Past research has demonstrated that the characteristics of substance abusers vary considerably. Often, however, addicts are considered members of a single, homogeneous group. These erroneous designations may indeed prevent the successful rehabilitation of substance abusers. In the present study, hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses are used to identify a typology of substance users from a sample of 1,580 St. Louis arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program. Five clusters are yielded in the present analysis. The analyses illustrate not only that drug-using classifications differ between criminal and non-criminal populations, but that arrestee populations themselves vary interjurisdictionally. Given these findings, implications for local and regional drug treatment programs are assessed.
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