Citation

Acevedo A, Miles J, Panas L, Ritter G, Campbell K, Garnick DW. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2019; 80(2): 220-229.

Affiliation

Institute for Behavioral Health, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

31014467

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether racial/ethnic disparities exist in posttreatment arrests and assessed the extent to which community characteristics account for such disparities.

METHOD: Administrative data on clients (N = 10,529) receiving publicly funded services in Washington State were linked with criminal justice and census data. Multilevel survival models were used for two outcomes measuring time (in days) to any arrest and to any substance-related arrest. Community characteristics included a factor measuring community economic disadvantage and the proportions of residents in the client's residential census tract who were Black, Latino, or American Indian/Alaskan Native.

RESULTS: When we controlled for age, sex, substance use, referral source, and prior criminal justice involvement, Black clients (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.47, p <.01) had a higher hazard of any arrest compared with White clients, and Black (HR = 1.27, p <.05) and Latino (HR = 1.20, p <.05) clients had a higher hazard of a substance-related arrest. Clients living in census tracts with a higher proportion of Black residents had a higher hazard of any arrest (HR = 1.25, p <.01) as well as substance-related arrests (HR = 1.39, p <.01). Community characteristics did not account for racial/ethnic disparities in arrests but provided an independent effect.

CONCLUSIONS: Disparities in arrest outcomes are influenced by both individual- and community-level factors; therefore, strategies for reducing disparities in this treatment outcome should be implemented at both levels.

Language: en