Drugs and Crime

Abstract

Drug law violations and other crimes related to substance abuse incur dire costs in terms of both financial outlay and human suffering. This review of the current professional literature addresses the identification of risk factors and the longitudinal course of addiction and criminal behavior. Results indicate that neither criminally active drug users nor drug users in general are monolithic groups in terms of manifestations of criminal behavior. Drug use and criminal activity are depicted as mutually facilitative behaviors, with research outcomes tending to convey that although drug addiction does not turn nonviolent criminals into violent criminals, active addiction does increase the frequency of criminal activity.