Drugs And Crime

16 Pages 4087 Words

Around four million people use illicit drugs each year. Most illicit drug use is relatively controlled 'recreational' use of cannabis and ecstasy. People who try illicit drugs are more likely than others to commit other forms of law breaking. However there is no persuasive evidence of any causal linkage between drug use and property crime for the vast majority of this group. A very small proportion of users - less than 5% of the total - have chaotic lifestyles involving dependent use of heroin, crack/cocaine and other drugs. An even smaller proportion of users - perhaps around 100,000 people - finance their use through crime. The majority of those who steal to buy drugs were involved in crime before their drug use became a problem for them. This group of criminally involved problem users commits very large amounts of shoplifting, burglary and other crime to finance drug purchases. If appropriate drug treatment is given to this group, they reduce their offending levels.
There are links between some forms of illicit drug use and crime is obvious. The precise nature of these links is not. Widely differing claims are made about the extent to which crime is 'drug-driven'. This paper assembles research evidence that can shed light on the relationships. We have focused on key pieces of recent British research, but we have also discussed relevant American work. This review is restricted to an examination of the links between drug use and property crime. This is because debate in the UK currently revolves around the impact of drug use on crimes such as burglary, shoplifting, robbery and other theft. We have not examined links with violent crime. This is not to deny that some specific drugs may facilitate violence - and others may inhibit it (Anglin & Speckart, 1988; Dobinson & Ward, 1986; Harrison & Backenheimer, 1998; Jarvis & Parker, 1989). Nor should one ignore the systemic violence associated with some forms of drug distributio...