Community Structure and Drug Use: From a Social Disorganization Perspective

• NCJ Number: 130178
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1990) Pages: 691-709
• Author(s): F A Esbensen; D Huizinga
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 19 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-JN-CX-006; DA-05183
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The variables mediating between social disorganization and adolescent drug use are investigated.

Abstract

The social disorganization perspective recently has received considerable attention from delinquency researchers. This discussion raises important questions for the study of community-level characteristics and drug use: (1) the need to address the criticism that socially disorganized neighborhoods are not homogeneous; (2) whether drug use is affected by community factors in the same manner as delinquency and crime appear to be influenced; and (3) whether mediating factors that help to explain drug use can be identified. A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the causes and correlates of delinquency and drug use in a "high-risk" sample. The first finding was that different combinations of census data identified different types of socially disorganized neighborhoods. It appeared that different mediating factors examined help to explain why adolescents use drugs. These findings confirm the importance of examining individual-level variables in addition to community contextual variables. 6 tables, 5 notes, and 61 references. (Author abstract modified)