Criminal Justice Recent Scholarship Edited by Marilyn McShane and Frank P. Williams III A Series from LFB Scholarly Drug Use and Delinquency Causes of Dropping Out of High School? Joseph M. Gasper LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC El Paso 2012 Copyright © 2012 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gasper, Joseph M., 1980- Drug use and delinquency : causes of dropping out of high school? / Joseph M. Gasper. p. cm. -- (Criminal justice: recent scholarship) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59332-491-9 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. High school dropouts--Social conditions--United States. 2. High school dropouts--Drug use--United States. 3. Problem youth--Drug use--United States. 4. Juvenile delinquency--United States. I. Title. LC146.6.G37 2012 373.12'9130973--dc23 2011036656 ISBN 978-1-59332-491-9 Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper. Manufactured in the United States of America. Table of Contents List of Tables.......................................................................................vii List of Figures.......................................................................................xi Acknowledgements.............................................................................xiii Chapter 1: Drug Use, Delinquency, and Dropout..................................1 Chapter 2: Causes of Dropout................................................................7 Chapter 3: Distinguishing Causes from Symptoms.............................29 Chapter 4: Explaining Drug Use, Delinquency, and Dropout..............51 Chapter 5: Toward a Theory of Precocious Development...................79 Endnotes..............................................................................................99 Appendix............................................................................................105 References..........................................................................................189 Index .............................................................................................203 v List of Tables Table A-1. Summary of prior studies on delinquency, drug use, and dropout 106 Table A- 2. Controls included by prior studies 113 Table A- 3. Variable definitions 115 Table A-4. Items used to create delinquency and drug use scales 121 Table A-5. Restrictions to obtain final NLSY97 sample 124 Table A-6. Number of person-years observations contributed by youth 124 Table A- 7. Descriptive statistics, pooled 125 Table A- 8. Comparison of included and excluded youth in 1997 131 Table A- 9. Descriptive statistics for delinquency and drug use 135 Table A- 10. Comparison of dropouts and non-dropouts in 1997, by poverty status 137 Table A- 11. Dropout status in 1998 by delinquency in 1997, by poverty status 142 vii viii List of Tables Table A- 12. Dropout status in 1998 by drug use in 1997, by poverty status 145 Table A- 13. Regressions of dropout on delinquency 146 Table A- 14. Regressions of dropout on drug use 150 Table A- 15. Regressions of dropout on delinquency and drug use 154 Table A- 16. Summary of regressions of dropout on delinquency, by offense type 158 Table A- 17. Summary of regressions of dropout on drug use, by drug type 161 Table A- 18. Summary of alternative model specifications for delinquency 162 Table A- 19. Summary of alternative model specifications for drug use 166 Table A- 20. Regressions of dropout on delinquency, interaction with poverty status 170 Table A- 21. Regressions of dropout on drug use, interaction with poverty status 171 Table A- 22. Summary of regressions of dropout on delinquency and drug use, interaction with alternative measure of poverty status 172 Table A- 23. Regressions of dropout on delinquency, interactions with social sanctions 173 Table A- 24. Regressions of dropout on drug use, interactions with social sanctions 174 Table A- 25. Regressions of dropout on delinquency, interactions with social sanctions and poverty status 175 List of Tables ix Table A- 26. Regressions of dropout on drug use, interactions with social sanctions and poverty status 177 Table A- 27. Predictors of delinquency, 1997 179 Table A- 28. Predictors of drug use, 1997 184