NCJ Number
157380
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
To examine the relationship between self-reported drug/alcohol use and student crime, this study used the findings of an anonymous survey mailed to 6,000 undergraduate students.
Abstract
Of the questionnaires returned, 1,857 were usable. The findings show that student perpetrators of crime tended to be heavier drug and alcohol users than either their victims or students who had not been perpetrators or victims. Alcohol and drug use also was apparently a victimization risk-factor, since student crime victims tended to be heavier users of illicit drugs and alcohol than nonvictims. There was no statistically significant relationship between the type of crime committed and increased drug or alcohol use, although students who had been the victims of violent and sex crimes did not tend to be heavier drug/alcohol users than students who had been the victims of property crimes. Students who committed multiple offenses tended to use more drugs and alcohol than students who had committed a single crime. Similarly, students who had been victimized more than once tended to report greater overall drug and alcohol use than students who had been victimized only once. The study concludes that it is possible to construct a reliable profile of both perpetrators and victims of student crime with the use of a relatively small number of demographic, academic, and drug-use variables. Overall, 36 percent of the sample reported having been crime victims during their college years; 8 percent reported having committed such a crime.