CRIMINOLOGYDoes drug use cause crime, does crime cause drug use or is the relationship entirely co-incidental?INTRODUCTIONIn this paper I will look at the amount and type of crime caused by drugs, the relationship between drugs and crime and the relationship between alcohol and crime.
Crime is defined as:An act committed in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon convictionUnlawful activityA serious offence, especially in violation of moralityCauses of CrimeFirstly, let us explore crime and it's causes.
There are five main theories about what causes crime:1.The Classical TheoryCrime is caused by the individual's free will.
Human beings are rational and make decisions freely with
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So when we think of crime we think of the higher end, assaults and muggings where in fact most crime is for possession of cannabis.
Hard Drugs Causing CrimeA study in 1997 carried out by the Garda Research Unit in the Dublin Metropolitan Region found that out of 19,046 serious crimes 7,757 people were apprehended. Out of these, 3.356 were known to be users of hard drugs such as opiates, hypnotics, stimulants and hallucigens. The study came to the conclusion that these hard drug users were responsible for 665 of these crimes (Keogh 1997). It was also found that 51% of these had been involved in crime before using drugs and 48% had family members involved in crime.
1996 2001Crime as main source of income 59% 13%Unemployment rate among drug users 84% 55%Most common age of first taking drugs 15 years 15 yearsDrug first used " cannabis 51% 55%Drug first used " heroin 32% 27%First introduced to drugs by friend 81% 86%Estimated daily expenditure on drug eur51 eur75Percentage who sourced drugs from local drug dealer 46% 76%Crime came before drugs 51% 33%Drugs came before crime 30% 56%Drug use and crime started together 19% 11%Percentage who had been in prison 81% 66%Keogh, E. $1997% I!icit Drug use and Related Criminal Activity in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. Dublin: An Garda Siochana / Furey, M.
and Browne, C. $2003% Opiate Use and Related Criminal Activity in Ireland 2000 and 2001. Templemore: Garda Siochana Research Unit.
Two of the major studies on
Drug abuse and substance use have been categorized as a major reason for increased crime and rebellion amongst citizenly. Women, children and unemployed middle aged individuals experience increased crime rate as they are considered less contributors to general economic decisions. These include the inaccessibility of social amenities, lack of security and likely a surge in desperation to engage in misconducts that attract forceful interventions from existing
Since 1941 there has been a major surge in drug dealing through proof of arrest rates. This is pretty clear since the amount of arrests has increased by a monumental 50% since then. Statistics show the escalation of arrests from1941-1990. From 1941-1950 there were 0.3 arrests; 1951-1960 0.7%; 1961-1970 7.9%; 1971-1980 36.9% and from 1981-1990 54.2%. Today, nineteen years later, these arrest rates
Crime and drugs are related in several ways. One being, drug production, manufacture, trafficking or possession of illegal drugs may comprise crime. Secondly, drug use could possibly increase the possibility of other crimes like murder or kidnapping. Finally, use of drugs can be connected to bigger problems, such as, the use of illegal weapons and other shapes of violence and terrorism. You may wonder, what causes certain people to participate in criminal activities while abusing illegal drugs?
In a study that was done back in 1970 by Sutherland and Cressey, they pointed out that in the U.S. alone, “felons are overrepresented in the addict population, [and] crime rates are increased considerably by drug addiction” (1970, p. 164). Despite having proposed several hypotheses attempting to explain the correlation between drug abuse and crime, they could not reach a conclusion. A decade later, the knowledge about the drug/crime relationship had steadily increased due to numerous studies of the incarcerated or addicted population. However, the information didn’t reveal any viewpoints that made sense aside from heroin. This view was
Another major subset in the overall prison population in the U.S. is the growing rise in incarceration rates of drug offenders. Professor Blumstein notes that when considering the growth of incarceration rates by specific type of crime, such as murder, robbery, assault, burglary, drugs, and sex offenses during the two decades from 1980 to 2001, the single most important result was that the prison rate for drug offenders increased by a factor of 10; moreover, these drug offenders currently account for the largest percentage of both state and federal prison populations (Blumstein, 2011).
This new dynamic was seen initially in 1971 by the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) spearheaded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The survey indicated that many illegal drug users were employed full or part time. The initial survey was used to try and understand the scope of the problem,
Social conflicts and struggles are an inevitable part of any society in any country. These struggles can include an increased rate in crime, unemployment, domestic/general violence, and overall civilian depression. When governments cannot seem to find a means to an end, they often turn and look for something to blame for their struggles, and that thing is more often than not, drugs. For many years, several opiates and drugs were primarily used for medicinal purposes, were seen to have an abundance of health benefits and was widely accepted among communities. Although, with the increasing social conflicts and economic conditions, authorities turned to and targeted many different forms of once accepted drugs, and made them the scapegoat for the problems they were facing.
We have recently seen a change in the way that drug abuse and addiction are viewed. Considering addiction to be a chronic and relapsing disease is a new concept for the public, policymakers, and even health care professionals (Leshner 46). With this in mind, we can recognize that corrections without the benefit of treatment will fall short in correcting drug-seeking and addictive behaviors (Leshner 46). These, of course, are also the behaviors that most often cause an individual to return to crimes that promote their drug use upon leaving jail or prison (Leshner
A great deal of harm is caused by illicit drugs, particularly to dependant users. Drug use damages the user and diminishes an individual’s social cohesion. An individual’s dependency on illicit drugs places a heavy burden on the Australian legal system, welfare(Centrelink), the justice system(lawyers) and the medical system. The many burdens caused by the manufacture, supply and use of illicit drugs effect the efficiency of Australia. The Drugs misuse and trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) applies to over 240 drugs, including
Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.
There has always been a close association between drugs and crime. Drugs have been seen as a way out of suffering in one’s life and so as long as there is suffering there will always be a market for drugs. The struggle to keep one’s self sane when away from a substance they need can cause them to do crazy and even violent things to others. Things like murdering someone because they did not have proper control of themselves is not something unheard of by any means. These people can been seen as both victims and criminals, as they were not in a sound state of mind when doing these actions, however them doing the actions does not mean they should get off scot-free. The users are only one side of the coin, the other is the drug dealers. The dealers do not have to be selling purely illegal drugs, they may be selling prescription drugs too, but in the pursuit of their own survival in a struggling life, they turn to selling substances to others. By doing so they can even amass a fortune, but this is still a crime, and what people will do to try to get all this potential money can span from robbing to murder. The articles I read from different media support the fact there is indeed a tie with crime and drugs, being that an increase of drugs on the street leads to more crime.
Illegal narcotics is not a new thing to America, in fact is very much common. These illegal substances can take a toll on the average human’s lives, if measures are taken to the extreme. One of the most addictive and commonly abused type of narcotics is Heroin. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) , in 2012 about 669,000 Americans were reported using heroin in the past year. First starting off as a substance that was used as a non addictive substitute for morphine, it later on then was discovered in 1874 that it was just as addictive as morphine. Heroin is made from the opium part of the poppy plant. This later on was discovered that many were now using this drug as a sort of tranquilizer that made them have a feeling
A lot of people link drug abuse with crime, at times even with violent crime. This association comes from psychopharmacological association that imply that people may engage in criminal acts after taking some kind of substance known to undermine their judgment as well as self-control result in paranoid thoughts and distortion of inhibitions (Sewell, Poling and Sofuoglu, 189). Though all substances that affect the central nervous system might result in this kind of relationships, scientific information indicates that some type of drugs have a more strong effect than others. Such drugs are alcohol, cocaine, phencyclidine and amphetamines (McCauley, Ruggiero, Resnick and Kilpatrick, 136). Inversely, cannabis and heroin are less associated with desire to commit
The basic definition of the word criminal is someone who commits offending behaviour within society (Harrower, 2001). The crime may range from petty theft to murder.
In order to measure illegal opioid use and its effects on theft rates, we will follow the framework guidelines set forth by Gottfredson, Karley, and Bushway (2008). The study will contain the measures listed, (a) criminal activity listed by type of crime, (b) if criminal activity was directly motivated by the desire to acquire additional drugs, and (c) substance abuse