NCJ Number
77696
Date Published
1981
Length
56 pages
Annotation
Following a consideration of the relationship between crime and drugs, drug treatment modalities are described and their outcomes compared, and links between drug treatment and corrections are discussed.
Abstract
Excepting drug-defined crimes, there is no evidence that nonaddictive drug use results in crime; other than for alcohol, even crimes attributed to a direct pharmacological effect of the drug are more often associated with an intensive pattern of use and are the exception rather than the rule. The association between chronic opiate use and criminality is affirned, however, regardless of the research method used. A consistent finding is that a sharp increase in the rate of nondrug arrests and self-reported crimes occurs following the onset of narcotics addiction. Drug treatment modalities are detoxification, methadone maintenance, a therapeutic community, and outpatient drug-free treatment. Outcome measures (including drug use, employment, and criminality) 1 year after leaving treatment having been more favorable for methadone maintenance, therapeutic community, and outpatient drug-free treatment than for detoxification programs. The coerced placement of offenders into drug abuse treatment programs has contributed to the enlarging interface between treatment and corrections. Paradigms of this interface include initiation of innovative treatment practices within the criminal justice system; facilitation of interactions between offenders and external treatment providers; disposition of offenders directly to community treatment providers (diversion); and the relinquishing of the criminal justice system domain over certain drug abuse problems, so that they become health issues rather than legal ones (decriminalization). References are provided.