Drug abusers vary considerably in their drug use and criminal behavior over time, and these trajectories are likely to influence drug treatment participation and treatment outcomes. Drawing on longitudinal natural history data from three samples of adult male drug users, we identify four groups with distinctive drug use and crime trajectories during the 5 years prior to their first treatment episode. The groups' characteristics of initial treatment are compared. The trajectory groups are then included in Poisson growth curve models to predict drug use, incarceration, and employment during the 5 years following first treatment. Findings indicate that posttreatment drug use decreased and posttreatment employment increased. There was little change in posttreatment incarceration. Posttreatment trajectories for drug use, incarceration, and employment were significantly different across the four trajectory groups.
Anglin, M.D., Y. Hser, and C.E. Grella.1997. Drug addiction and treatment careers among clients in DATOS. Psychology ofAddictive Behavior11 (4): 308—23.
2.
Anglin, M.D., D. Longshore, and S. Turner.1999. Treatment alternatives to street crime: An evaluation of five programs. Criminal Justice and Behavior26 (2): 168—95.
3.
Brecht, M.-L., A. O'Brien, C. von Mayrhauser, and M.D. Anglin.2004. Methamphetamine use behaviors and gender differences. Addictive Behaviors29 (1): 89—106.
4.
Chou, C., Y. Hser, and M. Anglin.1996. Pattern reliability of narcotics addicts' self-reported data: A confirmatory assessment of construct validity and consistency . Substance Use and Misuse31 (9): 1189—1216.
5.
Collins, J.J., and M.A. Allison.1983. Legal coercion and retention in drug abuse treatment. Hospital and Community Psychiatry34 (12): 1145—49.
6.
Farrington, D.P.1986. Age and crime. In Crime and justice: An annual review of research. Vol. 7, ed. M. Tonry and N. Morris , 189—250. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
Hall, E., M. Prendergast, J. Wellisch, M. Patten, and Y. Cao.2004. Treating drug-abusing women prisoners: An outcomes evaluation of the Forever Free Program. Prison Journal84 (1): 81—105.
8.
Harrell, A., O. Mitchell, J. Merrill, and D. Marlowe, D.2003. Evaluation of breaking the cycle. Washington, DC: Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute .
9.
Hser, Y., M. Anglin, and C. Chou.1992. Reliability of retrospective self-report by narcotics addicts. Psychological Assessment4 (2): 207—13.
10.
Hser, Y.-I., D. Huang, C.-P. Chou, C. Teruya, and M.D. Anglin, M.D.2003. Longitudinal patterns of treatment utilization and outcomes among methamphetamine abusers: A growth curve modeling approach. Journal of Drug Issues4:921—38.
11.
Hubbard, R.L., M.E. Marsden, J.V. Rachal, H.J. Harwood, E.R. Cavanaugh, and H.M. Ginzburg.1989. Drug abuse treatment outcome studies: A national study of effectiveness. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
12.
Knight, K., D.D. Simpson, and M.L. Hiller.1999. Three-year reincarceration outcomes for in-prison therapeutic community treatment in Texas. Prison Journal79 (3): 337—51.
13.
Lambert, D.1992. Zero-inflated Poisson regression, with an application to defects in manufacturing. Technometrics34: 1—13.
14.
Laub, J.H., and R.J. Sampson.2003. Shared beginning, divergent lives: Delinquent boys to age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
15.
———. 2001. Understanding desistance from crime. In Crime and justice: A review of research, Vol. 28, ed. M. Tonry, 1—70. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
Longshore, D., D. Urada, E. Evans, Y.-I. Hser, M. Prendergast, and A. Hawken.2004. Evaluation of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act: 2004 report. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Integrated Substance Abuse Programs . http://www.uclaisap.org/Prop36/html/reports.html (accessed July 31, 2007).
17.
Longshore, D., S. Turner, and T. Fain.2005. Effects of case management on parolee misconduct: The Bay Area Services Network. Criminal Justice and Behavior32 (2): 205—22.
Marshall, G.N., and Y.-I. Hser.2002. Characteristics of criminal justice and noncriminal justice clients receiving treatment for substance abuse. Addictive Behaviors27:179—92.
20.
Martin, S., and F.R. Scarpitti.1993. An intensive case management approach for paroled IV drug users. Journal of Drug Issues23 (1): 43—59.
21.
Martin, S. S., C. A. Butzin, C. A. Saum, and J. A. Inciardi.1999. Three-year outcomes of therapeutic community treatment for drug-involved offenders in Delaware: From prison to work release to aftercare. Prison Journal79 (3): 294—320.
22.
McGlothlin, W., M. Anglin, and B. Wilson.1977. An evaluation of the California Civil Addict Program. NIDA Services Research Monograph Series, DEW No. (ADM) 78—558 . Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
23.
Moffitt, T., A. Caspi, M. Rutter, and P.A. Silva.2001. Sex differences in antisocial behaviour: Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the Dunedin longitudinal study. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
24.
Murray, D.W.1992. Drug abuse treatment programs in the Federal Bureau of Prisons: Initiatives for the 1990s. In Drug abuse treatment in prisons and jails. NIDA Research Monograph118, ed. C. G. Leukefeld and F. M. Tims, 62—83. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
25.
Muthén, B.2004. Latent variable analysis: Growth mixture modeling and related techniques for longitudinal data. In Handbook of quantitative methodology for the social science, ed. D. Kaplan, 345—68. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
26.
Muthén, B., and L. Muthén.2000. Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analysis: Growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research24:882—91.
27.
———. 2004. Mplus user's guide. Los Angeles : Author.
28.
Muthén, B., and K. Shedden.1999. Finite mixture modeling with mixture outcomes using the EM algorithm. Biometrica55:463—69.
Nagin, D.S., and K.C. Land.1993. Age, criminal careers, and population heterogeneity: Specification and estimation of a nonparametric, mixed Poisson model. Criminology31: 327—62.
31.
Nurco, D.N., A.J. Bonito, M. Lerner, and M.B. Balter.1975. Studying addicts over time: Methodology and preliminary findings. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse2:183—96.
32.
Pearson, F.S., and D.S. Lipton.1999. A meta-analytic review of the effectiveness of corrections-based treatments for drug abuse. Prison Journal79 (4): 384—410.
33.
Petersilia, J., and S. Turner.1993. Intensive probation and parole supervision . In Crime and justice: A review of research. Vol. 17, ed. M. Tonry, 281—335. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
34.
Piquero, A.R., D.P. Farrington, and A. Blumstein.2003. The criminal career paradigm. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research30:359—506.
35.
Piquero, A.R., D.P. Farrington, and A. Blumstein.2007. Key issues in criminal career research: New analyses of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Prendergast, M., E. Hall, H. Wexler, G. Melnick, and Y. Cao.2004. Amity prison-based therapeutic community: Five-year outcomes. Prison Journal84 (1): 36—60.
37.
Sampson, R.J., and J.H. Laub.1993. Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38.
———. 2005. A life-course view of the development of crime . Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science602:12—45.
39.
Speckart, G.R., and M.D. Anglin.1985. Narcotics and crime: An analysis of existing evidence for a causal relationship. Behavioral Sciences and the Law3 (3): 259—82.
40.
Thornberry, T.2005. Explaining multiple patterns of offending across the life course and across generations. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science602: 156—95.
41.
Wexler, H., G. De Leon, G. Thomas, D. Kressel, and J. Peters.1999. The Amity prison TC evaluation: Reincarceration outcomes. Criminal Justice and Behavior26 (2): 147—67.
42.
Wexler, H., G. Melnick, L. Lowe, and J. Peters.1999. Three-year reincarceration outcomes for Amity in-prison therapeutic community and aftercare in California. Prison Journal79 (3): 321—36.
43.
White, H., and D. Gorman.2000. Dynamics of the drug-crime relationship . In Criminal Justice 2000. Vol. 1, The nature of crime: Continuity and change, ed. G. LaFree, 151—218. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
