NCJ Number
162165
Date Published
1981
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The relationship between drug use and criminality is examined, with emphasis on the findings of research to date and major issues for future research.
Abstract
The first speculations about the drug-crime relationship appeared more than 100 years ago. However, little of the scholarly, scientific, and popular literature to date provides useful information or conclusions. However, a variety of viewpoints, academic postulations, political rhetoric, and popular belief systems have come and gone and have served only to confuse our understanding of the issue even further. Many of the images have some basis in fact. Many addicts, if not most, commit crimes. Many, while addicted to narcotics, are ineffective members of society. In addition, the cycle of addiction, abstinence, and relapse could suggest the idea that drug addition is permanent. However, stereotypes were uniformly applied to all drug users. The essays in this volume examine the movement of the Federal drug bureaucracy in stimulating research on drugs and crime, the criminal activities of heroin users, the ways in which street drug users make a living and manage to sue drugs, female drug addicts, drugs and violence, the criminal involvement of minority group addicts, the nature and effectiveness of drug treatment, and the overall findings of research on drugs and crime. Notes and 13 references