CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
AUGUST 2010
www.cjcj.org
Public Policy Study

Scapegoating Immigrants: Arizona’s Real Crisis
Is Rooted in State Residents’ Soaring Drug Abuse

by

Mike Males, PhD
Senior Research Fellow, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Professor of Sociology, University of California Santa Cruz
Daniel Macallair, MPA
Executive Director, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice

Funding was provided by a grant from the Fund for Nonviolence and Drug Policy Alliance. Conclusions
and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the report’s sponsors

I. Introduction and Background
From 1990 to 2010, Arizona gained more than 1.3
million new Hispanic residents, approximately 1
million of whom located in the Phoenix metropolitan
area.1 With 2 million legal and an estimated 300,000
undocumented Hispanic residents in the state today,
approximately 31 percent of Arizona’s population and
perhaps as much as 35 percent of the population
within its borders is of Hispanic origin.2
This report examines crime and drug abuse trends in
Arizona over the last two decades of massive legal
and nonlegal Hispanic in-migration. Arizona’s recent
anti-immigrant law3 is based on the theory that crime
rates, especially related to drug distribution, and other
social ills are driven by increases in legal and
nonlegal immigration (see sidebar). Arizona’s
governor even stated that, “the majority of the illegal
trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona
are under the direction and control of organized drug
cartels, and they are bringing drugs in.”4
Based on a detailed analysis of law enforcement
reports on crime rates in Arizona and the growth of
the state’s Hispanic population over the past 20 years,
this report finds that widespread assertions by many
opinion leaders attributing rising crime to increased
immigration are not confirmed by the best
information available. To the contrary, this analysis
found that crime rates in Arizona have fallen
precipitously over the past 20 years as immigration
has increased. Not only has crime plummeted, the
number of undocumented immigrants in Arizona
dropped by an estimated 40 percent, or by 200,000,
from 2007 to 2010 due to the state’s economic and
employment difficulties.5

Conservative, anti-immigrant interests
have depicted Arizona as besieged by
burgeoning immigrant-driven drugs,
violence, and costly policing.
Fox News Channel’s Bill O'Reilly
(among others) repeatedly has blamed
Arizona’s “500,000 illegal aliens” for
(in O’Reilly’s words) bringing a crime
wave in Arizona, particularly Phoenix,
that is “overwhelming… dangerous …
through the roof,” creating social
chaos”
so
“desperate”
and
“dangerous” that the state had to
impose its draconian 2010 crackdown
requiring police to demand papers
proving citizenship from anyone
suspected of illegal status.
“Arizona had to do something,”
O’Reilly declared. “In the capital city,
Phoenix, crime’s out of control. For
example, last year, New York City,
with six times as many residents as
Phoenix, had just 16,000 more
reported [violent] crimes.”*
O’Reilly’s apples-oranges comparison
is seriously misleading, as even
cursory fact-checking would have
revealed. The latest FBI (2010) crime
report** shows that in 2009, New
York had 5.3 times Phoenix’s
population and 5.3 times its reported
violent crimes—that is, identical
violent crime rates—and both cities
were experiencing plunging crime of
all types.
*See The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News,
May 3, 4, 6, 13, and 14, 2010.
**FBI
(Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation),
Uniform
Crime
Reports (Crime in the United States),
Offenses reported to law enforcement,
January to December 2009. Posted at:
www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/tabl
e_4.html.

Why, then, has panic over illegal immigration
suddenly emerged as a political and news media
force? This report suggests that new fears toward
immigration have become conflated with deeper
anxieties over Arizona’s unadmitted crisis of soaring drug abuse among its resident population.
The state’s Vital Statistician recently acknowledged that officials had severely underreported
drug-related deaths,6 which has obscured the magnitude of the crisis. Newly revised figures show
deaths from illicit drug abuse have soared, primarily among White populations, to become
Arizona’s second leading cause of non-natural mortality (lagging only suicide, which has a large
drug abuse component). Drug-related hospital emergency cases also exploded to nearly 12,000
per year in the Phoenix area, with cases involving Whites rising rapidly while Hispanic cases
2

dropped. Does Arizona represent the latest chapter in historically misdirected panics toward
feared immigrant and minority groups to avoid confronting a serious, homegrown drug crisis?
Background
Yale University historian David F. Musto documented in Scientific American the “powerful
theme in the American perception of drugs” linked to “a feared or rejected group in American
society.”7 In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a massive addiction crisis fueled by opiate- and
alcohol-laced patent medicines afflicting more than 1 million mostly middle-aged, White
Americans was obscured by politician, press, and violent mob attacks against Chinese immigrant
“opium fiends” falsely blamed for widespread kidnappings and other crimes against Whites.
Rising alcohol abuse centered in mainstream society in the early 1900s was accompanied by
panics against Catholic immigrants and black male “cocaine fiends,” the latter depicted by police
and the press as raping White women en masse while enjoying invulnerability to police bullets.8
Public fear in the 1930s, during what was really a temporary crisis of alcohol abuse following the
repeal of Prohibition, was stoked by Commissioner of Narcotics Harry J. Anslinger and
sensational news stories blaming “Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers” for supposed
epidemics of “marihuana”-fueled violence, crime, insanity, and seductions of White women.9
Politicians, media reports, and popular films repeatedly portrayed menacing immigrant and
ethnic drug dealers perpetrating heroin crises in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, when the real
epidemic was prescription barbiturate abuse afflicting more affluent Americans.
This regrettable historical pattern strongly suggests skepticism toward this latest campaign to
blame immigrants for crime and drugs. This report will examine Arizona’s crime and drug trends
to determine the extent to which they relate to the Hispanic immigrants on whom these problems
publicly are blamed, or to an unadmitted epidemic of drug abuse among its resident population.
II. Arizona crime: DOWN
After a massive, 195% increase in the state’s Hispanic population over the last two decades
(Table 1),10 the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s latest Crime in Arizona report shows
corresponding declines in crime rates through 2009 (Table 2).11 In particular, since 1995, raw
numbers of nearly every criminal offense declined by 26%.
Table 1. Arizona population, 1990-2009
Year
Total*
Hispanic*
Non-Hispanic*
Percent Hispanic
1990
3,679,056
695,435
2,983,621
18.9%
1995
4,433,841
965,163
3,468,678
21.8%
2000
5,166,810
1,312,983
3,853,827
25.4%
2005
5,961,239
1,688,754
4,272,485
28.3%
2010 proj.
6,637,000
2,050,000
4,587,000
31.0%
Change
+80%
+195%
+54%
+64%
(Source: See Endnote 2) *Does not include illegal aliens. Note: In all tables, figures, and text discussion, “White” is
non-Hispanic of European origin; “Other non-Hispanic” is Native, African, Asian, and other non-Hispanic
race/ethnicity. Arrests may be of legal or illegal individuals, but crime rates are calculated from legal population
numbers.

In 2009, major drops in crime occurred in all major Arizona population areas, including those
surrounding Phoenix. Despite a growth of over 2 million in the state’s population, the state
experienced 4,000 fewer violent offenses and 90,000 fewer serious felonies in 2009 than in 1995.
3

In terms of population adjusted rates, murder in Arizona is down 52%, violent crime is down
44%, and property felonies are down 53% since the early 1990s. Arizona’s violent crime rate is
at its lowest level since 1971, and all serious, Part I (Index) crime is at its lowest ebb since
1965.12
Table 2. Arizona crime index offense rates and raw numbers, 1990-2009
Crime rates per 100,000 population
Raw crime numbers
Year
All Index
Homicide
Violent
Murders
Violent crimes
Property crimes
1990
7,859.1
7.7
649.9
284
23,911
265,229
1991
7,330.2
7.7
663.9
291
25,152
252,559
1992
6,878.3
8.0
656.5
312
25,706
243,629
1993
7,195.1
8.3
692.2
339
28,142
264,371
1994
7,607.0
10.0
675.0
426
28,653
294,273
1995
8,213.6
10.4
713.5
439
30,095
316,355
1996
7,067.0
8.5
631.5
377
27,963
284,964
1997
7,195.0
8.2
623.7
375
28,411
299,323
1998
6,575.0
8.1
577.9
376
26,984
280,001
1999
5,896.1
8.0
551.1
384
26,334
255,401
2000
5,829.5
7.0
531.7
359
27,281
271,811
2001
6,077.8
7.5
540.3
400
28,675
293,874
2002
6,404.3
7.1
554.5
387
30,171
318,296
2003
6,106.0
7.9
472.0
441
26,334
314,335
2004
5,836.5
7.2
505.9
414
28,952
291,203
2005
5,416.2
7.6
519.4
445
30,478
287,345
2006
5,062.5
7.7
500.0
462
30,082
274,484
2007
4,846.2
7.5
469.4
463
28,950
269,918
2008
4,421.4
6.2
439.7
392
27,791
251,677
2009
3,951.5
5.0
402.8
324
26,094
229,872
Change:
2008-2009
-11%
-19%
- 8%
-68
-1,697
-21,805
1995-2009
-52%
-52%
-44%
-115
-4,001
-86,483
1990-2009
-50%
-35%
-38%
40
2,183
-35,357
(Sources: See Endnote 10 & 11) *Index (Part I) felonies combine violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery, and
aggravated assault) and property felonies (burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft). Offenses may be committed
by either legal or illegal individuals, but crime rates are calculated from legal population numbers.

Of particular relevance is the decline in overall arrests for the Hispanic population relative to all
other groups. This drop in the Hispanic arrest rate shown in law enforcement reports directly
contradicts public proclamations by the anti-immigration law’s supporters that Hispanics are
responsible for a growing and disproportionate share of Arizona’s crime.
Figure 1 and Table 3 show that for the recent years posted by the Arizona Department of Public
Safety (2002-2009),13 arrest rates for Hispanics have declined considerably faster than for nonHispanics in Arizona. Since the Hispanic category includes illegal alien arrestees not separately
tabulated, the populations for Hispanics are higher (and consequent arrest rates lower) than
shown in the table. Even so, it is clear that Hispanics, regardless of status, are responsible for a
falling, not rising, share of Arizona’s crime.

4

Table 3. Arizona crime trends by Hispanic ethnicity, 2002-2009
Arrest rates
Offense category
2002
2009
Change
All races
All Part I offenses
927.8
816.7
-12%
Violent crimes
171.2
143.2
-16%
Drug offenses
550.5
539.0
- 2%
Felony drug
93.1
67.9
-27%
Drug possession
457.3
471.1
+ 3%
All offenses
5,628.9
5,163.0
- 8%
Total state population
Hispanic
All Part I offenses
1,214.0
932.9
-23%
Violent crimes
225.9
175.4
-22%
Drug offenses
683.0
622.5
- 9%
Felony drug
135.5
106.0
- 22%
Drug possession
547.5
516.5
- 6%
All offenses
6,498.8
5,297.2
- 18%
Hispanic population
Non Hispanic
All Part I offenses
823.3
764.9
- 7%
Violent crimes
151.2
128.8
-15%
Drug offenses
502.1
501.7
0%
Felony drug
77.7
50.9
-34%
Drug possession
424.4
450.8
+ 6%
All offenses
5,311.4
5,103.2
- 4%
Non-Hispanic population
(Source: See Endnote 10)

Arrest numbers
2002

2009

50,481
9,313
29,951
5,068
24,883
306,278
5,441,000

53,869
9,443
35,550
4,478
31,072
340,543
6,596,000

17,666
3,288
9,939
1,972
7,967
94,574
1,455,000

18,982
3,570
12,666
2,156
10,510
107,786
2,035,000

32,815
6,025
20,012
3,096
16,916
211,704
3,986,000

34,887
5,873
22,884
2,322
20,562
232,757
4,561,000

Figure 1. Change in Arizona crime rates, Hispanic and non-Hispanic arrestees, 2002-2009
0%
All Part I offenses

Violent offenses

Drug offenses

-7%
-9%

-15%

-22%

-23%
Hispanic

Non Hispanic

(Source: See Endnote 10)

5

III. Arizona drug abuse: UP
Since neither overall crime nor Hispanic offending is rising in Arizona, what lies behind recent
fears over documented and undocumented Hispanic immigrants? The current law was partly
justified by concern over the illicit drug trade and its role in spawning crime, including violence
such as murder, kidnapping, assault, and robbery. However, since arrest rates of Hispanics for
drug offenses have declined in recent years as drug arrest rates of non-Hispanic Arizonans have
remained stable (Table 3, Figure 1), and felony drug manufacturing and sale arrests have
declined sharply for all population groups, it is difficult to document an immigrant-driven drug
epidemic.
Table 4. Arizona drug deaths and rates per 100,000 population, 1990-2008
Drug death rate
Year
Number
All
Hispanic
Non-Hispanic White
1990
172
4.7
4.0
4.9
1991
185
4.9
4.5
5.1
1992
281
7.2
6.0
7.3
1993
304
7.5
4.9
8.4
1994
356
8.4
6.1
8.5
1995
397
9.0
6.5
10.1
1996
404
8.8
7.4
9.2
1997
408
8.6
6.0
9.2
1998
508
10.4
7.6
11.5
1999
543
10.8
8.1
11.6
2000
617
11.9
7.9
13.5
2001
659
12.4
8.7
14.2
2002
654
12.0
7.7
13.7
2003
652
11.7
7.7
13.5
2004
747
13.0
6.8
15.9
2005
803
13.5
7.5
16.2
2006
908
14.7
8.1
17.9
2007
945
14.9
7.3
19.2
2008
953
14.7
5.5
19.8
Change, 1990-2008
454%
214%
36%
300%
Change, 2000-2008
55%
24%
-30%
47%
(Sources: See Endnote 13)

All other
4.0
4.1
8.4
6.3
12.3
6.4
9.2
10.7
9.8
12.6
12.2
10.8
12.9
11.2
11.7
13.4
14.7
11.3
12.0
199%
-2%

However, there is a clear and serious non-immigrant drug issue that is receiving little attention.
Drug abuse involving illicit “street drugs” like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine along with
illegally obtained pharmaceutical drugs such as prescription opiates has skyrocketed in
Arizona—even faster than elsewhere in the United States. The trend shown in Figure 2 and
Tables 4 and 5, using illicit-drug overdose deaths and hospital emergency treatments as indexes,
is clear. Over the last two decades, Arizona Department of Health Services tabulations14 show
drug abuse has soared to the point that deaths caused directly by drug abuse (a record 953 in
2008) is now Arizona’s second leading cause of non-natural mortality, causing more deaths than
motor vehicle crashes (891), firearms (879), alcohol abuse (772), all homicides (470), and AIDS
(109) and lagging only all suicides (968, including those from drug overdoses). Unfortunately,
the state’s drug death epidemic has been obscured by very large underestimates of deaths from
6

drug-related causes that only recently have been corrected, Arizona’s Vital Statistician
acknowledged in April 2010.15
Figure 2. Arizona illicit drug death rates per 100,000 population by race, 1990-2008

20

15

10

5

0
1990

1995
Hispanic

2000
White

2005

2008

All other

(Source: See Endnote 13)

Arizona’s Hispanic population, whether citizens or noncitizens, contribute little to these drug
abuse trends. Hispanics, one-third of Arizona’s population, comprise one-sixth of its drug deaths
and just 10 percent of the growth in drug abuse since 1990. In contrast, non-Hispanic whites, 60
percent of the state’s population, account for 81 percent of the surge in drug abuse in recent
years—a 300% per-capita rate increase—and now comprise 80 percent of the state’s illegal drug
deaths.16
Table 5. Phoenix-area hospital emergency treatments for illicit drug abuse, 1995-2008
Rate per 100,000 population by race
Case counts
Year
Total
White
Hispanic
Total
White
Hispanic
1995
288.2
259.2
262.7
7,910
4,632
1,384
2000
279.0
297.8
228.4
9,072
5,350
1,544
2005
276.7
299.9
196.9
10,746
6,727
2,054
2008
271.6
339.1
134.8
11,635
7,899
1,985
Change
- 6%
31%
- 49%
(Source: See Endnote 16). “White” is non-Hispanic of European origin. In the rate calculations, the 5-10% of cases
listed as race/ethnicity unknown is apportioned to each race by known cases. Total includes races other than Whites
and Hispanics not shown separately.

Drug deaths constitute only a fraction of the drug abuse problem. A larger dimension is reflected
in illicit-drug overdoses treated in hospital emergency rooms, which are 15 to 30 times more
prevalent. Table 5 shows tabulations by the Drug Abuse Warning Network from 25 Phoenix area
hospitals that have reported drug abuse treatment statistics consistently since the mid-1990s.17 In
1995, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites had approximately the same rates of drug abuse
7

emergencies. Subsequently, White rates rose and Hispanic rates fell, so that by 2008, drug abuse
emergency rates for Whites were 2.5 times higher than for Hispanics, as well as higher than for
every other race. The decline in drug abuse cases involving Hispanics brought down the rate for
the entire metropolitan area. These patterns recur in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Administration’s tabulations of drug addiction treatment cases by race/ethnicity and state.18
It is highly unusual for more affluent populations to suffer higher rates of death and injury from
external causes. Since more affluent residents are able to access better health care that is not
reflected in public databases and which often forestalls death, Arizona’s White drug abuse
problem may be considerably larger than these figures indicate.
Comparing Tables 3, 4, and 5, the question arises (as it does throughout the United States): Why,
given that Whites constitute more than two-thirds of Arizona’s illicit-drug-related emergencies
and 80 percent of illegal-drug abuse deaths, do Whites constitute just half of drug arrests?
Conversely, Hispanics account for just one-sixth of drug-related deaths and ER cases, but 36
percent of drug arrests. Compared to their respective contributions to Arizona’s drug abuse toll,
Hispanics are three times more likely to be arrested than are Whites. Prejudicial enforcement of
drug laws, not Hispanic immigration, appears to account for the widespread misimpression that
Hispanics are responsible for a disproportionate share of Arizona’s drug-related offenses.
Figure 3. Phoenix-area hospital emergency cases for illicit drug abuse per 100,000 population by
race/ethnicity, 1995-2008

339
298

300

259
263
228
197
135
1995

2000
White (not Hispanic)

2005

2008
Hispanic

(Source: See Endnote 16)

IV. Conclusion
Claims that Hispanic immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are creating a crime and
drug wave are contrary to the best information available from Arizona and national law
enforcement, public health, and drug abuse monitoring agencies. By the best evidence,
Hispanics, regardless of status, constitute the leading edge of Arizona’s rapidly declining crime
rate and a decreasing proportion of Arizona’s rapidly increasing drug abuse crisis. The large
8

influx of Hispanic immigrants has promoted decreased crime, violence, and drug abuse
compared to trends among Arizona’s existing resident populations.
While Arizonans of all ethnicities have every right to be angry when criminals victimize
innocent parties by drug-related crime and violence, blaming and punishing immigrants as a
population appear unwarranted. The larger issue is that where a major demand for drugs (like
any other commodity) exists, major suppliers will follow. Illicit drug-marketing violence—
whether by Mexican nationals, illegal immigrants, or U.S. residents, whether by gangs or
individual dealers or physicians, whether for street drugs or illicit pharmaceuticals—will
continue as long as U.S. residents’ high demand for drugs “drives much of this illicit trade,” as
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledges.19
Indeed, Mexico and other affected nations have expressed strong concern about the international
chaos and violence surrounding the U.S.’s failure to stem continuing high demand for drugs.
Estimates that the U.S. consumes as much as two-thirds of the world’s total illicit drug supply20
are difficult to confirm, but consistent international surveys reported by the United Nations’
Office of Drugs and Crime find U.S. per-capita rates of consumption of all types of illicit drugs
are far higher than for other nations, both Western and non-Western.21 In a relevant comparison,
rates of U.S. consumption of cocaine are 3.5 times higher, marijuana and amphetamines four
times higher, and heroin and other opiates six times higher than for Mexico. Mexican and
American drug dealers are gravitating to sell where the market and money are and will continue
to do so as long as the U.S.’s drug abuse crisis stimulates demand. Unfortunately, ignoring
compelling evidence of America’s debilitating drug abuse epidemic and the futility of blaming
immigrants for it, some conservatives continue to denounce any discussion of U.S. drug demand
and abuse as “blame America” capitulation.22
Arizona’s recent anti-immigrant policies represent the same misdirected reaction to perceived
drug abuse crises repeatedly invoked over the last 150 years: political alarms and harsh
crackdowns targeting “foreigners” and feared, powerless minority groups—that is, angry,
emotional responses that inevitably bring later regret. Immigration, crime, and drug policy
reforms are intimately linked and require a innovative, unified vision to avoid perpetuating
historical racial extremism and the societal damage continued failure to realistically address
America’s drug abuse fosters. Future papers in this series will present previously unanalyzed
data from crime, health, and other agencies to detail the multiple crises U.S. drug-war policies
have failed to address in California, other states, the nation as a whole, and globally.

9

Notes
1

Statemaster, Estimated number of illegal immigrants (most recent) by state, 2010. Posted at:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/peo_est_num_of_ill_imm-people-estimated-number-illegal-immigrants
2
U.S. Census Bureau, Population estimates, state characteristics. Posted for recent decades through 2010 at:
http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/
3
Senate Bill 1070, State of Arizona, Senate, Forty-ninth Legislature, Second Regular Session, 2010.
4
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, quoted in Associated Press, “Arizona gov: Most illegal immigrants smuggling
drugs,” June 25, 2010. At: http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20100625/23ceef0c-c016-4602-8c4eaee79e24f287
5
Statemaster, op cit.
6
See Arizona state Vital Statistician Christopher K. Mrela, who stated: “In my 24 years as Arizona Vital Statistician
I have never experienced (and my professional work has not been impacted by) an error of this magnitude in coding
the causes of mortality.” Arizona Department of Health Services, Misclassification of Underlying Cause of Death,
April 2010. At http://www.azdhs.gov/plan/report/im/im/im08/misclassification.pdf
7
David F. Musto, “Opium, cocaine, and marijuana in American history,” Scientific American, July 1991, pp 40-47.
8
See, for example, “Negro cocaine fiends, new southern menace,” The New York Times, February 11, 1914.
Wikipedia, Prohibition (drugs), 2010, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_(drugs). Erich Goode, Drugs in
American Society, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1999.
9
See Michael Gray, Drug Crazy: How We Got Into this Mess and How We Can Get Out, Random House, 1998.
James A. Inciardi, The War on Drugs: Heroin, Cocaine, Crime, and Public Policy. Mayfield Publishing Company,
1986, p. 231. Lynn Zimmer, John P. Morgan, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, Lindesmith Center, 1997.
Franklin E. Zimring, Gordon Hawkins, The Search for Rational Drug Control, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Wikipedia, Harry J. Anslinger, 2010. at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
10
US Census Bureau, op cit.
11
Arizona Department of Public Safety, Crime in Arizona, posted for the years 2002-2009 at:
http://www.azdps.gov/About/Reports/Crime_In_Arizona/
12
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Uniform Crime Reports (Crime in the United States), Offenses reported to
law enforcement, January to December 2009. Posted at: www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/table_4.html.
13
Arizona Department of Public Safety, Crime in Arizona, op cit.
14
Arizona Department of Health Services, Injury Mortality, Drug-related deaths, Arizona, 1998-2008. Posted at:
http://www.azdhs.gov/plan/report/im/im/im08/8/index.htm
15
Op. cit. Endnote 2.
16
CDC (Centers for Disease Control), Compressed mortality file, underlying cause of death, Posted for years 19792006 at: http://wonder.cdc.gov/mortSQL.html. NCIPC (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control),
WISQARS injury mortality reports. Posted for years 1981-2007 at:
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html. Arizona Department of Health Services, op cit.
17
Drug Abuse Warning Network, Detailed tables: Metropolitan area estimates, drug-related Emergency Department
visits. Posted at: https://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/data/default.asp?met=Met
18
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), Drug admissions table for Arizona.
Posted at: http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/tedsweb/tab_year.choose_year_web_table?t_state=AZ
19
Clinton, Hillary, “Clinton: U.S. drug use fuels Mexico cartels,” MSNBC/Associated Press, March 23, 2010.
Posted at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35996797/ns/world_news-americas/
20
Califano, J. Jr., High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It, Public Affairs,
2008.
21
United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2009, Posted at:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2009.html
22
See Ray Walser, “U.S. strategy against Mexican drug cartels: Flawed and uncertain, Heritage Foundation
Backgrounder #2407, April 26, 2010, at: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/04/US-Strategy-AgainstMexican-Drug-Cartels-Flawed-and-Uncertain

10

About the Authors
Mike A. Males, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Mike A. Males is a Senior Research Fellow at Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. He has contributed research
and writing to numerous CJCJ reports, including the "The Color of Justice, an Analysis of Juvenile Adult Court
Transfers in California," "Drug Use and Justice: An Examination of California Drug Policy Enforcement," and "The
Impact of California's Three Strikes Law on Crime Rates."
Dr. Males has a Ph.D. in social ecology from U.C. Irvine and formerly taught sociology at U.C. Santa Cruz. With
over 12 years of experience working in youth programs, his research interests are focused on youth issues like
crime, drug abuse, pregnancy and economics. He is the author of dozens of articles and four books, the latest of
which is Kids and Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth. Recent articles and opeds have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The American Journal of Public Health, The Lancet, Journal of School
Health, and Scribner's Encyclopedia of Violence in America.
Mr. Males would like to thank Catherine McCracken, Director of Development and the Sentencing Service Program
at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, for providing invaluable editorial assistance.

Daniel Macallair MPA, Executive Director, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Daniel Macallair is the Executive Director and a co-founder of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Mr.
Macallair’s expertise is in the development and analysis of correctional policy for youth and adult offenders and has
implemented model programs throughout the country. In the past ten years his programs received national
recognition and were cited as exemplary models by the United States Department of Justice and Harvard
University’s Innovations in American Government program. In 1994, Mr. Macallair received a leadership award
from the State of Hawaii for his efforts in reforming that state’s juvenile correctional system. He has been a
consultant to juvenile justice systems around the country and frequently provides expert assistance on correctional
practices and juvenile justice reform.
Mr. Macallair’s research and publications have appeared in such journals as the Stanford Law and Policy Review,
Journal of Crime and Delinquency, Youth and Society, Journal of Juvenile Law and Policy, and the Western
Criminology Review. His studies and commentary are often cited in national news outlets. Mr. Macallair has copublished two books on juvenile justice reform and policy and co-authored two recent studies on the California
youth corrections system. He teaches in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at San Francisco State
University and is an invited speaker and trainer at conferences and seminars throughout the country.

For more information please contact:
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
440 9th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 621-5661
cjcj@cjcj.org
www.cjcj.org

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that offers
policy analysis, program development, and technical assistance in the criminal justice field.