NCJ Number
168404
Date Published
1997
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews recent research on the drugs/crime connection.
Abstract
Research on the drugs/crime connection focuses on possible correlations between the two phenomena, and the nature and direction of the causality in the relationship. Many previous studies have documented that there is an economic component to the drugs/crime connection (users steal to obtain drugs), that illegal drug users come from backgrounds of illegal activity that predate drug use, and that drug use both sustains and intensifies criminal behavior. The paper reviews these issues, and presents recently collected drugs/crime data on a population of 699 criminally-involved crack and other cocaine users in Miami, Florida. In their last 90 days on the street, these users reportedly committed 1.76 million criminal acts. More than 90 percent of the crimes were individual retail drug sales. The data reflect little relationship between crime and arrest. The primary statistical relationship between crime and crack use involves the retail sale and distribution of cocaine and crack by drug user/dealers who are attempting to support their drug habits. Note, tables, references