A typology of St. Louis arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug AbuseMonitoring (ADAM) Program

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