Women, Drug Use and Crime: Findings From the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia Program

• NCJ Number: 228021
• Author(s): Wendy Loxley; Kerryn Adams
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 56 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: AIC Reports: Research and Public Policy Series 99.

Annotation

This report presents the findings from women participants in the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program and the Drug Use Careers of Offenders study investigating the relationship between drug use and crime, highlighting gender differences.

Abstract

This report found differences in drug between male and female detainees and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous female detainees. Highlights of findings include: (1) female police detainees were more socially and occupationally disadvantaged than male detainees and considerably more in the general community; (2) female detainees were more likely than male detainees to have a property offense as their most serious offense and less likely than women prisoners in the Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) study to have a violent offense; (3) women and men in the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program had different rates of alcohol and other drug use, with women favoring drugs such as amphetamine/methamphetamine, heroin, benzodiazepines, street methadone, and morphine and more likely than men to have injected them in the previous year; (4) alcohol was associated with violent offending in women, yet, not to the same extent as men; (5) women were more likely than the men to attribute their crime to their illicit drug use; (6) Indigenous women were more likely than non-Indigenous women to be involved in violent offending and less likely to be involved in drug crime; (7) female police detainees were significantly more likely than male detainees to report both current and prior involvement in a drug or alcohol treatment program; and (8) mental health problems were more often related to drug use than to contact with the criminal justice system. Though understanding of women's offending has improved, few in-depth studies have been conducted monitoring or examining crime and drug use by women in Australia. Using data from the DUMA program and DUCO study, this report sought to investigate the relationship between drug use and crime, illuminating gender differences among police detainees (DUMA), prisoners (DUCO), and the Australian population (the National Drug Strategy Household Survey and census data). Tables, figures, glossary, and references