The Sexual Acquisition and Transmission of HIV Cooperative Agreement Program (SATHCAP) examined the role of drug use in the sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from traditional high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and drug users (DU), to lower risk groups in three US cities and in St. Petersburg, Russia. SATHCAP employed respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and a dual high-risk group sampling approach that relied on peer recruitment for a combined, overlapping sample of MSM and DU. The goal of the sampling approach was to recruit an RDS sample of MSM, DU, and individuals who were both MSM and DU (MSM/DU), as well as a sample of sex partners of MSM, DU, and MSM/DU and sex partners of sex partners. The approach efficiently yielded a sample of 8,355 participants, including sex partners, across all four sites. At the US sites-Los Angeles, Chicago, and Raleigh-Durham-the sample consisted of older (mean age=41 years), primarily black MSM and DU (both injecting and non-injecting); in St. Petersburg, the sample consisted of primarily younger (mean age=28 years) MSM and DU (injecting). The US sites recruited a large proportion of men who have sex with men and with women, an important group with high potential for establishing a generalized HIV epidemic involving women. The advantage of using the dual high-risk group approach and RDS was, for the most part, the large, efficiently recruited samples of MSM, DU, and MSM/DU. The disadvantages were a recruitment bias by race/ethnicity and income status (at the US sites) and under-enrollment of MSM samples because of short recruitment chains (at the Russian site).

In 1996, California provided funding to 14 county probation agencies to implement multiagency, comprehensive services to keep troubled youths from recommitting crime and progressing farther into the justice system. We report results of a randomized experiment used to evaluate Ventura County’s 4-year demonstration project called the South Oxnard Challenge Project (SOCP). We followed youths for more than 2 years after random assignment to SOCP or routine probation. We found no significant differences between SOCP and routine juvenile probationers on recidivism or other official-record outcomes. Although most youths were rearrested, most did not receive a sustained petition or incarceration. The modest additional services did not affect outcomes.

Disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are strikingly over-represented in the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice systems. This paper briefly reviews the extent of over-representation attributable primarily to drug offenses and an earlier conceptual framework introduced by Iguchi and colleagues showing how the use of incarceration as a key drug control tool has disproportionately affected the health and well being of racial and ethnic minority communities. We then provide observations from the field that demonstrate how the implementation of a quality assessment approach might be used to mitigate procedural/structural biases that contribute to disparities in minority confinement, and ultimately, to reduce disparities in access to resources and health care.

Disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are strikingly over-represented in the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice systems. This paper briefly reviews the extent of over-representation attributable primarily to drug offenses and an earlier conceptual framework introduced by Iguchi and colleagues showing how the use of incarceration as a key drug control tool has disproportionately affected the health and well being of racial and ethnic minority communities. We then provide observations from the field that demonstrate how the implementation of a quality assessment approach might be used to mitigate procedural/structural biases that contribute to disparities in minority confinement, and ultimately, to reduce disparities in access to resources and health care.

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