NCJ Number
194724
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 37 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2002 Pages: 121-131
Date Published
2002
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether a group of drug-dependent incoming prisoners to an Ohio jail interpreted the role of drugs in their crimes differently than did incoming prisoners who were not drug-dependent.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether drug dependence affected offenders' perceptions of the role of drugs in the commission of crime. The data used in this study was generated from a study funded by the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. The purpose of that study was to determine the extent of alcohol/drug use among incoming prisoners and to evaluate the need for drug/alcohol abuse treatment. Face-to-face interviews with 199 incoming prisoners at Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland were conducted between June 1997 and September 1998. Of these incoming prisoners, 24.1 percent were female, 21.1 percent were white, and 72.4 percent were African American. Their mean age was 30. The authors were able to classify 58 percent of the 199 respondents as currently dependant on at least one illicit substance. The main objective of the interview was to ascertain whether the prisoners believed that drugs had been a factor in the crimes they committed. The results showed that 58.9 percent of those respondents who were addicted to at least one substance answered that they did indeed perceive that drugs had been a factor in their criminal behavior. This group also admitted to using drugs/alcohol in the 2 days following their criminal acts. More specifically, these respondents admitted that the need to obtain drugs for personal use was one of the main motives for engaging in criminal activities. While these results are useful to understanding perceptions of drug use in the commission of criminal activities, the authors point out that there are two serious limitations to this study. First, the authors admit that the generalizability of the results is questionable given that the sample comes from a small number of incoming prisoners at a single county jail. Second, self-report data concerning drug use raises validity problems. 2 Tables, 7 references