Studying Crack Abusers: Strategies for Recruiting the Right Tail of an Ill-defined Population

Abstract

This study attempts to better understand a limited segment of the drug-abusing population, especially individuals who repeatedly use crack and other drugs. This article addresses the methodological strategies and underlying paradigms informing the recruitment of hard-to-reach and ill-defined subpopulations of crack abusers and noncrack drug abusers. Subjects were recruited from diverse social contexts: streets or communities where most drug users do their business, arrested persons who were released, jail inmates, probationers and parolees, prison inmates, and treatment settings. A systematic comparison of subject attributes across recruitment locales and with other, similar target groups is presented. The utility and external comparability of the recruitment techniques are supported by the findings.

Nurturing for Careers in Drug Use and Crime: Conduct Norms for Children and Juveniles in Crack-Using Households

“…In-depth tape-recorded interviews have been conducted with 296 subjects; the tapes' contents have been transcribed and analyzed. Several papers provide details of the qualitative methods used in the project, including respondent recruitment and interviewing procedures (Dunlap et al, 1990;Lewis et al, 1992;Johnson, 1994a, 1994b), hypertext techniques for analyzing large textual data sets , and the use of case study methods .…”

Strategies to avoid arrest: crack sellers’ response to intensified policing

“…This analysis derives from an ongoing large-scale ethnographic study designed to develop systematic understanding of crack selling and drug careers, the "Natural History of Crack Distribution/Abuse" project. This project has collected detailed information on the structure and functioning of cocaine and crack distribution in New York City, primarily in inner-city minority communities where crack selling has become a major career for many citizens (Dunlap andJohnson, 1992, 1994;Dunlap et al, 1990;Lewis et al, 1992;Manwar et al, 1994;Williams et al, 1992).…”

Aumento da procura de tratamento por usuários de crack em dois ambulatórios na cidade de São Paulo: nos anos de 1990 a 1993

“…No entanto, esses dados são úteis como indicadores indiretos, sendo, freqüentemente, utilizados para avaliar a prevalência de usuários com uso abusivo 15 . Em relação ao crack especificamente, o padrão de uso e outras características parecem diferir, quando comparados não apenas com populações que não estão em tratamento, mas, também, com populações que fazem uso abusivo de outras drogas 16 .…”