Gender Differences in Drug Use and Crime: Patterns of Continuity and Change

提案摘要：吸毒和犯罪的性别差异：连续性和变化的模式这项研究将扩大对理解女性越轨行为至关重要的理论。具体而言，它侧重于性别在改变非法药物滥用和非法收入轨迹方面的影响;它建立在初步研究的基础上，初步研究表明，青年男女的生活存在相当大的差异，这可能导致药物滥用和经济犯罪方面的性别差异。最近的调查仔细审查了刑事犯罪者的经济生活，通过将法律的成就理论应用于非法收入，提供了检验收入确定过程普遍性的模式，但这些调查大多忽视了性别的影响;特别是，以前的研究忽视了福利拨款和最近的《福利改革法》对犯罪和吸毒的性别轨迹的影响。这项研究提出了以下问题：（1）女性吸毒是否受到与男性吸毒相同的预测因素的影响？以及，（2）性别如何影响与药物使用相关的社会危害？目前关于吸毒和经济犯罪原因的理论和研究指出，犯罪根深蒂固（例如，被逮捕，有犯罪”朋友“）作为促进非法活动，而传统的嵌入（例如，结婚、生子、上学、就业）似乎减少了非法行为的吸引力。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，这些传统因素是否同样可以解释女性吸毒和停止犯罪。因此，研究的重点是通常与毒品和犯罪升级和停止有关的因素，并询问这些因素是否解释了女性犯罪和物质使用以及解释了男性行为。这项研究还考虑了这些预测因素是否在不同的经济气候中发生变化，以及福利改革规定的州与州之间的差异是否有助于解释非法药物使用和经济犯罪中的性别差距。数据将来自三个备受推崇的全国代表性纵向调查美国受访者和他们的生命历程过渡在两个不同的时间段：经济衰退的时间和更大的经济机会的时间。这些数据来自全国青年调查（NYS），全国青年纵向调查（NLSY）和国家支持工作示范项目（SW）。数据分析包括使用潜在增长曲线模型估计人内模型，以测试福利收入和收入，家庭因素，教育程度，同伴因素，人口特征和药物使用的经济指标的影响的性别差异。研究问题也解决了使用宏观层面的分析，具体国家的差异，福利改革，政府转移支付，吸毒和犯罪。在州和国家预算短缺的时代，决策者了解预防药物滥用和相关犯罪的最佳手段尤为重要;因此，应该调查针对性别的政策的必要性。该项目的结果将在药物滥用治疗、福利分配和刑事司法干预等领域产生重要的性别政策影响。其智力优势在于，它将实施个人内部模型，这将提供深入了解家庭状况，就业或教育程度的变化如何随着时间的推移可能具有性别意义。以前对毒品和犯罪方面的性别差异进行的研究一直是静态的，因为在某一时刻将男性群体与女性群体进行比较，以确定性别如何影响毒品使用或犯罪。因此，本研究建立在当前的理论和方法论知识的基础上，传达了对性别如何修改非法药物使用和经济收入预测因素的更细致入微的理解。此外，宏观层面的分析将产生一个新的数据集，为研究人员提供关于政府转移支付、犯罪和毒品使用率、贫困水平、失业和就业率以及雇员特征的有价值的各州性别数据;这一分析还将为学者和政策制定者提供关于福利改革前后各州福利政策、犯罪率和毒品使用之间性别关系的信息。

Proposal Abstract: Gender Differences in Drug Use and Crime: Patterns of Continuity and ChangeThis research study will expand theory crucial to understanding female deviance. Specifically it focuses on the effect of gender in altering trajectories of illegal substance abuse and illegal earnings; it builds on preliminary research that demonstrated there are considerable differences between the lives of young men and women that may contribute to gendered differences in substance abuse and economic crime. Recent investigations have scrutinized the economic lives of criminal offenders, offering models that test the generality of the earnings determination process by applying theories of legal attainment to illegal income, but these investigations have, for the most part, ignored the effect of gender; in particular, previous research has ignored the impact of welfare allocations and the recent Welfare Reform Law on gendered trajectories of crime and drug use. This research asks: (1) is female drug use affected by the same predictors as male drug use? and, (2) how does gender affect the social harm associated with drug use? Current theory and research on the causes of drug use and economic crime point to criminal embeddedness (e.g., being arrested, having criminal" friends) as promoting illegal activity whereas conventional embeddedness (e.g., being married, having children, attending school, employment) appears to reduce the appeal of illegal behavior. What is not yet clear, however, is if these conventional factors similarly explain female drug use and criminal desistance. Therefore, the research focus is on factors generally associated with drug and crime escalation and cessation and it asks whether these factors explain female crime and substance use as well they explain male behavior. This research also considers whether these predictors are altered in different economic climates and whether state-to-state differences in welfare reform provisions might help explain the gender gap in illegal drug use and economic crime. Data will be utilized from three well-respected nationally representative longitudinal surveys of U.S. respondents and their life-course transitions during two different time periods: a time of recession and a time of greater economic opportunity. The data come from the National Youth Survey (NYS), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), and the National Supported Work Demonstration Project (SW). Data analysis consists of estimating within-person models using Latent Growth Curve Modeling to test for gender differences in the effect of welfare receipt and income, family factors, educational attainment, peer factors, demographic characteristics, and economic indicators of drug use. The research questions are also addressed using a macro-level analysis of state-specific differences in welfare reform, government transfer spending, and drug use and crime. This macro-level research on state-to-state differences is estimated using pooled time-series analysis.In an era of budget shortfalls on a state and national level, it is especially important that policymakers understand the best means to prevent substance abuse and related crime; therefore, the need for gender-specific policy should be investigated. The results of this project will have important gendered policy implications in areas such as substance abuse treatment, welfare allocation, and criminal justice interventions. Its intellectual merit is that it will implement intra-individual models, which will provide insight into how changes in family status, employment, or educational attainment may have gendered meanings over time. Prior research examining gender differences in drugs and crime has been static, in that groups of men are compared to groups of women at one point in time to determine how gender might affect drug use or crime. Consequently, this research builds on current theoretical and methodological knowledge to convey a more nuanced understanding of how gender modifies the predictors of illegal substance use and economic income. In addition, the macro-level analysis will produce a new dataset, providing researchers with valuable state-specific gendered data on government transfers, crime and drug use rates, poverty levels, unemployment and employment rates, and characteristics of employees; this analysis will also inform academics and policymakers on the gendered relationships between state-specific welfare policy, crime rates, and drug use pre- and post-welfare reform.