title: Neighborhood-level LGBT hate crimes and current illicit drug use among sexual minority youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether past-30 day illicit drug use among sexual minority youth was more common in neighborhoods with a greater prevalence of hate crimes targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT, or sexual minority) individuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a population-based survey of public school youth in Boston, Massachusetts, consisting of 1292 9th-12th grade students from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey Geospatial Dataset (sexual minority n=108). Data on LGBT hate crimes involving assaults or assaults and battery between 2005 and 2008 were obtained from the Boston Police Department and linked to youths' residential address. Youth reported past-30 day use of marijuana and other illicit drugs. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests and corresponding p-values were computed to assess differences in substance use by neighborhood-level LGBT assault hate crime rate among sexual minority youth (n=103).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The LGBT assault hate crime rate in the neighborhoods of sexual minority youth who reported current marijuana use was 23.7 per 100,000, compared to 12.9 per 100,000 for sexual minority youth who reported no marijuana use (p=0.04). No associations between LGBT assault hate crimes and marijuana use among heterosexual youth (p>0.05) or between sexual minority marijuana use and overall neighborhood-level violent and property crimes (p>0.05) were detected, providing evidence for result specificity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found a significantly greater prevalence of marijuana use among sexual minority youth in neighborhoods with a higher prevalence of LGBT assault hate crimes. These results suggest that neighborhood context (i.e., LGBT hate crimes) may contribute to sexual orientation disparities in marijuana use.
authors: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: dustin.duncan@nyumc.org.
authors: Dustin T
authors: DT
authors: Duncan
authors: Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Center for the Study of Social Inequalities and Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors: Mark L
authors: ML
authors: Hatzenbuehler
authors: Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Renee M
authors: RM
authors: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D001900:Boston / Q000208:ethnology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D063106:Transgender Persons / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs
keywords: Illicit drug use; LGBT assault hate crimes; Marijuana use; Sexual orientation; Social determinants