Drugs and Crime
(See:
Drugs in American Society, 5th, 6th, and 7th
editions, Erich Goode, McGraw-Hill, 1999/2005/2008. Chapter 12)
Thomas Szasz,
in Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers
(1985), suggests that we have, through our definition of certain drugs as evil,
created a new population of scapegoats. As the religious ideologies of the past
have been replaced by the therapeutic ideologies of the present; we have replaced
the witches of earlier days with the "addict-criminals" of today.
Just as the discovery and control of witches required the development, and in
turn sustained, the institution of the inquisition, the treatment and control
of the "addict-criminal" becomes the focus of activity for the "criminal justice industry."
These extrapolations of the ideas
of Szasz provide us with an interesting backdrop for exploring the social reality
of the drugs-crime connection.
Central Concerns:
- Does drug use cause crime?
- Is there some intrinsic property
associated with certain drugs that leads the user to engage in criminal behavior?
- Do drugs (drug use) cause violence?
- Do drugs (drug use) destroy the
human community?
- Does crime or criminal behavior,
perhaps, lead people into drug use?
- What drugs (drug use) are we talking
about?
- legal instrumental?
- legal recreational?
- Illegal instrumental?
- Illegal recreational?
- What crime are we talking about?
- White collar?
- Institutional?
- Street Crime?
- Crimes of Violence?
- Property Crime?
Crime
- Murder: 5.7-5.7/100,000
(9.4/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Rape: 32.1-31/100,000
(41/100,000
in late 1980s)
- Robbery: 142-149.4/100,000
(257/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Aggravated Assault:
295-287.5/100,000 (430/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Burglary: 740-729.4/100,000
(1,235/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Larceny-Theft: 2,4142206.8/100,000
(3,200/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Motor Vehicle: 433-398.4/100,000
(658/100,000 in late 1980s)
- Arson: 30.4-24.7/100,000
- Hate Crimes:7,489 incidents,
8,715 offenses, 9,100 victims
- Overall, ongoing decline into
2008
These (1-7) are the crimes that
most of us are concerned with and that we associate with the use of drugs
- Not all crimes are violent, MOST
aren't (~9.9 million non-violent vs. ~1.5 million violent)
- Those who engage in criminal activity
are not all the same
- Property criminals; NOT necessarily
violent
- Violent offenders; typically property
crimes, too.
Key Elements of Understanding
Criminal Behavior
- Most crime committed by small
number of people (6%). Violent crime extremely concentrated. Occasional crime
widespread, few are repeat serious offenders.
- Not much specialization, wide
range of offenses. But, non-serious are not linked to serious; serious are
linked to non-serious.
- Certain crimes predict involvement
in others
- As per #3, robbery==> criminal
lifestyle
- As per #3, violent crimes==>
also economic, and lifestyle
- Career pattern: Early involvement
(J.D.- esp. Violent and frequent), but most juvies do not become adult offenders
- Correlates of J.D. and Crime:
school problems, poverty (inequality), lower IQ, problematic parenting, abuse.
(Independent of drug use in terms of influencing crime) (also correlates to
drug use)
- Low probability of arrest, more
frequent offenders-- lower probability per offense: Inciardi (Miami study)-
118,134 criminal events==> 286 arrests (1/413 crimes, for index crimes-
1/292. Criminal career (males) 13 years==> 3.5 arrests
- There is little deterrent effect,
especially for frequent, serious offender
Empiricism, Correlation,
and Causation
- Drug use and criminality are very
positively correlated
- No study has failed to find the
correlation
- Users of Drugs are extremely more
likely to:
- Participate in a wide
variety of criminal activity
- Engage in more violent
crime
- Engage in more serious
crime
- The more one uses drugs, the more
likely one is to be involved in criminal activity
- One of the FEW established and
agreed upon links
Studies:
Bureau of Justice Statistics:
Research Note: Validity of Self-Reports?
- Don't discount users perspective
- Cross check with other studies
- People are surprisingly honest,
forgetful.
- Interviews need to be specific:
Many of the studies cited and included in your readings demonstrate the difference
between responses to general questions and specific ones.
- Bruce Johnson's
Taking Care of Business: Most addicts if asked how much heroin they use
will over estimate by a factor of 2 or 3.
O'Donnell 1976
(In Goode, 1999)
Alcohol Drinkers
| |
Shoplift |
Break/Enter |
Non-drinkers |
16% |
5% |
Light drinkers |
31% |
6% |
Heavy Drinkers |
56% |
18% |
Illicit Drug Users
| |
Shoplift |
B and E |
No illicit use |
29% |
6% |
Marijuana |
35% |
~8% |
Marijuana and other
drugs |
56% |
~18% |
Drugs other than
Marijuana |
62% |
24% |
There was a perfect, stepwise increase
of likelihood of criminal activity related to the extent of involvement with
the drug: The more one used a drug the greater the likelihood of engaging
in a range of criminal activity.
Nurco, Kinlock, and Hanlon, "The
Drugs-Crime Connection"
Focus on Variations, Prevalence,
and Inconsistencies
- Variety of user/addicts: studies
typically don't take into account
- Problem of official statistics
("rap sheets") vs self-reports. Baltimore study-243 addicts, 2,869
arrests over 11 years; but 473,738 crime days==> ratio arrests/days:
.006
- Gauging criminal activity of
users requires more sophistication
- Self-reports: structured, anonymous,
interviewer with knowledge of subculture, specific temporal references
- Measurement should reflect crime
days/year at risk. Over time variations- cycles of use and non-use. Means:
250-260 crime days/year during use cycle; 65 days/year during non-use.
- Types of Addicts: use dimension
(quantity and frequency); crime dimension==> Successful Criminal and
Working Addict
- Types of Crime (rank ordering)
(Sample 375 users, 3 years, 215,015 offenses)
- Drug sales
(50%) (Inciardi 38%) (Johnson sales 34%, buys 28%)
- Larceny theft
- Shoplifting
- Burglaries
- Robbery/assault/auto
theft
- It's a
subcultural mix of drugs and crime!
Focus: Violent Crime:
- Small part of population, lot's
of crime
- Inciardi: 573 users, 6,000 violent
crimes (2.8%) of their total criminal offenses.
- NY study 1981 ~40% murders==>
drug related.
- 1993 statistics: Nationwide ~6%
of homicides, in largest urban areas: 18% homicide offenders, 16% victims
(7% both).
- Drug related homicides: 1987:
4.9%; 1994: 5.6%; 2000: 4.4%
- 1996: 8.8% of inmates committed
violent crime to obtain drug money.
- 1999: 11.5%of
inmates committed violent crime to obtain drug money.
(Drug
Testing Studies (DUF: Drug
Use Forecasting in pdf format or in text
for 1996)
- Drugs in system
(no etoh) at time of arrest. Voluntary and confidential.
- High participation
rates.
- Very high levels
- Some cities (St. Louis)
70-80%
- Average (2000)
data 63% (males); 62.5% (females)
- Cocaine: most
common 29.3% (m) and 33.3% (f) down from 45 (m); 49% (f) in 1990
- Marijuana: 40.8%
(m) and 26.7% (f) up from 20% (m); 12% (f) in 1990 {longer detection period}
- Opiates: 6% (m);
7.5% (f) (stable
over the 1990s)
- Methamphetamine
1.9% (m) and 5.3% (f) (not recorded in 1990)
- Issues:
- Only
those caught
- Sample drawn only
from counties with major cities
- Perhaps relevant
for generalization to the "criminal population, but clearly not to
the population as a whole
- 2004--funding
for ADAM ran out, plans for re-instituting the program have not yet come to
fruition, see, http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs04/fed_dr_related.html
- 2007--funding
returns: 2007
ADAM II Report
-
2008
ADAM II Report
(press
release, fact
sheet)
- "Key findings from
the report:
- Marijuana is the most
commonly detected drug at the time of arrest.
- The use of cocaine powder
reported by arrestees remains stable or in decline in all 10 cities
- Self-report data on
recent use shows a consistently high frequency of use among arrestees
who use heroin. In 7 of the 10 cities observed, arrestees who admit
heroin use report that they use the drug 15 or more days out of
the month; in Chicago, heroin users are reporting almost daily use.
- Meth remains primarily
a regional phenomenon. Less than one percent of arrestees in the
eastern United States tested positive. However, in Sacramento and
Portland, 35 and 15 percent of arrestees, respectively, test positive."
Self Reports by Jail and Prison
Inmates
- UTI at time of offense: 1979-
32%; 1991- 31% (robbery and burglary highest)
- Heroin use ~25 times the rate
of general population
- All illicit drug use ~3X the rate
- 50% of prison inmates in 1991
report having used illicit drug in the month prior to their offense (43% in
1986 on a daily basis)
- The more drugs used, and the "harder"
the drugs; the greater the number of prior offenses
BUT: These striking correlations do not mean:
- That all drug users are criminals
- That all criminals are drug users
- That non-drug users do not commit
crimes
- That non-criminals are non-drug
users
Problems in the Drugs-Crime Link
- What do we mean by cause: Direct
(psychopharmacological) or Indirect?
- Explanation of the issue of members
of the drug using subculture have higher rates of criminality (is it the drugs
that cause the behavior?)
- Finally, problem exists that the
same categories of people who are likely to use drugs are also the same categories
of people who have higher rates of criminal activity.
- So problems
in sorting through all the connections, correlations and spurious relationships
- Race,
Arrest, and Incarceration and the drug
war on minorities.
Theoretical Models
Economic Crime
Violent Crime
-
- Psychopharmacological:
Direct cause
- Drug
produces changes that increases aggressiveness
- Alcohol
(disinhibition)
- Barbiturates
- ?PCP?
- ?Cocaine?
- Psychoactive
Substances and Violence (J. Roth, 1994, NIJ): "Of all psychoactive
substances, alcohol is the only one whose consumption has been shown
to commonly increase aggression. After large doses of..(other drugs)...
certain individuals may experience violent outbursts, probably because
of preexisting psychosis.
-
Economic-Compulsive
- Crime
as instrumental: pay for expensive habit
- Typically
non-violent: Larceny-theft, burglary
- But,
robbery rates high-- Heroin,
Cocaine
- Systemic
(.pdf format)
- Violence
as an integral part of the structure
and culture of illicit drug use
- Turf
- Sales
difficulties (the customer is not always right)
- Employee
control
- Community
disorganization
- Inciardi:
overly-determined behavior
Go to National
Institute of Justice publication page for additional resources.
Marijuana and Crime
- Early images
(1930s): Killer Weed that produced wild and violent behavior
- 1970: National
Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse
- Overwhelming current evidence:
No violence/aggression
- But, marijuana
use is correlatied with criminal offenses with heavier users displaying more
crimnal involvement than light users.
- Issues to consider:
- Other drug use--heavier
users are more likely to use other drugs
- Those who use
only marijuana report crimnal involvement closer to non-users.
- Significance
of friends, subcultural involvement--it's the social circles rahther
than the drug that explains rates of criminality
Bruce Johnson (1973): Uncovered
these same correlations, but makes the crucial point that:
- Irregular users who are involved
in subcultural activities like distributing the drug are more likely than
regular users who do not participate in the subculture, to engage in criminal
and aggressive behavior.
Indication: Relationship is spurious,
but nonetheless, marijuana is used by many offenders.
- Most likely
to be involved of all drugs
- Most offenders,
UTI: Commonly used
- Psychopharmacological?
- Studies difficult
and flawed (etoh cause, how drunk, etc.)
- Males use more,
and offend more
- Consumed during
periods crime is more likely (weekends)
- UTI==> excuse:
Drunken comportment- Cultural norm
- Still: Violence
and Alcohol==> "Peas in a Pod"
Violent Death and Alcohol
- Wolfgang (1958) 60% of killers
(lots of confirmation)
- Inciardi, et al, 1997: Legalizing
Drugs: Would it Really Reduce Violent Crime? (AD reader)
- 1990 International Study:
62% of violent offenders report heavy use, and UI.
- Males who fight and carry
weapons: 20 times more likely to drink regularly.
- 1994: 268 Homocides
- 31% drunk at the time
- 64% of women who kill--misuse
alcohol
- Victims, too. 25-66%
- Murder interaction:
- Victim precipitation
- Victim selection
- Reciprocity:
Male on male
- Highly correlated with all
forms of violent/accidental death (DWI)
- "Alcohol,
Drugs, and Violence," Robert Nash Parker and Kathleen Auerhahn (1998)
(abstract)
- Fagan's "Intoxication,
Aggression, and the Functionality of Violence." (1990, 1993)
"Youth violence is a 'functional, purporsive behavior that serves
definable goals within specific social contexts.'...Another factor that
may influence the meanings attributed to the actions of others is the
consumption of drugs or alcohol, due to the behavioral expectancies
that may be associated with them."
- Parker: Selective
Social Disinhibition approach (1993, 1995)--"Alcohol selectively
disinhibits violence depending on contextual factors specific to the situation,
the actors involved and their relationships to one another, and the impact
of bystanders. In US society, the norms about the appropriateness
of violence in solving interpersonal disputes argue both for and against
such behaviors." (depends on situation, socialization, institutional
support) "In potentially violent situations, it takes
active constraint--a proactive and conscious decision..." Alcohol
use in the right (i.e. wrong) situation can lead to violence as the resolution
option since it can selectively disinhibit "an already weak normative
apparatus. Especially relevant: domestic disputes, closest
interpersonal relationships. They even note: "...the deterrent
effect of capital punishment on homicide rates was strongest in states
that had below average rates of alcohol consumption."
- Alaniz and Parker:
Alcohol Availability, Advertising and Violence (1998, 1999). "The
spatial distribution of alcohol outlets and the targeted advertising of
alcohol to particular communities...may mediate (the relationship between
alcohol and violence)."
- ALCOHOL==> Precursor to
violent death
Alcohol and Assault
- Same Pattern as with
murder
- Assault-Homicide: Do
both parties survive?
- Over 60% of known interactions
- Juveniles use marijuana
as frequently, yet it is half as likely to be present
- Juvies: ETOH==> 2nd
most likely to==> fight (Seconal- #1)
- Sexual assault: 40%
convicted, 2/3 molesters, 40-65% overall
Causal
Link?
- ETOH one of a number
of factors
- High correlation
- Dis-inhibition
(see, Faupel, Horowitzand Weaver, The Sociology of American Drug Use,
2005, page 311)
- No scientific
support
- No understanding
of why some become violent and others don't
- Social
learning issues--expectations?
- Normative
controls relaxed for those UTI
- Disavowel
of responsibiltiy
- Question
of what exactly is dis-inhibited?
- humans
as "naturally anti-social?
- Social context: causal
in USA (Drunken Comportment--cognitive-guidedness)
- There appears
to be an "interactive relationship" between the pharmacological
properties of alcohol and the cultural guidelines for "behavior under
the influence." There are some things that are simply far less likely
to occur without alcohol being consumed.
- However, most violence
cannot ascribed to etoh: institutional, ideological
- All things equal:
Direct effect on portion of U.S. violence
- Pre- 1970:
Image=> NO. Heroin use was associated with Rational
crimes (economic compulsive). Violence was accidental.
- After 1970:
? Violence and street
life. Homicide leading cause of death for user.
- Psychopharmacological
or Subcultural Shift?
- Impact
of withdrawal
- Robbery
and $==> common. Victim confrontation
- Post 1970:
Addict involved in crime prior to drug subculture
- Post 1970:
Poly drug use: Alcohol and cocaine
- Now: Use
of heroin==> strong link to violent behavior (convicted felons- high
rates of use)
- Yet, use
stable ( even down for a time); cocaine ?
Inciardi: Heroin users
- Challenges
simplistic economic-compulsive model
- Users engage
in a variety of crime, vastly more likely than non-users
- 200 crime
days/year (5-10x more than non-users)
- Use more,
more variety, more serious
- Low arrest
probability
- Males: Alcohol==>
Crime==> Drugs
- Females==>
complex variations
- Simple cause-effect:
futile
- Similar to
Nurco, Kinlock, and Hanlon
Heroin and Crime: Summary
- Use drives
crime
- Most involved
prior to use
- Illegality
seems to make things worse
- "Curing"
addiction will not solve problem
- Pharmacological
properties: seems more likely (yet BIJ study)
- Drug of choice
for Robbers
- Crimes with
violence as primary motive (vs. Robbery)
- LA- Homicide
victims (late 80's- 20%), now: most frequently detected drug.
- Question:
predispose to violence or expose to violence
- NY (1988):
1/3 of all homicides involved cocaine. 60% of drug related
homicides=> Crack. Powdered cocaine: 12% of all, 22% of drug related.
- 84% of
all drug related violent deaths--Cocaine (heroin only 3 of total).
- Goldstein and
"big" and "small" users (psychopharmacological)
- For males,
as use increases, perpetrating violent crime increase
- For females,
victimization increases with use
- Addition
of alcohol as explanatory factor
- Inciardi: Cocaine
Psychosis, irritability during "withdrawal."
- "Mode
of living," "subculture of violence." "Heavy cocaine use
tends to take place in social settings in which violence is a common accompaniment
among social circles who readily and almost routinely engage in violent behavior"
(Goode, page 328)
Back to Goldstein and Systemic
Violence
- Seller vs.
Casual user (unless sale dispute)
- Crack
Trade (.pdf format):
- Disputational:
violence as leverage
- Anarchistic
- Seller:
violent, criminal background
- Drug
trade violent in and of itself
- "Destabilized"
neighborhoods
- Powerlessness
at community level
- Decline
in use==> Increase in violence!
Hamid: "Crack violence is
the violence of persons reacting violently to conditions that violate"
- Major correlation
- Psychopharmacological
or Criminal picks up lifestyle of use?
- Cocaine and
reinforcement: Use; like to use again.
- Frequency of
use: lots of transactions and $$$$$. USE IS NOT CHEAPER: Unit dosing.
- Poly drug use
high
- Similar to
heavy heroin users
- 80-90% arrestees
for robbery
- Drug of choice
for "Urban Criminals"
- DUF: 41% males;
47% females
- BUT: Causality?
- All levels
of criminality go up after cocaine use, NO form of crime BEGINS after
- Users already
criminal
- Crack,
cocaine: intensifies, accelerates criminality
- Social context
- Social circles
of users, criminals overlap
- Crime, Crack,
and other drugs: Markers of entrance into deviant, criminal subculture
- Individuals
already characterized by "Non-traditional Lifestyle" (employment
problems, school dropout, marital problems, etc. (Problem-prone behavior)
- Crime intensified
through subcultural development. It's the: Thrill
- Take away
Crack? Depends on what replaces it.
- No drug==> Crime will
drop
- Heroin==> no change
- Alcohol==> Violence
up, predatory down
Trends in Crime
1990s-2000s
- Summary
(Goode, 7e, 2008, page
347)
- Cocaine and Crack
use down (frequent use still high)
- Heroin stable to
increasing; potency and availability up
- Crime: Interesting
decrease in levels of criminal activity (index crimes, especially violent)
- -- Maintenance of
a permanent class of criminals???
- In general,
drug use and criminal behavior seem to vary independently of each other, and
are the products of a set of inter-related variables: overly-determined behavior.
- Rather than
trying to explain relationship between drug use and crime, perhaps:
- Initiation
into drug use and criminal behavior
- escalation
of drug use and crime
- Maintenance
of a permanent class of addict-criminals
- Drug use
today appears even more significantly correlated with crime: Regular,
frequent, heavy users
Illicit
Drug Industry
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/180/drgcrime.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
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