Suchergebnisse

The present study examines violent victimization among a sample of active drug users. Two theoretical perspectives are combined to form the underlying conceptual framework of the study: One draws upon routine activities/lifestyle theory and the other incorporates the street addict role theory. While routine activities/lifestyle theory addresses victimization in general, the street addict role theory explains the specific lifestyle characteristics of an active drug abuser which are relevant to the victimization of illicit drug users. We find the prevalence of violent victimization to be high. Approximately 22% of respondents reported being victimized within a 30 day period. We also find support for combining the two perspectives to help explain violent victimization. Demographic, personal networks, drug use, and street business domain factors are associated with violent victimization for this high risk population. Our study extends the investigation of violent victimization among illicit drug users by identifying characteristics that differentiate drug users who are recent victims of violence from others who have not been similarly victimized.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize persons who sniff heroin by examining their experiences prior to first heroin use, experiences at first use, current drug use patterns, and factors associated with progression to the daily use of heroin. Relatively little has been published about the lives and career trajectories of heroin sniffers who have little or no history of drug injection. A sample of 250 African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and non-Hispanic White men and women who sniffed heroin were interviewed for this study. Most people first sniffed heroin in a social setting where heroin use was not preplanned. Heroin sniffing has become a sustained pattern of use for many of these users; the majority have progressed to daily sniffing of heroin and are polydrug users for whom crack is an important substance; and heroin sniffers have experienced a range of life and health problems including a high prevalence of HIV.

School-based discipline can negatively shape the educational outcomes of students, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities. Because racial and ethnic minority youth are at risk for educational failure and marginalized within schools, academic and sport extracurricular activities are often presented as a means to ameliorate educational risk factors. Little is known, however, about the relationship between involvement in these activities and school-based discipline, particularly for racial and ethnic minority youth. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel modeling techniques to examine whether the relationship between academic and sport extracurricular activities, misbehavior, and school-based discipline varies by race and ethnicity. This study suggests that while academic and sport extracurricular activities reduce the likelihood of school-based discipline for White students, the relationships for racial and ethnic minority are complex. The implications of the racial and ethnic disparity in school-based discipline in the United States are discussed.