Opposition material - City Clerk - City of Jonesboro

6 Politics 0 Policy Vol. 32 No.4
a county, and whether the county is a Delta county.] County size and the
number ofhighway miles in a county are expected to have a positive impact
on arrests and crashes because more automobile traffic will likely take place.
Finally, the geographic significance ofthe Delta is that due to its proximity to
the Mississippi River, the land there is flat, while land in the rest ofthe state is
often hilly or mountainous. Thus, we expect fewer crashes in Delta counties.
In order to assess the inclusion of these independent policy and control
variables, we use a multivariate model ofstatistical analysis. 2
Methodology
In this study we consider 74 of75 Arkansas counties. We drop from our
analysis Pulasld County, home to Little Rock and 350,418 residents because
it is the only urban county in a predominantly rural state and it has had a
skewing effect on data analysis. Data analyzed in this study were collected
by the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University ofArkansas at
Little Rock (UALR) and titled, "Risk Factors forAdolescent Drug andAlcohol
Abuse in Arkansas." These data were collected for use by the Arkansas
Department of Health, Bureau ofAlcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and
consider juveniles as those between the ages of 10 and 17 and adults as those
who are older than 18 years. Drug-related arrests for juveniles and adults are
based on violations such as possession, sale, use, growing, and manufacturing
ofillegal drugs. Alcohol-related arrests are basedon such violations as driving
under the influence (DUI), liquor law violations, and public drunkenness.
Population data were compiled by Demographic Research, Institute for
Economic Advancement at UALR and the number ofpolice were compiled
from data collected by the Arkansas Crime Information Center (1997).
Alcohol Policy and Arrest Rates
The first stage of analysis is a repl ication of Grossman's (1997) study.
Here we analyze arrest rates in the 74 rural counties ofArkansas. Data are
transfonned, in line with Grossman's study, to reflect arrests per 1,000 people,
and in the case ofjuvenile arrests, per 1,000 ofthose aged 10-17. Departing
from Grossman, we consider four variables:juvenile drug arrests, juvenile
alcohol arrests, adult drug arrests, and adult alcohol arrests.
An analysis of descriptive statistics, illustrated in Figure I, reveals that
juvenile alcohol and drug arrest rates are significantly lower than adult alcohol
arrests and slightly lower than adult drug arrest rates, as can be expected