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The Pathways to Desistance study was a multi-site study that followed 1,354 serious juvenile offenders from adolescence to young adulthood in two locales between the years 2000 and 2010. Enrolled into the study were adjudicated youths from the juvenile and adult court systems in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona (N=654), and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (N=700).

The official arrests records of all 1,354 youth were obtained from multiple sources. For arrest/petitions under the age of 18, this information is based on petitions appearing in the juvenile and adult court records in each site. In Philadelphia, this information was gathered based on a hand review of juvenile and adult court documents; in Phoenix, the information is based on reports from two computerized court tracking systems (JOLTS--Juvenile On-Line Tracking System for juvenile court information, ICIS--Maricopa County Superior Court database for adult court information). For arrests/petitions over 18, FBI arrest records are the source of information. There is no self-reported information contained in this set of data.

Information from these different data sources is consolidated into the following categories:

1. Information regarding petitions with a date that falls prior to the baseline interview date ("prior petitions").
2. Information regarding the study index petition (also called the "initial referring petition"; this is the adjudication that prompted study enrollment). Information regarding the study index petition can be found by accessing the "type" variable associated with the prior petitions (specific variable name: Official Record Prior PetitionXX: Petition type). Depending on the investigator's needs, this petition can remain combined with the "priors" or be used as a stand-alone petition.
3. Information regarding arrests and court petitions with a date which falls after the baseline interview date in the Pathways study ("rearrests").

This project was an investigation into the natural course of service needs, use, and trajectories among high-risk youth and young adults with drug use who presented to an inner-city Emergency Department with multiple risk behaviors (with and without acute violent injury). Eligible participants included youth/young adults (ages 14-24) who sought care at the Hurley Medical Center (HMC) Emergency Department (ED) located in Flint, Michigan between December 19, 2009 and September 7, 2011. Consenting youth completed a self-administered computerized screening survey. All participants who self-reported past year drug use were recruited for the longitudinal study. For a comparison group, a randomly selected sample of drug using youth seeking ED care for other reasons (e.g. abdominal pain, motor vehicle crash) were selected for longitudinal study (equilibrated monthly proportionally for age/gender with the acute violent injury group). Participants in the violent injury and comparison group completed a baseline assessment during their ED visit.

Dataset 1 (DS1) contains the Baseline Screener Data of both young adults and youth. This data file has 1,448 cases and 314 variables. Each case represents an individual seeking treatment in the emergency department.

Dataset 2 (DS2) contains the Baseline Youth Data. This data file has 89 cases and 531 variables. Of these 89 cases, 51 of the youths (ages 14-17) presented to the Emergency Department with a violent injury. The remaining 38 respondents reported to the Emergency Department for non-violent injury and are part of the comparison group.

Dataset 3 (DS3) contains the Baseline Young Adult Data. This file contains 511 cases and 483 variables. Of these 511 cases, 299 of the young adults (ages 18-24) presented to the Emergency Department with a violent injury. The remaining 212 respondents reported to the Emergency Department for non-violent injury and are part of the comparison group.

The Baseline Screener Data includes demographics and information about public assistance, income, work, marital status, insurance, the injury visit, school/grades, retaliation attitudes, fights, violence, gang affiliation, weapons, partner violence, nicotine use, alcohol use, drug use, HIV risk-taking behaviors, needle use, sexual behavior, STD/HIV, past adolescent injuries, age on onset of drug use, and current conflict and aggression.

The Baseline Youth and Young Adult Data include sexual behavior, threat of retaliation, brief symptom inventory/suicide risk, drug and alcohol refusal efficacy, drinking and driving (DUI), community involvement, peer influences, non-partner aggression, parental support, parent influence on drug and alcohol use, family conflict, mentors, fight self-efficacy, community violence, sexual risk behaviors, medical care, alcohol dependence/abuse, drug dependence/abuse, substance abuse service utilization, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), conduct disorder (youth) or antisocial personality disorder (young adult), legal system involvement, major depressive episodes, and mental health service utilization.