1. Most crime committed by small number of people (6%). Violent crime extremely concentrated. Occasional crime widespread, few are repeat serious offenders.
2. Not much specialization, wide range of offenses. But, non-serious are not linked to serious; serious are linked to non-serious.
3. Certain crimes predict involvement in others
4. As per #3, robbery==> criminal lifestyle
5. As per #3, violent crimes==> also economic, and lifestyle
6. Career pattern: Early involvement (J.D.- esp. Violent and frequent), but most juvies do not become adult offenders
7. Correlates of J.D. and Crime: school problems, poverty (inequality), lower IQ, problematic parenting, abuse. (Independent of drug use in terms of influencing crime) (also correlates to drug use)
8. Low probability of arrest, more frequent offenders-- lower probability per offense: Inciardi (Miami study)- 118,134 criminal events==> 286 arrests (1/413 for all crimes, for index crimes- 1/292. Criminal career (males) 13 years==> 3.5 arrests
9. There is little deterrent effect, especially for frequent, serious offender

Empiricism, Correlation, and Causation

• Drug use and criminality are very positively correlated
• No study has failed to find the correlation
• Users of Drugs are extremely more likely to:
1. Participate in a wide variety of criminal activity
2. Engage in more violent crime
3. Engage in more serious crime
• The more one uses drugs, the more likely one is to be involved in criminal activity
• One of the FEW established and agreed upon links

Studies:

Bureau of Justice Statistics:

Research Note: Validity of Self-Reports?

Focus: Violent Crime:

ADAM: Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program: 2000 Report)

Self Reports by Jail and Prison Inmates

• UTI at time of offense: 1979- 32%; 1991- 31% (robbery and burglary highest)
• Heroin use ~25 times the rate of general population
• All illicit drug use ~3X the rate
• 50% of prison inmates in 1991 report having used illicit drug in the month prior to their offense (43% in 1986 on a daily basis)
• The more drugs used, and the "harder" the drugs; the greater the number of prior offenses

BUT: These striking correlations do not mean:

• That all drug users are criminals
• That all criminals are drug users
• That non-drug users do not commit crimes
• That non-criminals are non-drug users

Problems in the Drugs-Crime Link

• What do we mean by cause: Direct (psychopharmacological) or Indirect?
• Explanation of the issue of members of the drug using subculture have higher rates of criminality (is it the drugs that cause the behavior?)
• Finally, problem exists that the same categories of people who are likely to use drugs are also the same categories of people who have higher rates of criminal activity.
• So problems in sorting through all the connections, correlations and spurious relationships
  • Illicit Drugs and Crime, Benson, Bruce L., and David W. Rasmussen.  Independent Policy Report: Illicit Drugs and Crime. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 1996.
  • The Youth Gangs, Drugs, and Violence Connection (pdf file) (Juvenile Justice Bulletin, by James Howell and Scott Decker)
  • Street Gangs and Drug Sales in Two Suburban Cities (pdf file) (Juvenile Justice Bulletin, by Cheryl Maxson)
• Race, Arrest, and Incarceration and the drug war on minorities.

World Drug Report

Theoretical Models

Economic Crime

• Goode: Beyond Politics and Reason- Drugs and Crime (Economic Crimes)

  • Enslavement (medical-maintenance model): Goode's comments
  • Criminal or Predispositional: Goode's comments
    • Cigarettes and Crime
  • Intensification: Goode's comments (elasticity of demand)
    • Drug use to facilitate crime (stimulants and alcohol)
    • Drug use to celebrate successful crime
    • Drug use to handle stress (prostitution--which in turn supports use)
    • Subcultural/common-cause
    • See, Faupel, Horowitzand Weaver, The Sociology of American Drug Use, 2005

Violent Crime

• Goldstein: "The Drugs/Violence Nexus"

  • Psychopharmacological: Direct cause
    1. Drug produces changes that increases aggressiveness
    2. Alcohol (disinhibition)
    3. Barbiturates
    4. ?PCP?
    5. ?Cocaine?
    6. Psychoactive Substances and Violence (J. Roth, 1994, NIJ): "Of all psychoactive substances, alcohol is the only one whose consumption has been shown to commonly increase aggression. After large doses of..(other drugs)... certain individuals may experience violent outbursts, probably because of preexisting psychosis.
  • Economic-Compulsive
    1. Crime as instrumental: pay for expensive habit
    2. Typically non-violent: Larceny-theft, burglary
    3. But, robbery rates high-- Heroin, Cocaine
  • Systemic
    1. Violence as an integral part of the structure and culture of illicit drug use
    2. Turf
    3. Sales difficulties (the customer is not always right)
    4. Employee control
    5. Community disorganization
    6. Inciardi: overly-determined behavior

Go to National Institute of Justice publication page for additional resources.

• Early images (1930s): Killer Weed that produced wild and violent behavior
• 1970: National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse
• Overwhelming current evidence: No violence/aggression
• But, marijuana use is correlatied with criminal offenses with heavier users displaying more crimnal involvement than light users.
  • Issues to consider:
    • Other drug use--heavier users are more likely to use other drugs
    • Those who use only marijuana report crimnal involvement closer to non-users.
    • Significance of friends, subcultural involvement--it's the social circles rahther than the drug that explains rates of criminality

Bruce Johnson (1973): Uncovered these same correlations, but makes the crucial point that:

• Irregular users who are involved in subcultural activities like distributing the drug are more likely than regular users who do not participate in the subculture, to engage in criminal and aggressive behavior.
  

Indication: Relationship is spurious, but nonetheless, marijuana is used by many offenders.

• Most likely to be involved of all drugs
• Most offenders, UTI: Commonly used
• Psychopharmacological?
• Studies difficult and flawed (etoh cause, how drunk, etc.)
• Males use more, and offend more
• Consumed during periods crime is more likely (weekends)
• UTI==> excuse: Drunken comportment- Cultural norm
• Still: Violence and Alcohol==> "Peas in a Pod"

Violent Death and Alcohol

• Wolfgang (1958) 60% of killers (lots of confirmation)
• Inciardi, et al, 1997: Legalizing Drugs: Would it Really Reduce Violent Crime? (AD reader)
  • 1990 International Study: 62% of violent offenders report heavy use, and UI.
  • Males who fight and carry weapons: 20 times more likely to drink regularly.
  • 1994: 268 Homocides
    • 31% drunk at the time
    • 64% of women who kill--misuse alcohol
• Victims, too. 25-66%
• Murder interaction:
1. Victim precipitation
2. Victim selection
3. Reciprocity: Male on male
• Highly correlated with all forms of violent/accidental death (DWI)
• "Alcohol, Drugs, and Violence," Robert Nash Parker and Kathleen Auerhahn (1998)
  • Fagan's "Intoxication, Aggression, and the Functionality of Violence." (1990, 1993) "Youth violence is a 'functional, purporsive behavior that serves definable goals within specific social contexts.'...Another factor that may influence the meanings attributed to the actions of others is the consumption of drugs or alcohol, due to the behavioral expectancies that may be associated with them."
  • Parker: Selective Social Disinhibition approach (1993, 1995)--"Alcohol selectively disinhibits violence depending on contextual factors specific to the situation, the actors involved and their relationships to one another, and the impact of bystanders.  In US society, the norms about the appropriateness of violence in solving interpersonal disputes argue both for and against such behaviors."  (depends on situation, socialization, institutional support)   "In potentially violent situations, it takes active constraint--a proactive and conscious decision..."  Alcohol use in the right (i.e. wrong) situation can lead to violence as the resolution option since it can selectively disinhibit "an already weak normative apparatus.  Especially relevant: domestic disputes, closest interpersonal relationships.  They even note: "...the deterrent effect of capital punishment on homicide rates was strongest in states that had below average rates of alcohol consumption."
  • Alaniz and Parker: Alcohol Availability, Advertising (local copy) and Violence (1998, 1999).  "The spatial distribution of alcohol outlets and the targeted advertising of alcohol to particular communities...may mediate (the relationship between alcohol and violence)."
• ALCOHOL==> Precursor to violent death

Alcohol and Assault

• Same Pattern as with murder
• Assault-Homicide: Do both parties survive?
• Over 60% of known interactions
• Juveniles use marijuana as frequently, yet it is half as likely to be present
• Juvies: ETOH==> 2nd most likely to==> fight (Seconal- #1)
• Sexual assault: 40% convicted, 2/3 molesters, 40-65% overall

Causal Link?

• ETOH one of a number of factors
• High correlation
• Dis-inhibition (see, Faupel, Horowitzand Weaver, The Sociology of American Drug Use, 2005, page 311)
  • No scientific support
  • No understanding of why some become violent and others don't
    • Social learning issues--expectations?
    • Normative controls relaxed for those UTI
    • Disavowel of responsibiltiy
  • Question of what exactly is dis-inhibited?
    • humans as "naturally anti-social?
• Social context: causal in USA (Drunken Comportment--cognitive-guidedness)
• There appears to be an "interactive relationship" between the pharmacological properties of alcohol and the cultural guidelines for "behavior under the influence." There are some things that are simply far less likely to occur without alcohol being consumed.
• However, most violence cannot ascribed to etoh: institutional, ideological
• All things equal: Direct effect on portion of U.S. violence

Heroin and Violent Crime

• Pre- 1970: Image=> NO. Heroin use was associated with Rational crimes (economic compulsive). Violence was accidental.
• After 1970: ? Violence and street life. Homicide leading cause of death for user.
• Psychopharmacological or Subcultural Shift?
  1. Impact of withdrawal
  2. Robbery and $==> common. Victim confrontation
  3. Post 1970: Addict involved in crime prior to drug subculture
  4. Post 1970: Poly drug use: Alcohol and cocaine
  5. Now: Use of heroin==> strong link to violent behavior (convicted felons- high rates of use)
  6. Yet, use stable ( even down for a time); cocaine ?

Heroin and Predatory Crime

Inciardi: Heroin users

• Challenges simplistic economic-compulsive model
• Users engage in a variety of crime, vastly more likely than non-users
• 200 crime days/year (5-10x more than non-users)
• Use more, more variety, more serious
• Low arrest probability
• Males: Alcohol==> Crime==> Drugs
• Females==> complex variations
• Simple cause-effect: futile
• Similar to Nurco, Kinlock, and Hanlon

Johnson: "Taking Care of Business" (1985)

• Not all physically addicted (dependent, yes)
• 1/3 irregular; 1/3 regular; 1/3 daily (classic junkie- rare)
• Yet: Compulsive: crime is significant
• Most not driven to "avoid withdrawal," yet driven none the less
• Most regular users do not become dependent: erratic use patterns, small amount, $ problems- makes long term continual use unlikely
• Users spend a lot less than assumed: Image- $150-300/day; BUT average income from crime==> $38/day (daily user==> $52)
• Calculated cost of habit problematic: # of shots, size and cost (multiply by 1.7 for 2004 value): Johnson-
  1. Irregular==> Say $25, accurate review==> $4!!!!
  2. Higher frequency of use, closer estimate, BUT still off by 50%. Daily user==> $36
  3. Entire sample estimated average: $43; Actual: $18
  4. Forget about non-use days
• Most money comes from other sources
  1. Robbery, Burglary, Shoplift: 44% (2/3 all crime income)
  2. Drug sales: most of income
  3. Day labor
  4. More frequent the use, less cash used (daily 58%==> $)
  5. "Avoidance of drug expenditures": steal, beg, borrow drugs, day labor in the heroin marketplace, mooching
• Poly Drug use High: Cocaine and ETOH
  1. Daily: very high levels
  2. 2/3 of days==> 6 oz of Alcohol, 1/4 of days==> Cocaine
  3. Irregular- Cost of cocaine too high

  (back to Illicit Drug Industry notes)

Heroin and Crime: Summary

• Use drives crime
• Most involved prior to use
• Illegality seems to make things worse
• "Curing" addiction will not solve problem

Cocaine and Violence

• Pharmacological properties: seems more likely (yet BIJ study)
• Drug of choice for Robbers
• Crimes with violence as primary motive (vs. Robbery)
  1. LA- Homicide victims (late 80's- 20%), now: most frequently detected drug.
  2. Question: predispose to violence or expose to violence
  3. NY (1988): 1/3 of all homicides involved cocaine.   60% of drug related homicides=> Crack. Powdered cocaine: 12% of all, 22% of drug related.
  4. 84% of all drug related violent deaths--Cocaine (heroin only 3 of total).
• Goldstein and "big" and "small" users (psychopharmacological)
  • For males, as use increases, perpetrating violent crime increase
  • For females, victimization increases with use
  • Addition of alcohol as explanatory factor
• Inciardi: Cocaine Psychosis, irritability during "withdrawal."
• "Mode of living," "subculture of violence." "Heavy cocaine use tends to take place in social settings in which violence is a common accompaniment among social circles who readily and almost routinely engage in violent behavior" (Goode, page 328)

Back to Goldstein and Systemic Violence

• Seller vs. Casual user (unless sale dispute)
• Crack Trade:
  1. Disputational: violence as leverage
  2. Anarchistic
  3. Seller: violent, criminal background
  4. Drug trade violent in and of itself
  5. "Destabilized" neighborhoods
  6. Powerlessness at community level
  7. Decline in use==> Increase in violence!

Hamid: "Crack violence is the violence of persons reacting violently to conditions that violate"

Cocaine and Predatory Crime

• Major correlation
• Psychopharmacological or Criminal picks up lifestyle of use?
• Cocaine and reinforcement: Use; like to use again.
• Frequency of use: lots of transactions and $$$$$. USE IS NOT CHEAPER: Unit dosing.
• Poly drug use high
• Similar to heavy heroin users
• 80-90% arrestees for robbery
• Drug of choice for "Urban Criminals"
• DUF: 41% males; 47% females
• BUT: Causality?
  1. All levels of criminality go up after cocaine use, NO form of crime BEGINS after
  2. Users already criminal
  3. Crack, cocaine: intensifies, accelerates criminality

Inciardi Study: Crack and Juveniles

• Social context
• Social circles of users, criminals overlap
• Crime, Crack, and other drugs: Markers of entrance into deviant, criminal subculture
• Individuals already characterized by "Non-traditional Lifestyle" (employment problems, school dropout, marital problems, etc. (Problem-prone behavior)
• Crime intensified through subcultural development. It's the: Thrill
• Take away Crack? Depends on what replaces it.
  1. No drug==> Crime will drop
  2. Heroin==> no change
  3. Alcohol==> Violence up, predatory down

Trends in Crime 1990s-2000s

• Summary (Goode, 7e, 2008, page 347)
• Cocaine and Crack use down (frequent use still high)
• Heroin stable to increasing; potency and availability up
• Crime: Interesting decrease in levels of criminal activity (index crimes, especially violent)
• Cigarettes and Crime
• Maintenance of a permanent class of criminals???
• In general, drug use and criminal behavior seem to vary independently of each other, and are the products of a set of inter-related variables: overly-determined behavior.
• Rather than trying to explain relationship between drug use and crime, perhaps:
  • Initiation into drug use and criminal behavior
  • escalation of drug use and crime
  • Maintenance of a permanent class of addict-criminals
    • Drug use today appears even more significantly correlated with crime: Regular, frequent, heavy users

Illicit Drug Industry

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/180/drgcrime.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated: Thursday, April 12, 2018 11:55 AM