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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:46 pm
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Results for geographic analysis
4 results foundAuthor: Gilbreath, Aaron Hastings Title: From Made in America to Hecho en Sinaloa: A Historical Geography of North American Methamphetamine Networks Summary: Most of the major drugs of abuse in the Untied States have a relatively uniform distribution. Their use may cluster in cities, for example, but that general pattern tends to repeat itself in every region of the county. This is not true of the stimulant methamphetamine, which today shows a decidedly uneven distribution. Confounding the matter more is the fact that, because it is a synthetic drug, it is theoretically possible to make methamphetamine anywhere. But it is not made everywhere. In fact, for much of its history, the drug has been concentrated in the American West. Further complicating our understanding is the public's general amnesia regarding methamphetamine's long history in the United States. Without that knowledge, it is impossible to explain the drug' present geography. This dissertation traces the evolution of the various networks that have coalesced around the production and distribution of methamphetamine and finds that much of the drug's current geography can be traced to the manner in which these various groups responded to official attempts to stem the supply of the precursors necessary to produce it. Details: Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2012. 247p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 13, 2013 at: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/10250 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/10250 Shelf Number: 129380 Keywords: Criminal NetworksDrug Abuse and Addition (U.S.)Geographic AnalysisMethamphetamineOrganized Crime |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Country Office Pakistan Title: Female Drug Use in Pakistan: Mapping Estimates, Ethnographic Results and Behavioural Assessment Summary: This study is a part of the overall operational research which includes mapping and size estimation of female drug users, which forms the first key step in developing targeted interventions for this highly vulnerable key population. The results of this mapping study will assist in understanding the drug using scenario among female populations, which will ultimately form a baseline for service provision based on which service providing organizations will develop targeted interventions within a specific geographical setting. In addition to identification of geographical areas where these populations congregate, this study also provides valuable information on overall drug use situation in the targeted communities, economics of drug use, treatment history, criminal justice history, availability of treatment services and various religious and cultural barriers to accessing information and services among the target group. The entire approach focused around involvement of the target community individuals, peer groups and key stakeholders of the project. Although data was collected by an independent research team, the project staff including peer group was involved in the data collection process. The basic approach was largely based on a geographic mapping approach which identified key locations where key population members were found and quantified. In addition to identifying the key locations, individual drug users were contacted through peer group members and supplemented by tracing contact chains from identified drug users to reaching other drug using females in a given location. This study was conducted in all cities where subsequently a service delivery programme through the project "HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care for FDUs and injecting drug users", was to be placed. After distributing each target site into zone, information on drug using populations was collected through Tertiary and Secondary Key Informants in each Zone to generate a list of Spots where FDUs could be found in this phase. Various drug treatment centers and rehabilitation programs in each city were also visited to obtain contacts of FDUs in that community. Pharmacies were also visited and information was gathered about various females, who have been buying non prescription drugs regularly. In addition locations where drug users could be found including graveyards, open spaces, shrines, darbars etc., were also visited. The basic objective in Phase one was to develop an exhaustive list of all FDUs in all zones within each city, which was later validated in Phase 02, by visiting each spot and interviewing female drug users and asking for contacts of their peers involved with drug use. Once contact information for other FDUs was provided by a subject, the social mobilizers along with the field team members traced that subject, and an interview with that subject was subsequently conducted. The mapping study was followed by behavioral assessment, and the main data collection strategy involved face to face in-depth interviews of randomly selected FDUs in each site. A total number of 1,391 interviews were conducted in all 13 cities under study, and information obtained through these interviews was recorded in a pre-designed, pretested questionnaire. Data management was done by the data management team, and questionnaires after field editing were double entered in a data base designed in MS Access. Data set was thoroughly edited and cleaned, and data analysis was conducted using statistical software SPSS version 12.00. A total number of 3,538 interviews were conducted with both Secondary and Primary Key Informants. Based on the data collected during Phase I and validated in Phase II, an estimated number of 4,632 FDUs spread over 2,479 locations were estimated in the 13 cities where mapping was conducted. As expected, the highest number of FDUs was estimated to be 1,213 in Karachi, followed by Lahore and Faisalabad, where the numbers were 593 and 511 respectively. On an average 1.8 - 1.7 FDUs were reported from a single location, and 65.2% of the locations reported having a single FDU present. Unlike male drug users who congregate and use drugs with other drug users, drug use is a discreet, hidden and more of an individual activity for female drug users. Charas was the most common drug used by FDUs all over the country and 28% of the interviewed drug users reported that they used it in the last one month. Bhang was the next drug of choice reported, which was used by 14.2% of the FDUs interviewed. A fairly high proportion of females (13.6%) also reported to be using Heroin, while use of Pharmaceutical drugs was reported by 12.6% of drug users. Our study confirmed the available anecdotal information, that injecting is not a common route of drug intake among drug using females. A total of 71 female injecting drug users (FIDUs) were identified among the total estimated number of 4,632 FDUs, which calculated a prevalence of 1.5% of IDU among female drug users. Further to this, injecting drugs was reported from only 05 cities out of the 13 cities surveyed. For behavioral assessments, a total number of 1,391 interviews were conducted. The mean age of the FDUs who participated in this study was reported to be 32.8 - 9.6 yrs (median 32 yrs), while the maximum proportion (nearly 72%) of the drug users were between 21 to 40 yrs of age. Majority of the FDUs were illiterate; 66% of the FDUs interviewed did not receive any formal schooling. Nearly 60% of the interviewed females were currently married, while 15.6% reported to be never married. The remaining 24% were either widowed, or divorced/ separated from their husbands and were living separately. Ninety one % of the subjects interviewed belonged to the same city where they were interviewed and the majority was Punjabi speaking (45.3%). Charas (Hash) was the most common drug used by FDUs all over the country and 58% of the interviewed drug users reported using it ever and also in the last six months. 42% reported that they had used it in the last month as well. Pharmaceutical drugs were the next drugs of choice followed by Heroin and Bhang. The behavioral data is in agreement with the results of the mapping study conducted in phase one, which also showed similar results on drug use and injecting drug use, which was reported from only 05 cities, with very few numbers of females reported to be injecting drugs. 41.5% of the injectors reported that they had been injected daily, while another 32% informed that they have injected at least once a week in the last 6 months. Although 30% of the injectors have been injecting alone, the remaining had been injecting in groups with other IDUs. Nearly half of the subjects informed that they had been sharing syringes with other IDUs. The mean age of 1 sexual intercourse was reported to be 18.5 - 3.7 yrs. A fairly high proportion were reported to be sexually active, with high numbers of sexual partners in the last 6 months (4.9 - 16.2), suggesting they were sexually involved with a fairly large number of men. 13.5% of the FDUs reported to have sex with another male IDUs, and 25% reported selling sex for drugs or money. Only 3.7% reported that they always used a condom during the last 6 months. Approximately 44% of the FDUs interviewed had ever heard of the disease called HIV/AIDS. Knowledge of sexual intercourse as a mode of transmission of the disease was prevalent among 40% of FSWs, but only 22% knew that HIV can be transmitted by sharp instrument/needles and syringes. 19.5% knew that HIV can spread through blood transfusion, while knowledge of mother to child transmission was still lower (9.8%). While the correct knowledge of HIV transmission was fairly low, a few misconceptions about transmission of HIV were also reported. While 17% of the respondents interviewed were aware of where they could be tested for HIV, nearly half of those had been tested for HIV. Thirty one % of the FDUs interviewed knew that there are diseases which spread because of sexual intercourse. A very low proportion (13.2%) of the respondents reported that they have been treated at least once for drug use. The maximum proportion of drug users informed that they utilized private clinical facilities for treatment. This was followed by treatment services provided by NGOs and government hospitals which were 32% and 31% respectively. Nearly 11% of the FDUs interviewed that they have tried home based treatment for drug use as well. 73% of the respondent suggested that they need to be treated and showed a willingness to participate in a treatment program if offered. Only 4.3% of the respondents reported that they were arrested for reasons such as drug use (60%), drug pushing (30%), sex work (5%) and other minor petty crimes (5%) e.g., theft etc., This study addressed some of the critical issues related to women drug use, which have not been dealt adequately in previous research conducted in Pakistan. Apparently, the problem drug use in women might appear insignificant and trivial when comparing the numbers of female drug users to the enormous number of male drug using populations in the country. However, drug use occurrence among women has an impact that goes beyond the individual and affects the entire social network of families with greater negative impacts on children. Based on the conclusions of this research, an effective targeted response is necessary in order to promote safer behavior, improve access to effective health and social services, and to address the underlying structural and occupational dimensions of vulnerability. More research is warranted to gain more in depth understating of the populations, conduct more reliable size estimations and recognize the personal, environmental and social factors which lead to drug use among women. Efforts to minimize the stigma should be given high priority. Activities which involve and facilitate collective actions, such as developing associations/unions and networks, and involving the media in a positive way should be encouraged. Families of FDUs should be focused to provide support for treatment and rehabilitation. Legal assistance should be provided to FDUs to manage drug offences, petty crime and issues of violence and harassment. There is a need to broaden the focus of existing service delivery programs to address a broad and long-term perspective, and should incorporate "community based" and "women-centered" approach. The provision of Drug abuse treatment services, comprehensive harm reduction services through developing drop in centers, and providing outreach services through use of female outreach workers should be the broad focus of these services. Special emphasis should be laid on meeting the mental health needs of the target population. Depression, isolation and a feeling of being useless is a fairly commonly characteristic shared by most women. While efforts are needed to improve the mental state of the individual, family members especially spouses need to be focused to provide a supporting mechanism for the recovering FDUs. There is a need to building the right capacity within implementing organizations which equips the staff and resource personnel to deal with the issues of drug use among female using a professional and technical approach. Finally, a monitoring and evaluation framework is desired, followed by development of tools which are more user friendly and less punitive. The entire monitoring system should be managed by a management information system to provide timely and cost effective information for decision making, and effective management of the a.m., project in a systematic and timely manner. Details: Islamabad: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Country Office Pakistan, 2010. 81p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 17, 2015 at: https://www.unodc.org/documents/pakistan//female_drugs_use.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Pakistan URL: https://www.unodc.org/documents/pakistan//female_drugs_use.pdf Shelf Number: 137308 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug Abuse and CrimeFemale Drug OffendersFemale OffendersGeographic AnalysisHIV |
Author: Heim, Krista Title: Visualization and Modeling for Crime Data Indexed by Road Segments Summary: This research develops crime hotspot analysis and visualization methodology that use street segments as the basic study unit. This incorporates the distance between points along a polyline rather than the standard Euclidean distance and has some distinct advantages over past methods. For each crime, this method creates a weight according to its distance from each road segment of its surrounding block. To create the hotspot visualization map, crime counts are smoothed over road segments based on the distance to nearest segments and the angle at which nearest roads meet at intersections. Crime data from the City of Alexandria, VA Police Department and San Francisco, CA (available at data.sfgov.org) are considered here using a combination of conventional ArcGIS and R graphics. I assume that demographic variables related to crime in large areas are still relevant to crime rates at the local level and seek to make use of the most spatially detailed data accessible. Decennial demographic variables at the block level for 2010 from the U.S. Census are associated with road segments by assigning the available values to the surrounding segments of each block. These variables include age, gender, population, and housing for both locations. Variables also considered are police calls for service, housing prices, elevation and speed limits. I discuss/compare area crime counts with polyline crime counts using (zero-inflated) Poisson and Negative Binomial regression with crime-related covariates, as well as MCMC Poisson-Gamma Conditional Autoregressive (CAR) model in CrimeStat IV and a localized CAR model in R using distances between segments as weights. Conditional variable importance is measured using conditional random forest modeling to see which of the covariates are the most important predictors of crime and to decide which variables are the most appropriate to consider for visualization. Principal components are also used to create independent linear combinations of predictor variables. While most visualization approaches for street segments have emphasized one variable at a time, this research uses a 3 x 3 grid of maps using DPnet to highlight each grouping of road segments associated with classes based on two covariates. This multivariate visualization will allow us to explore multiple variables at a time and their patterns along a road network. Details: Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2014. 164p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed December 20, 2016 at: http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/8991/Heim_gmu_0883E_10696.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/8991/Heim_gmu_0883E_10696.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 147789 Keywords: Crime AnalysisCrime HotspotsGeographic Analysis Geographic Studies High Crime Areas |
Author: Painter-Davis, Noah Title: Immigration Effects on Violent Crime in Context of the Geographic Diversification of the Latino Population Summary: In response to the tremendous growth of the Latino and Latino immigrant populations over the past thirty years, there has been an increase in both studies that examine the effects of immigration on crime or that incorporate Latinos into tests of the relationship between structural disadvantage and racial/ethnic disparities in crime. Despite the contributions of these studies, research in these areas has yet to fully investigate how these relationships may be shaped by the recent geographic diversification of Latino populations to emerging destinations, locales with little or no history of immigration. Rather, these lines of research have largely focused on established Latino destinations, communities with legacies of immigration and "contexts of reception" that are arguably more favorable for Latinos and Latino immigrants. This study examines relationships between race/ethnicity, social structure, and violence amid the geographic diversification of Latino populations to emerging destinations. Two key objectives are addressed. The primary objective of this dissertation is to examine how the link between immigration and crime is contextualized by immigrant destination types and the race/ethnicity of offenders. Specifically, I examine (a) if the effects of immigration on crime differ depending on whether the movement of Latino immigrants is into established as compared to emerging immigrant communities and (b) whether immigration's effects vary by the race/ethnicity of the offender (White, Black, Latino). The secondary objective of the study is to advance racial invariance research, which argues that the structural sources of crime are similar across racial groups, by assessing the hypothesis separately in both established and emerging immigrant destinations. Specifically, using samples of established and emerging destinations, I examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in the way that structural disadvantage and indicators of social disorganization (i.e. residential instability, racial/ethnic heterogeneity, population density) impact group rates of violence. To address these issues my study draws on a strong theoretical and empirical framework. Theoretically, my study merges theories of immigration and crime (also race and crime) with sociological perspectives that link social change to racial/ethnic stratification. Empirically, I address the above objectives using race/ethnicity-specific (e.g. White, Black, Latino) arrest data on violent crime from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the crime reporting programs of California, New York, and Texas linked with census place structural characteristics from the 2000 census. I examine the effects of structural factors on crime at the census place-level with a full set of census places (N=528) and with samples of both established (N=297) and emerging destinations (N=117). I use two measures of crime, an expressive violence index (sum of assaults and homicides) which captures violence that typically arises out of disputes, and robbery, a form of violence that is financially motivated. Seemingly Unrelated Regression is used to compare the effects of structural factors on violence across racial/ethnic groups. Two important findings emerge from the immigration analyses. First, in general, immigration has small or trivial effects on violence and this pattern holds across most comparisons, including most destination and race/ethnicity specific models. Second, despite the general pattern of immigration having small or trivial effects, the immigration-crime link is contextualized to some extent by immigrant destination type and by race/ethnicity. The most notable contextualization is moderate to strong crime-generating effects of immigration on Black robbery and Latino robbery in emerging destinations. These findings suggest that when examining the effect immigration has on crime it is important to account for both the immigrant destination type and the race/ethnicity of the offender. There are two key findings from the racial invariance analyses. First, for the full set of communities, structural disadvantage is associated with higher rates of violence for each racial/ethnic group, but the effects are significantly stronger for some groups compared to others. Second, conclusions regarding racial invariance vary somewhat depending on the destination type under study. In both established and emerging destinations, structural disadvantage is associated with higher rates of violence for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos. However, there are more differences (i.e. a greater number of statistically significant differences) in the way structural disadvantage impacts groups in established destinations than in emerging destinations. In established destinations, the effects of disadvantage are more likely to vary across groups, having stronger effects on one group compared to another (e.g. disadvantage has stronger effects on Blacks than Whites). In emerging destinations, the magnitude of the effects of disadvantage are more likely to be statistically similar across groups. Because there are more differences in the effects of structural disadvantage on violence in established destinations, there is less support for the racial invariance hypothesis in established destinations than in emerging destinations. All in all, my dissertation finds that the geographic diversification of immigrant populations to emerging destinations has important implications for the links between immigration and crime and between structural disadvantage and racial/ethnic disparities in crime, with immigrant destination types shaping how these structural factors impact crime. Details: University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 2013. 228p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed November 6, 2018 at: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/8740 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/8740 Shelf Number: 153279 Keywords: Geographic AnalysisHomicide Illegal Immigrants Immigrants and Crime Latinos Neighborhoods and Crime Race and Crime Violent Crime |