Evaluation of the Maricopa County [Arizona] Demand Reduction Program, 1989-1991 (ICPSR 9977)

Version Date: Jan 12, 2006

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Principal Investigator(s):
John R. Hepburn, Arizona State University; C. Wayne Johnston, Arizona State University; Scott Rogers, Arizona State University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09977.v1

Version V1

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Summary

These data were collected to evaluate the Demand Reduction Program, a program initiated in Maricopa County, Arizona, in 1989 to combat drug abuse. A consortium of municipal, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies developed the program, which stressed user accountability. The Demand Reduction Program had two objectives: (1) to create community-wide awareness of the severity of the drug problem and to alert drug users to the increased risk of legal sanctions, and (2) to adopt a zero-tolerance position of user accountability through an emphasis on increased and coordinated law enforcement activities directed against individual offenders and special treatment programs in lieu of prosecution. Part 1 of the collection, Demand Reduction Program Data, provides information on prosecutor's disposition, arrest date, submitted charges, filed charges, prior charges, disposition of charges, drugs offender used in last three months, information on prior drug treatment, type of attorney, and arrestee's age at arrest, sex, marital status, income, and living arrangement. Part 2 is a Citizen Survey conducted in January 1990, ten months after the implementation of the Demand Reduction Program. Adult residents of Maricopa County were asked in telephone interviews about their attitudes toward drug use, tax support for drug treatment, education, and punishment, their knowledge of the Demand Reduction Program, and demographic information. Parts 3 and 4 supply data from surveys of Maricopa County police officers, conducted in March 1990 and April 1991, to measure attitudes regarding the Demand Reduction Program with respect to (1) police effort, (2) inter-agency cooperation, (3) the harm involved in drug use, and (4) support for diversion to treatment. The two police surveys contained identically-worded questions, with only a small number of different questions asked the second year. Variables include officer's rank, years at rank, years in department, shift worked, age, sex, ethnicity, education, marital status, if officer was the primary or secondary wage earner, officer's perception of and training for the Demand Reduction Program, and personal attitudes toward drug use. Part 5 provides arrest data from the Maricopa County Task Force, which arrested drug users through two methods: (1) sweeps of public and semi-public places, and (2) "reversals," where drug sellers were arrested and replaced by police officers posing as drug sellers, who then arrested the drug buyers. Task Force data include arrest date, operation number, operation beginning and ending date, operation type, region where operation was conducted, charge resulting from arrest, Demand Reduction Program identification number, and arrestee's sex, race, and date of birth.

Citation

Hepburn, John R., Johnston, C. Wayne, and Rogers, Scott. Evaluation of the Maricopa County [Arizona] Demand Reduction Program, 1989-1991. [distributor], 2006-01-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09977.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (89-DD-CX-0055)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1989-03 -- 1991-05

Data Collection Notes

  1. Recidivism was defined as any new charge submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office after the offense which first brought the offender to the attention of the Demand Reduction Program. Variables on subsequent charges should be used for recidivism analysis.

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Study Purpose

A consortium of municipal, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies located in Maricopa County, Arizona, initiated the Maricopa County Demand Reduction Program in March 1989. The Demand Reduction Program was characterized by five features: (1) a comprehensive program integrating education, law enforcement, and treatment into a unified campaign against casual drug use, (2) the complete participation of all law enforcement agencies within the scope of the Demand Reduction Program, (3) a high level of community support, including local media and private sector donations of time, equipment, and materials for the program's advertising campaign, (4) tough laws which classified any illicit drug use as a felony, and (5) revenues generated from fees collected from offenders who entered the diversionary treatment program, based on the type of drug and the offender's ability to pay. A major goal of the Demand Reduction Program was to educate the general population and private sector employers about the harmfulness of drug use and to stress that those who used drugs would be held legally accountable. Another goal was to focus on the arrest, prosecution, and possible diversionary treatment of drug offenders. As a general rule, diversion to treatment was offered only to casual users with no prior criminal history. Eligible individuals could refuse to enter the treatment program.

Study Design

Data were compiled from four sources: (1) Arrest data from the Demand Reduction Program. (2) Arrest data from the Maricopa County Task Force, which arrested drug users through sweeps of public and semi-public places, and through "reversals," where drug sellers were arrested and replaced by police officers posing as drug sellers, who then arrested the drug buyers. Task Force operations occurred at a rate of more than one a month and were geographically dispersed. On two occasions, the Task Force served warrants on outstanding cases, leading to 31 arrests. During the study's time period, the Task Force conducted 38 operations, producing a total of 730 arrests. (3) Adult residents of Maricopa County were surveyed to determine their attitudes toward drug use and to assess how their attitudes coincided with the philosophy, procedures, and goals of the Demand Reduction Program. The Citizen Survey was conducted in January 1990, ten months after the implementation of the Demand Reduction Program. A total of 393 adult residents of Maricopa County were asked about their attitudes toward drug use, tax support for drug treatment, education, and punishment, their knowledge of the Demand Reduction Program, and demographic information. (4) Approximately one year after the program's implementation, in March 1990, Maricopa County police officers were surveyed to gauge their perceptions of their training for the Demand Reduction Program and the amount of police effort and cooperation involved as well as their personal attitudes concerning drug use and their support for the program. The survey of police officers was repeated 13 months later, in April 1991. The two police surveys were identical except for two variables in the second survey concerning participation in the first survey. A quasi-experimental research design was used, employing repeated observations over time to assess the impact of the Demand Reduction Program on factors such as the volume of arrests, the percentage of cases formally booked, the proportion of cases accepted for prosecution, the use of deferred prosecution, and prosecution outcomes. Additional Task Force data were collected specific to the Task Force operation which resulted in the individual's arrest.

Sample

Parts 1 and 5: Cases represent all drug users arrested by Maricopa County police officers (Part 1) or Task Force officers (Part 5) between March 1989 and February 1991, whose cases were reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office by March 1, 1991. Part 2: The sample of adult residents in Maricopa County was provided through a random-digit telephone survey method. Parts 3-4: The sample of police officers was obtained by distributing questionnaires during the briefing period preceding all three shifts on each day of one Thursday-Friday-Saturday time period between March 1990 and April 1991.

Universe

Parts 1 and 5: Adult drug users in Maricopa County, Arizona. Part 2: Adult residents of Maricopa County, Arizona. Parts 3-4: Police officers in participating law enforcement agencies of the Maricopa County Demand Reduction Program.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individuals.

Data Source

Part 1: Maricopa County Attorney's Demand Reduction Program records, Part 2: telephone interviews, Parts 3-4: self-administered questionnaires, Part 5: Maricopa County Task Force records

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

Part 1: The Demand Reduction Program data provide information on prosecutor's disposition, arrest date, submitted charges, filed charges, prior charges, disposition of charges, drugs used in last three months, information on prior drug treatment, type of attorney, and arrestee's age at arrest, sex, marital status, income, and living arrangement. Since data collection ended May 1, 1991, the length of "time at risk" varies considerably between those who entered the program early and those who entered late. Part 2: Adult residents of Maricopa County were asked about their attitudes toward drug use, tax support for drug treatment, education, and punishment, their knowledge of the Demand Reduction Program, and demographic information. Parts 3-4: The police surveys provide officer's rank, years at rank, years in department, shift worked, age, sex, ethnicity, education, marital status, if officer was the primary or secondary wage earner, officer's perception of and training for the Demand Reduction Program, and personal attitudes toward drug use. Part 5: Task Force data include arrest date, operation number, operation beginning and ending date, operation type, region where operation was conducted, charge resulting from arrest, Demand Reduction Program identification number, and arrestee's sex, race, and date of birth.

Response Rates

Parts 1 and 5: Not applicable. Part 2: 99.75 percent. Parts 3-4: Nearly 70 percent of the total number of returned questionnaires were complete.

Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date

1994-06-03

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Hepburn, John R., C. Wayne Johnston, and Scott Rogers. EVALUATION OF THE MARICOPA COUNTY [ARIZONA] DEMAND REDUCTION PROGRAM, 1989-1991. Conducted by the Arizona Institute for Criminal Justice. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1994. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09977.v1

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 6 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 12 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.

1994-06-03 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.