Drugs-Crime Relationship: An Analytical Framework (From Drugs, Crime, and Justice: Contemporary Perspectives, P 87-108, 1997, Larry K Gaines and Peter B Kraska, eds. -- See NCJ-165819)

• NCJ Number: 165823
• Author(s): D C McBride; C B McCoy
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

Recognizing that the relationship between drug use and criminal behavior has been a primary concern of researchers, policymakers, and the general public for most of the 20th century, this article examines the research literature on the drug-crime relationship and addresses the policy implications of recent research on the link between drugs and crime.

Abstract

The article covers historical underpinnings of current perspectives on drug use, types of drugs and criminal behavior, statistical relationships between drug use and criminal behavior, the etiological nature of the drug-crime relationship, theoretical interpretations of the drug-crime relationship, and policy implications of research conclusions. The cited research consistently demonstrates a strong correlation between drug use and criminal behavior. Although drug-crime data and conceptual understandings are shown to be complex and even contradictory, policy implications of current knowledge are threefold: (1) there is a strong need for treatment services for drug-using criminals; (2) ecological and subcultural perspectives serve to remind society that the drug-crime relationship is at least in part the result of a history of differential social, political, and economic opportunities; and (3) the radical perspective indicates that drug policies should protect civil rights and that drug laws and policies should focus equally on demand and supply reduction. 86 references