Crime & Substance Use: An Introduction | National Longitudinal Surveys

Created variables

In addition to the variables created by CHRR, Child Trends, Inc., an organization involved in the NLSY97 questionnaire design process, has created a number of scales and indexes from several groups of variables described in this section. These scales and indexes are intended to aid researchers in using these data items. For these variable descriptions, see the Created Variables listings at the beginning of each section. For more information on the creation of these variables, see Appendix 9 of the NLSY97 Codebook Supplement.

NLSY97 respondents have answered questions in most survey rounds about crime and substance use.

Table 1. Crime and substance use topics and universe restrictions
NLSY97 User's Guide Topic	Universe Restrictions
Crime, Delinquency & Arrest Respondent provides information on participation in delinquency and criminal behavior and interactions with the correctional systems, including incarceration. Asked each survey round. Later rounds include additional information about incarceration and post-incarceration.	Rounds 1-7; All respondents. Rounds 8 and up: Crime questions were asked only of respondents who had ever reported being arrested (along with a control group of comparison).
Alcohol Use Respondent provides details on use of alcohol, including frequency and amount. Asked in survey rounds 1-17. Alcohol use questions were not asked in rounds 18-20.	Not asked of prisoners in insecure environments.
Cigarette Use Respondent provides information on their use of tobacco. Asked in survey rounds 1-17. Cigarette use questions were not asked in rounds 18-20.	Full universe in all rounds.
Drug Use Respondent provides information on use of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, or other drugs. Round 1 asked about marijuana use only, while the drug use questions in rounds 2-15 and 17 are more extensive and include the use of any drugs such as cocaine, crack, heroin, or any other substance not prescribed by a doctor that was used to get high or achieve an altered state. Other than the marijuana questions, the variables do not specify what type of drugs respondents are taking. Drug use questions were not asked in rounds 16 or 18-20.	Not asked of prisoners in insecure environments.