Duration-Weighted Exposure to Neighborhood Disadvantage and Racial-Ethnic Differences in Adolescent Sexual Behavior.

Racial-ethnic disparities in adolescent sexual risk behavior are associated with health disparities during adulthood and are therefore important to understand. Some scholars argue that neighborhood disadvantage induces disparities, yet prior research is mixed. We extend neighborhood-effects research by addressing long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and estimation bias resulting from inclusion of time-varying covariates. Drawing from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, we compare a point-in-time proximal measure of neighborhood disadvantage with a duration-weighted measure using marginal structural models with inverse probability of treatment weights. Findings indicate that multiracial, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic youth exhibit significantly higher sexual risk and duration-weighted exposure to neighborhood disadvantage than non-Hispanic white adolescents. Duration-weighted exposure is a better predictor of sexual initiation and number of partners by age 15 than a point-in-time proximal measure of neighborhood disadvantage and accounts for a substantial portion of the race-ethnic differences in sexual risk.

Assessing the Delivery of the Thinking for a Change Program in Modified Formats: An Experimental Approach.

This paper evaluates whether participation in the Thinking for a Change cognitive behavioral program produces improvement in social problemsolving skills in a prison context. Data are derived from a randomized experiment, with a focus on whether improvement in social problemsolving skills varies across modified delivery formats, and whether improvements are attributable to program completion or program dosage. We find that there are significant improvements in social problem solving between the pre- and post-test, and that delivery of the curriculum using video conferencing technology or inmate co-facilitated formats produces equivalent outcomes relative to traditional classroom administration. On average, significant improvements accrue to participants who receive greater program dosage. However, program completion, commonly viewed as a primary marker of satisfactory program performance, is not associated with improvement in social problem solving. Implications of the findings for rehabilitation programming are discussed, including considerations in a pandemic context.

Prisoners' Personal Networks in the Months Preceding Prison: A Descriptive Portrayal.

This study examined personal networks of adult male prisoners ( N = 250) during a high-risk period prior to their incarceration. We present a descriptive portrait of network size, density, and relational type, and we then document the nature of ties within that network, focusing specifically on alters' criminal involvement, criminal opportunity, and reinforcement of criminal behavior. We found that prisoners' networks were large and dense, and that they were composed primarily of family and romantic partners. Most prisoners are not embedded in a personal network saturated with criminal influence before coming to prison. Yet, a small proportion are exposed to exceptionally negative influence, which, it is argued, may increase the risk of negative outcomes upon release if not addressed by evidence-based programs.

Frequent Drug Use and Negative Employment Outcomes among the Criminally Active.

BACKGROUND: Employment is a central component of economic independence and is widely viewed as an essential element of social control. Whether frequent drug use reduces the likelihood of employment or obstructs hours worked, wages, and job commitment is therefore an important question about which there remains uncertainty. METHODS: We improve on shortcomings of prior research through a monthly within-person analysis of a population at high-risk of both drug use and poor employment outcomes. We present multilevel models of the 18 months spent on the street preceding the arrest that led to incarceration in minimum/medium security facilities in Ohio from a random sample of 250 adult male inmates interviewed during the outset of a prison spell. RESULTS: The analysis reveals consistently strong, negative effects of frequent drug use on employment, hours worked, and wages in the month following frequent drug use, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and prescription opioids. As well, frequent drug use (with the exception of marijuana) undermines job commitment during the months that participants are employed. CONCLUSIONS: The consequences of frequent drug use for future employment are consistently negative within this criminal justice sample. Results suggest that lower levels of drug use may improve the success of postrelease employment programs. In a context of increasing concern over rising opioid and heroin, but also cocaine and marijuana abuse, the findings suggest a renewed focus on and perhaps expansion of evidence-based drug treatment among populations embedded within the criminal justice system, particularly if employment constrains criminal behavior.

Verbal Ability and Persistent Offending: A Race-Specific Test of Moffitt's Theory.

Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt's developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (over-dispersed). In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). The results support Moffitt's hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race as well as the social control model of verbal ability.

Neighborhoods and racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent sexual risk behavior.

Understanding the determinants of racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent sexual risk behavior is important given its links to the differential risk of teen pregnancy, childbearing, and sexually transmitted infections. This article tests a contextual model that emphasizes the concentration of neighborhood disadvantage in shaping racial/ethnic disparities in sexual risk behavior. We focus on two risk behaviors that are prevalent among Black and Hispanic youth: the initiation of sexual activity in adolescence and the number of sex partners. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (N = 6,985; 48% female; 57% non-Hispanic White) evidence indicates that neighborhood disadvantage--measured by concentrated poverty, unemployment rates, and the proportion of female-headed households--partially explains Black and Hispanic disparities from Whites in the odds of adolescent sexual debut, although the prevalence of female-headed households in neighborhoods appears to be the main driver in this domain. Likewise, accounting for neighborhood disadvantage reduces the Black-White and Hispanic-White disparity in the number of sexual partners, although less so relative to sexual debut. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Tobacco use by male prisoners under an indoor smoking ban.

INTRODUCTION: Most correctional facilities have implemented tobacco restrictions in an effort to reduce costs and improve prisoner health, but little has been done to evaluate the impact of these policy changes. Patterns of tobacco use among prisoners were explored to determine the impact of incarceration in a facility with an indoor smoking ban on tobacco use behaviors. METHODS: Recently incarcerated male inmates (n = 200) were surveyed about their tobacco use prior to and during incarceration. RESULTS: Tobacco use was prevalent prior to arrest (77.5%) and increased during incarceration (81.0%). Though the number of cigarette smokers increased during imprisonment, per-capita cigarette consumption declined by 7.1 cigarettes/day (p < .001). Despite widespread tobacco use, most participants recognized that smoking is a cause of lung cancer (96.0%) and heart disease (75.4%) and that it can be addicting (97.5%). Most tobacco users (70.0%) reported a desire to quit, with 63.0% saying they intended to try quitting in the next year. CONCLUSIONS: Indoor smoking bans do not promote cessation in prisons but may reduce the amount of tobacco consumed. Though smoking is commonplace in prisons, most prisoners recognize the risks involved and wish to quit. This creates an ideal setting for intervention. Evidence-based cessation assistance should be made freely available to all incarcerated smokers.

Reliability and Validity of Prisoner Self-Reports Gathered Using the Life Event Calendar Method.

Data collection using the life event calendar method is growing, but reliability is not well established. We examine test-retest reliability of monthly self-reports of criminal behavior collected using a life event calendar from a random sample of minimum and medium security prisoners. Tabular analysis indicates substantial agreement between self-reports of drug dealing, property, and violent crime during a baseline interview (test) and a follow-up (retest) approximately three weeks later. Hierarchical analysis reveals that criminal activity reported during the initial test is strongly associated with responses given in the retest, and that the relationship varies only by the lag in days between the initial interview and the retest. Analysis of validity reveals that self-reported incarceration history is strongly predictive of official incarceration history although we were unable to address whether subjects could correctly identify the months they were incarcerated. African Americans and older subjects provide more valid responses but in practical terms the differences in validity are not large.

Measuring tobacco use in a prison population.

INTRODUCTION: Widespread tobacco use and high interest in quitting make prisons an ideal environment for smoking cessation interventions; however, little has been done to assist prisoners in their efforts to quit. Valid measurement of tobacco use is a prerequisite to evaluation of cessation programs, yet there has been only one published examination of tobacco use measures among prisoners. METHODS: Tobacco use interviews were conducted with 200 male prisoners. Three measures of tobacco use, exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO), salivary cotinine measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and salivary cotinine measured by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), were evaluated using self-reported tobacco use as the reference. Optimum cutpoints were identified by maximization of the Youden index. RESULTS: Carbon monoxide breath testing, though the poorest performing of the three measures examined, still had excellent discrimination (cutpoint >or= 4 ppm, sensitivity = 88.3%, specificity = 94.9%). Cotinine EIA performed better than eCO (cutpoint >or= 10 ng/ml, sensitivity = 92.2%, specificity = 94.3%) but poorer than cotinine LC/MS/MS (cutpoint >or= 9 ng/ml, sensitivity = 98.6%, specificity = 97.8%). DISCUSSION: eCO had the poorest performance as a standalone test, though validity of the test may be improved with increased frequency of testing. False-negative results using cotinine EIA limit its utility as a standalone test, however, as part of a two-stage screening process it may reduce the cost of testing. Cotinine LC/MS/MS, while most expensive, was the most accurate standalone measure of prisoners' tobacco use.

Gang Membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context.

A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address those issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three-level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block-group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don't sell drugs and drug sellers that don't belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don't belong to gangs and gang members who don't sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.