Drug Use and Pretrial Misconduct in New York City

• NCJ Number: 150479
• Author(s): D A Smith; E D Wish; G R Jarjoura
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 83-IJ-CX-K048; OJP-88-M-282
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 1989.

Annotation

Using data on arrestees in Manhattan, this study examines whether information on recent drug use, obtained from urine samples taken shortly after arrest, is significantly associated with two measures of pretrial misconduct (failure to appear and rearrest).

Abstract

To measure recent drug use, urine samples were collected from persons shortly after their arrest and tested for four drugs: heroin, cocaine, PCP, and methadone. Two measures of pretrial misconduct were considered: whether a defendant is rearrested prior to case disposition and failure to appear at trial. Censored probit models were used to estimate the statistical association between drug test results and pretrial misconduct. Results show that drug test results are significantly associated with pretrial misconduct over and above the information typically available to judges at the time release decisions are made. Some implications of these findings for pretrial decisionmaking are discussed. 8 tables and 19 references