Dr. Lana Harrison

(Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Michigan)

Dr. Harrison is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and the Associate Director of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies. Her research interests center on drug epidemiology, treatment alternatives, improving survey methodology, comparative international research, and drug policy. She has authored or co-authored over 60 publications in these areas.

Dr. Harrison is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of two studies funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The Cross-National Study of the Youth Drug-Violence Nexus seeks to examine the drug-relatedness of violence among youth in the metropolitan areas Philadelphia,Toronto, Montreal and Amsterdam. By capitalizing on the similarities in (self-reported) drug use and violence among U.S., Canadian and Dutch youth, and the differences in arrest rates and the nature and scope of violence, the comparative study will make an important contribution to understanding the extent to which drugs contribute to the patterns of violence among youth. The Validity of Self-Reported Drug Use in General Population Surveys study seeks to fill a void in our knowledge about the validity of survey data on drug use among the general population. The study replicates the methodology of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) in conducting a representative survey of drug use among the household population ages 12-25 (n=5000). The NHSDA is the single most important source of information on the epidemiology of drug use in the U.S. Following completion of an abbreviated version of the NHSDA, respondents complete a debriefing questionnaire asking about their candor on the survey, and again about their recent illicit drug use. Then they are offered a $50 incentive to provide urine and hair samples. Both the urine and hair samples are analyzed for the presence of the following drugs or their metabolites: cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, and opiates. Urine is also analyzed for the presence of cotinine--a metabolite of tobacco. Data analyses are examining the consistency between self-report and biological specimen by drug type. Dr. Harrison is also the CO-PI of two studies on the effectiveness of drug treatment within the criminal justice system.

Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Dr. Harrison was a Statistician at The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the agencies of the National Institute of Health (NIH). She has also worked as a research scientist at the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Harrison has worked on the three largest epidemiological drug surveys in the U.S.--the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the Monitoring the Future survey, and the Drug Use Forecasting study.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

EDITED VOLUMES

Harrison, Lana D. and Scarpitti, Frank R. (Eds.) Special Issue on Drug Treatment Courts; Substance Use and Misuse; 2002.

Inciardi, James A. and Harrison, Lana D. (Eds.) Harm Reduction: National and International Perspectives. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2000.

Harrison, Lana D. and Backenheimer, Michael. (Eds.) "Research Careers in Unraveling the Drug-Crime Linkages in the USA." Substance Use and Misuse 33 (9), 1998.

Inciardi, James A. and Harrison, Lana D. (Eds.) Heroin in the Age of Crack Cocaine. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 1998.

Harrison, Lana D. and Hughes, Arthur. (Eds.) The Validity of Self-Reported Drug Use: Improving the Accuracy of Survey Estimates. NIDA Research Monograph 167. NIH Pub. No. 97-4141. Washington, DC: Supt. of Docs, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1997.

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

Anderson, Tammy A. and Harrison, Lana D. "Therapeutic Community Drug Treatment in the U.S. Criminal Justice System," In P. Bean (ED.) Treatment, What Works? Routledge, in press.

Harrison, Lana D. and Martin, Steven S. Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners: Implementation Lessons Learned. Report #NCJ 195738, Washington, DC: DPJ/OJP?NIJ, 2003.

Harrison, Lana D. "Harm Reduction," In Robin O. Sullivan (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Vol II: 819-822, 2002.

Harrison, Lana D. "The Revolving Prison Door for Drug-Involved Offenders," Crime and Delinquency 47(3): 462-485, 2001.

Harrison, Lana D. "Understanding the Differences in Youth Drug Prevalence Rates produced by the MTF, NHSDA, and YRBS Studies," Journal of Drug Issues 31(3): 665-694, 2001.

Harrison, Lana D., Erickson, Patricia G., Adlaf, Edward, and Freeman, Charles. "The Youth Drugs-Violence Nexus among American and Canadian Youth," Substance Use and Misuse 36(14): 2065-2086, 2001.

Harrison, Lana D. and Martin, Steven S. Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State Prisoners: Compendium of Initial and Process Evaluation Findings. Washington, DC: DOJ/OJP/NIJ, 2001, http://www.ncjrs.org/rr/vol2_2/10.html

Harrison, Lana D., Bachman, Tracy, Freeman, Charles, and Inciardi, James A. "The Acceptability of the Female Condom among U.S. Women at High Risk for HIV," Culture, Health and Sexuality 3(1):101-118, 2001.

Harrison, Lana D. "Drug Users, Counting (Problematic Nature of)," In Charles E. Faupel and Paul M. Roman (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior. Taylor and Francis, 2000, pp. 302-305.

Harrison, Lana D. Drugs "(Illegal), Public Attitudes and Management Policies," In Charles E. Faupel and Paul M. Roman (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior. Taylor and Francis, 2000, pp. 258-260.

Harrison, Lana D. "Medicalized Marijuana," In James A. Inciardi and Lana D. Harrison (Eds.), Harm Reduction: National and International Perspectives. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2000, pp.69-88.

Inciardi, James A. and Harrison, Lana D. "The Concept of Harm Reduction," In James A. Inciardi and Lana D. Harrison (Eds.), Harm Reduction: National and International Perspectives. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2000, pp. vii-xix.

Resnicow, K., Smith, M., Harrison, L. and Drucker, E. "Correlates of Occasional Cigarette and Marijuana Use: Are Teens Harm Reducing?" Addictive Behaviors 24(2):251-266, 1999.

Harrison, Lana D., Butzin, Clifford A., Inciardi, James A., and Martin, Steven S. "Integrating HIV-Prevention Strategies in a Therapeutic Community Work -Release Program for Criminal Offenders." The Prison Journal 78(3):232-243, 1998.

McCorkel, Jill, Harrison, Lana D., and Inciardi, James A. "How Treatment is Constructed among Graduates and Dropouts in a Prison Therapeutic Community for Women." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 27(3/4):37-60, 1998.

Harrison, Lana D. "More Cannabis in Europe? Perspectives from the USA," in Dirk J. Korf and Heleen Riper (Eds.), Illicit Drugs in Europe. The University of Amsterdam Press: Amsterdam, 1997, pp. 16-25.

Inciardi, James A., Martin, S.S., Butzin, C.A., Hooper, R. M., and Harrison, L.D. "An Effective Model of Prison-Based Treatment for Drug-Involved Offenders." Journal of Drug Issues 27(2):261-278, 1997.

MEMBERSHIPS/SERVICE

Chair, Section on Alcohol and Drugs, 1999-2001, American Sociological Society

Nominations Committee Chair, 2001, 1999, Section on Alcohol and Drugs, American Sociological Society

Editorial Board, Addictions Research

Reviewer, American Journal of Public Health, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Justice Quarterly, Addictions, Crime and Delinquency, and others.

Consultant, British Home Office, 2001

Review Consultant, National Institute of Justice, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Member, Graduate Policy Committee, Dept. of Sociology and Criminal Justice, UD

Member, Departmental Policy Committee, Dept. of Sociology and Criminal Justice, UD

Member, American Public Health Association, International Harm Reduction Society, American Society of Criminology, European Society for Social Drug Use Research, American Association for the Advancement of Science