NCJ Number
158425
Journal
Criminology Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: (November 1978) Pages: 293-315
Date Published
1978
Length
23 pages
Annotation
A sample of 690 individuals admitted to the California Civil Addict Program were studied with respect to arrest rates and self-reported criminal behavior as a function of frequency of narcotic use during the addiction careers.
Abstract
The participants were all males admitted to the program during two time periods: 1962-64 and 1970. They were interviewed in 1974-75. The average age at the time of admission to the program was 25 for both groups; at the time of the interview, the average age was 37 for the 1962-64 group and 30 for the 1970 group. The research focused on drug use, employment, and illicit behavior from the date 12 months prior to the first narcotic use to the time of the interview. Results revealed that 35 percent of the nonincarcerated time during the addiction career involved less than daily narcotic use or no narcotic use. During these periods, arrest rates for property crimes and self- reported criminal behavior were substantially lower than for periods of daily use. This approach to examining the relationship between crime and drug addiction avoided several of the methodological problems encountered in preaddiction and postaddiction and pretreatment and posttreatment studies. Tables and 25 references (Author abstract modified)