Heroin Injection Essay, Research Paper

I choose the article ?Heroin injection among addicted felons.? In this article, the authors researched a total of five hypotheses. However, I decided to focus on the social network hypothesis, which states that white heroin users are more likely than black and Hispanic users to adopt the method of injection.

The variables associated with the author?s investigation are ethnicity (white, black and Hispanics) age and whether subjects ever injected heroin or not. Ethnicity is an independent variable and is considered a qualitative variable. Age is also considered an independent variable, but is a quantitative variable. The dependent variable is whether the subjects injected heroin or not. A Chi-square test was used to find the relationships between categorical variable, measuring the sample characteristics and the presence or absence of heroin injection. Also, the Pearson Correlation ? was used as a statistical method to test their hypothesis.

There were 366 heroin-addicted felons tested from Brooklyn, New York. These were nonviolent felony offenders arrested for drug sales between 1991 and 1998. There were a total of 823 participants, but the investigators only choose the 366 subjects because they reported heroin as their primary drug. From the users tested Hispanics consisted of the largest group (76%) followed by Blacks (20%) and Whites (4%).

According to the sample, data, and variables the ethnic factors portrayed a statistically and substantively strong association with heroin injection. 63% of the Whites tested were self identified injectors, while only 50% Blacks and 37% of the Hispanics reported using injection. According to the data, the p value was less than or equal to .01 and the Pearson correlation was .24. The chi-square test is listed below:

According to the data, I believe their hypothesis was correct. They were able to get a low enough p value and high enough Pearson Correlation to prove that ethnic groups really developed there own heroin subcultures that would influence injecting behavior.

Feng, L., Sung, H., & Tabachnick, C. (1999). Heroin injection among addicted felons:

Testing extant theories. Deviant Behavior: An interdisciplinary Journal, 21, 381-403.