Relationship Between Drugs and Crime (From Exploring the Alcohol and Drug Crime Link - Society's Response, P 45-50, 1986, R A Bush, ed. - See NCJ-102892)

• NCJ Number: 102896
• Author(s): J Sutton
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper reviews research on the drug-crime link sponsored by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Australia) and discusses associated research methodological issues.

Abstract

Bureau research has included the monitoring of all criminal law changes in New South Wales; the involvement of alcohol consumption in firearms incidents, traffic accidents, and domestic violence; and the collection of criminal justice statistics on drug offenses. Another research project surveyed a sample of inmates to determine property crime motives. Most research on the drug-crime link has tested a drug-crime causal link that oversimplifies the issues. Research should explore variables that might intervene between drugs and crime, such as the criminal milieu of illegal drug consumption, personality characteristics of the abuser, and the abuser's position in the crime and drug network. This requires that research include phenomenological and network studies. Such research should contribute to the devising of interventions likely to disrupt the drugs-crime relationship.