BHRCS Findings: Drinking, Driving & Drugs

© 2005 Behavioral Health Research Institute of the Southwest
612 Encino Place NE / Albuquerque, NM 87102 / 505.244.3099 / www.bhrcs.org

Drinking, Driving, and Drugs:
A Comparative Study of Juvenile Substance Abuse Offenders
in Bernalillo County, NM
By Nancy Owen Lewis, Ph.D. and Iyiin Chang, M.S.

3. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

Approximately 76% of the 1,518 juvenile offenders were male. Over 62% were Hispanic, 28.1%, Anglo; 4.6 %, Black; 3.9%, Native American; and 1.4%, other ethnic groups. Over 60% were between the ages of 16-17, 32.5% between 14-15, while only 7.3% were under 14 years of age. Nearly one-third of offenders had dropped out of school (30.7%) and 70.8% reported family incomes of $30,000 or less. Only 37.3% lived with both parents. Forty-eight percent had parents who were divorced, separated, or widowed . About one in ten were only children. Nearly 32% had one sibling; 29.8%, two siblings; 27.4%, three siblings or more. Nearly 42% of offenders were the first or oldest child in the family.

Most offenders (99.1%) resided in New Mexico at the time of referral (Table 4). Approximately 12% lived outside Bernalillo County, usually in a neighboring county. Nearly 87% resided in Bernalillo County, primarily in Albuquerque. Of those who lived in Albuquerque (88.2%), the most common locations were the southwest (32.9%) and northeast (29.6%) quadrants, while the least common areas were the southeast (21.6%) and northwest (15.7%) quadrants. Of the 14 juveniles from other states, 10 were from California and one was from each of the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, and Texas.

Comparisons with Bernalillo County Residents.

The study population differed from Bernalillo County Residents in respect to gender, age, ethnicity, marital status of parents, and household (Tables 5-9).

Gender and Age. A much higher percentage of youth in the study population were male and over age 14 than in the population of Bernalillo County. Over 76% of the study population were male compared to 50.7% males in Bernalillo County (ages 7-17). In addition, 60.1% of substance abuse offenders were 16-17 years old, compared to 17% of the county’s population.

Table 4.
Location of Residence

Ethnicity. Over 62% of the substance abuse offenders were Hispanic, compared to 37.1% Hispanics in Bernalillo County (all ages). Blacks were also over-represented in the study population – 4.6% compared to 2.5% Blacks in the county population. Anglos (non-Hispanic white), on the other hand, were under-represented – 28.1% in the offender population compared to 55.8% in Bernalillo County.

Parental/Household Status. Over 53% of juvenile substance abuse offenders lived in single parent households, compared to 22.7% for Bernalillo County youth (ages 6-17). Less than 39% of substance abuse offenders had parents who were married. In contrast, nearly 53% of adults in Bernalillo County were married.

Comparisons by Offender Type.

Analyses revealed statistically-significant differences (p<.01) among the study groups in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, and education. No significant differences were detected in

household income, number of children in family, child position in family, household, parents’ marital status, and location of residence. The three groups are compared below (Tables 10-15):

DWI Offenders. Although the most common age bracket for all three groups was 16-17, DWI offenders were older than the alcohol and drug offenders. Nearly 89% of DWI offenders were between 16 and 17 at the time of referral, compared with 68.2% of alcohol offenders and 51.3% of drug offenders. DWI offenders also had a higher percentage of Native Americans. Nearly 8% of DWI offenders were Native American, compared with 4.7% for the alcohol offender and 2.9% for the drug offender groups. A significantly smaller percentage of DWI offenders were Black – less than 1%, compared with 3.6% in the alcohol group and 5.8% in the drug group. Finally, a significantly higher percentage of DWI offenders were not enrolled in school at the time of referral – 41.8% compared with 30.4% of alcohol offenders and 29.5% of drug offenders.

Although not statistically significant, three other differences were observed between DWI offenders and the other two study groups. First, a smaller percentage of DWI offenders resided with both parents –29.8% compared with 36.0% for the drug offenders and 41.3% for the alcohol offenders. In contrast, 11.7% of DWI offenders resided with other relatives compared with 6.9% of alcohol offenders and 7.8% of drug offenders. Approximately 16% of DWI offenders resided outside Bernalillo County – compared with only 12.6% of alcohol offenders and 9.4% of drug offenders. Third, 36.5% of DWI offender households had incomes over $30,000, compared to 29% for the other two groups.

Alcohol Offenders. A significantly higher percentage of alcohol offenders were female – 29.0% compared with 22.0% females for the DWI group and 20.9% for the drug group. Although not statistically significant, a higher percentage of alcohol offenders lived with both parents – 41.3% compared with 29.8% for DWI offenders and 36.0% for drug offenders Although most drug offenders were Hispanic, a significantly higher percentage were Black

(5.8%), and a significantly smaller percentage were Native American (2.9%) compared with the other two groups.

Drug Offenders. Drug offenders were significantly younger than the other two offender populations. Approximately 10% were under age 14, compared with 4.1% of the alcohol offenders and none of the DWI offenders. Nearly 49% of drug offenders were age 15 or less – compared with 31.8% of alcohol offenders and 11.0% of DWI offenders. Consequently, a greater percentage of drug offenders were still in elementary school or junior high at the time of referral – 29.7% compared with 17.8% of alcohol offenders and 6.1% of DWI offenders.

Table 5.
Gender: Study Population
vs. Bernalillo County Youth (7-17)