Studying crack abusers: strategies for recruiting the right tail of an ill-defined population.
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.
Lewis
C
C
National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., New York, New York 10013.
Johnson
B D
BD
Golub
A
A
Dunlap
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016578:Crack Cocaine; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011153:Population; D012107:Research Design; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States
D016578:Crack Cocaine