Validity of behavioral measures as proxies for HIV-related outcomes.

Over the last 30 years, expectations for the quality, validity, and objectivity of the outcome measures used to assess the impact of behavior change interventions related to HIV have steadily increased. At this point (mid-2014 at this writing), biologic evidence or biomarkers of the incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in a target population is clearly preferable to self-reports of behavior. This kind of evidence is, however, much more expensive to collect than participants' reports of behavior change (eg, increased condom use, reduced substance use or abstinence from substance use, and high levels of medication adherence).

Drug treatment services for adult offenders: the state of the state.

We conducted a national survey of prisons, jails, and community correctional agencies to estimate the prevalence of entry into and accessibility of correctional programs and drug treatment services for adult offenders. Substance abuse education and awareness is the most prevalent form of service provided, being offered in 74% of prisons, 61% of jails, and 53% of community correctional agencies; at the same time, remedial education is the most frequently available correctional program in prisons (89%) and jails (59.5%), whereas sex offender therapy (57.

How much for a dime bag? An exploration of youth drug markets.

Relatively little is known about how youth obtain marijuana and other drugs. The Drugs, Alcohol and Violence International (DAVI) study explored youthful drug markets among samples of school students, detained youth, and school dropouts (ages 14-17 years) in the greater metropolitan areas of Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, and Amsterdam. Students frequently reported sharing drugs, either getting them from others or giving them to others for free.

Girls and weapons: an international study of the perpetration of violence.

The purpose of this study was to describe delinquent girls' weapons preferences where and how often they carried weapons and to identify the most important factors that explained four different weapon-related violent outcomes. A large, high-risk sample of female adolescents consisting of 510 girls aged 14-17 in four cities were interviewed using the same questionnaire and methods. Tabular and logistic regression analyses were applied.

Introduction: Progress and issues in drug treatment courts.

The first drug treatment court began in Miami, Florida in 1989, in direct response to the backlog of court cases for drug possession and trafficking. By mid-2001, there were 700 operational drug treatment courts and 400 more in the planning stages in the United States. In addition to providing an overview of the growth and development of drug treatment courts in the United States, this special issue examines their development in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.