Abstract

Methamphetamine is an illegal stimulant used disproportionately by rural populations. Social disorganization theory is a Chicago School theory that explains crime and delinquency in urban areas by examining social ecology. At base, the theory stipulates that structural factors such as poverty, density, heterogeneity, and transience inhibit community social control and produce deviance. This study tests a particular theoretical hypothesis, suggesting instead that community social organization predicts rural methamphetamine use by providing social and family network outlets for drug distribution. Answers to an addiction measurement instrument from Wyoming convicts administered in 2005-2006 are used to operationalize this hypothesis both for dichotomous measures of methamphetamine use as well as severity of involvement. Findings appear to repudiate the social organization thesis in favor of a more traditional approach. Individual characteristics of the offender are the most influential predictors of use. However, it is county-level structural variables that are the best predictors of the depth of subject involvement with methamphetamine.