© 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.

4. ARREST CIRCUMSTANCES

Study Population.

Eighty percent of substance abuse offenders were referred to AJPPO by law enforcement officials. These included city police (65.6%), sheriff’s officers, (9.2%), state police (5.1%), and university police (0.2%). Another 11.7% were referred by school personnel. The remainder were referred by out-of-town agencies (5.1%) or other sources (3.1%). The most common incident dates were May (12.7%) and September (11.7%), while the least common were July (5.9%), October (6.1%), and January (6.1%). Nearly 30% of the incidents occurred during the spring (March-May), the most common season, while fewer than 21% were committed during the summer (June-August), the least common season.

Most (57.2%) incidents occurred on Fridays (16.0%), Saturdays (21.7%), and Sundays (19.5%). The least common days were Mondays (8.9%) and Tuesdays (9.9%). Nearly 43% of offenders were apprehended between 6 pm and midnight, the common time of arrest.

Additional arrest information was obtained for the DWI offender group. According to NM Motor Vehicle records, the average BAC was .11. Thirty-three percent of arrests involved a crash. For those offenders, the average BAC was .13.

Comparisons.

Statistically significant differences (p<.01) existed among the three offender groups in terms of referral agency and date of incident (Tables 16-19).

Referral Agency. A higher percentage of DWI offenders were referred by city police – 82.2% compared to 64% of alcohol and drug offenders. In fact, 98.3% of DWI offenders were referred by the city police, state police, or sheriff’s office – compared to 80.8% of alcohol offenders and 76.9% of drug offenders. In contrast, a significantly higher percentage of drug offenders were referred by school officials – 18.6% compared with 3.0% of alcohol and 0% of DWI offenders.

Date and Time of Incident. The most common month for both DWI and alcohol incidents was May (16%), while September was the most common month for drug incidents (11.5%). September and July were the least common months for DWI arrests (5.1%). July was also the least common month for drug incidents (4.6%), while October was the rarest month for alcohol offenses (2.5%).

Several significant differences (p<.01) existed between drug offenders and other two offender groups in terms of day and time of incident. Compared to DWI and alcohol offenders, a significantly higher percentage of drug offenders were arrested on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, while a smaller percentage were arrested on Sundays and Mondays.

The least common time of arrest for drug offenders was between midnight and 6 am. Only 8.9% of drug arrests occurred during this period, compared with 55.1% of DWI arrests and 24.8% of alcohol arrests. In fact, the period between midnight and 6 am was the most common time for DWI arrests, while most alcohol incidents (59.6%) occurred between 6 pm and midnight. The most common time for drug incidents was between 6 am and 2 pm. Approximately 42% of the drug incidents occurred during this period, compared with 6.3% of the alcohol incidents and less than 1% of DWI offenses.

Index Referral. Most index referrals involved more than one offense. DWI offenders, however, averaged 2.96 offenses per referral, compared with 1.74 offenses for alcohol offenders and 1.79 offenses for drug offenders. In fact, 84.7% of DWI referrals consisted of 2 or more offenses, whereas only 47.6% of the alcohol and 55.0% of the drug cases involved 2+ offenses.

Table 18.
Day of Incident