) generally lasting 1-2 consecutive weeks. Data collection for the various populations did not necessarily run concurrently. Interviewing typically occurred over 4- to 8-hour shifts every day for a 1- to 2-week period. Trained local staff at each site administered voluntary, confidential interviews and obtained anonymous urine specimens from detained arrestees who had been in a booking facility for not more than 48 hours. The number of persons interviewed and the demographic composition of those interviewed varied somewhat across the 34 sites participating in the 1999 ADAM program. On average, each site attempted to obtain a sample of 225 adult males per quarter. Data were collected from approximately 100 adult females each quarter at 33 of the 34 sites. In addition, nine sites collected data from juvenile males and six collected data from juvenile females. These data are provided in Part 2, Juvenile Arrestees Data. At sites in which juveniles were interviewed, staff attempted to obtain samples of 100 boys and 100 girls, although in many sites these quotas were 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. This represents a substantial change from the eligibility criteria used in past years. Users are encouraged to consult the user guides for ICPSR 9477 to compare the eligibility criteria used from 1987-1997.

Sample View help for Sample

The data were collected from the following: 31,210 adult male arrestees at 33 sites, 10,278 adult female arrestees at 32 sites, 2,514 juvenile male detainees in 9 sites, and 434 juvenile female detainees in 6 sites. All arrestees were eligible for the ADAM program.

Universe View help for Universe

Arrestees in 34 sites in the United States during 1999.

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 ADAM/DUF interview instrument (used for part of the 1995 data and all of the 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 data) also includes 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 include 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. Further, the data 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 instrument provide information about each arrestee's history of drug/alcohol treatment, including whether they ever received drug/alcohol treatment and whether they needed drug/alcohol treatment. In addition to the survey, 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 following variables included in the data were collected for use by local law enforcement officials at each site: precinct (precinct of arrest) and law (penal law code associated with the crime for which the subject was arrested).

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 of the DUF program due to a change in the sampling method. With all arrestees eligible for the ADAM program, an increased number of arrestees did 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

2000-11-15

Version History View help for Version History