Psychotropic Drugs And Crime

There is an undoubtable connection between crime and drugs, at least that is what we are made to believe. Majority of people would jump to say, drugs obviously are the source of crime. Yet, how do we know? In the early decades of America, drugs were very much legal to all people. Hundred years ago, there was a small handful amount of laws prohibiting the use of drugs. Companies were including it into their products [as an ingredient]. Physicians were prescribing it to their patients as treatment. It could even be brought over the counter in specific markets. Employers even believed that drugs were an enhancer, so they gave it to their workers to better their productivity. So, how did we come from being dependents on drugs to drug prohibition? We have completely changed our beliefs. Illegal drugs have become a major criminal offence in America, yet decades ago it was used as a form of medicine or recreation by everyone” (Berger, 171). Why have things changed? What became different?

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

While many drugs enjoyed a period of legalization, eventually most drugs have come to find a place as a scapegoat for many of society’s ills, from poverty, unemployment and homelessness, to rape, murder, and reasons to discriminate certain races based on a stereotypical link to a certain drug. (Steiker, C. S., 2011) At one time even alcohol was a major scapegoat for societal problems, but its strong history and presence in Euro-ethnic culture made

Furthermore, the data from Figures 1 and 2 on drug arrests and government expenditure on prosecution shows that there seems to be significant heightened drug enforcement over the years. According to this data, from 1981 to 2007 there is a significant increase in both the number of drug arrests and the amount of money that the government decided to spend on drug enforcement. However, in order to deduce the effects of 9/11 on drug enforcement, it is necessary to examine and compare data in the years before and after 2001. The arrest rate in 2000 was 559.71, while the arrest rate in 2005 was 622.68. This indicates that over the course of five years, the number of arrests for possession of narcotics increased by almost six million. Likewise, the

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

Alcohol and other drug use are associated with a wide array of other public health problems. It is the leading preventable cause of birth defects in the United States, whereas fetal exposures to maternal illegal drug consumption are a serious and a growing concern. The use of injection to administer illegal drug has become a significant factor in the spread of Aids while alcohol use increases the likelihood of unsafe sexual practices, thus contributing to the spread of HIV/Aids. Much more, it has an enormous impact on the criminal justice system in the country-America. According to Keck, ‘‘a survey suggests that about 35% of those committing crimes are mostly under the influence of the concepts-(alcohol and drug use), (2003). Having said that,

Crime occurs when someone the formal written law by an overt act, omission or neglect that can result in punishment (Macionis, et, al., 2013, p.161). The impact of deviance can last for a long time on an individual, and the coping up ways of each individual that has been affected by crime differs from one another. Macionis, et, al., (2013) states that, “the problem of illegal drugs in countries such as Canada is a demand issue. The demand for cocaine and other drugs is increasing in alarming rate; as a result people look for illegal ways to get drugs. Which increase in crime rate on how people smuggle these drug to where it’s illegal, and high rates of addiction in many young people who are willing to risk arrest or even death for a chance

Drugs play a tremendous role in the world of crime. In 2004, the United States Department of Justice stated 64% of Federal prisoners and 70% of State prisoners regularly used drugs. 25% of current inmates felt intoxicated on drugs when they committed whatever crime got them in jail. Narcotics not only cause addiction problems, but they also motivate crime. Contrabands lead to crime

In her article “The Drugs Relationship: Exploring Dynamic and Static Models,” Lesley Williams Reid examines the relationship between drugs and crime by looking at offenders’ environment. For example she surveyed 835 men in four different cities, which lead her to make her own theories which was that criminals had committed their first crime at an early age and drug users also started at an early age (Reid, 2001). The weakness in Reid article is that she based her research on male inmates in maximum security. This is a weakness because she is only focusing on one gender and one small population.

Crimes that are drug related are numerous in the United States also attract media attention. But, not enough attention is given to this matter because crimes are committed all the time. To find out the difference between drug related and non drug related crimes one would need to ask themselves if drugs play an important role in the decisions of people while under the influence of drugs Seddon (2000). More specifically, “Does illegal drug usage affect the occurrence of violent crimes?”

There has been speculation that the decriminalization of all drugs in Portugal has caused a rapid increase in the number of crimes and homicides in Portugal. Between 2001- 2006, the number of homicides increased by 40% from 105 to 148 per year (Murkin, 1). This may be attributed to the fact that now that drugs are legal, drug availability is more prevalent making it much harder for dealers to compete for customers and eventually resulting in turf battles ending in homicides. This could also be a product of directly drug related murders since getting high, causing the person be have less judgment over his or her self, may lead to reckless actions. However, there has been no concrete evidence supporting that the decriminalization of drugs or drug use itself has had any impact on this rise in homicide rate. This is merely a coincidence statistically but may have deeper prevalence if examined much closer. Crime in general since 2001 in Portugal has increased as well, however, these are mostly associated with petty thefts and robberies (Murkin, 1). This, as well, seems associated with the decriminalization of drugs, but researchers have deduced that this increase in document crimes is due to the fact that police officers can now focus their efforts on dealing with these criminals and other offenders of the law rather then having to deal with drug related crimes everyday. This enables more dangerous criminals to be focused on and decreases the number of drug related offenders in

When it comes to looking at the link between drug use and crime, I think statistically they are inter-related. However, I think this only applies when someone is using drugs improperly. An example being if someone over doses on a haulucengicenic and then results in thinking they can rob a bank.

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

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.

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