Drugs and Crime

1
Drugs and Crime

• Followed By Review for Exam II

2
A Long History of Substance Use

• The use of chemical substances to get high
  dates back to ancient times
• Mesopotamian writings (4,000 years ago) identify
  opium as the plant of joy
• Until recently, most drugs legal
• Winston Churchill (1912) used a cocaine
  solution common cure all drugs were
  opium-based

3
Criminalization of Drugs

• Late 1800s in U.S.
• Moral Crusaders, especially religious
• Medical field began to suggest morphine and
  opiates were habit-forming and constituted a
  disease
• The temperance movement
• Passing Drug Laws
• 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act
• 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act
• 1937 Marijuana Taxation Act

4
The Relationship Between Drugs and Crime

• Drug-defined offenses
• Possession and Sales
• Drug-related offenses
• Drug induced rage ? assault
• Rob to feed drug habbit
• Drug-using lifestyle
• Crimes relevant to lifestyle

5
Drug Control Strategies

• War on Drugs 500 Billion over past 20 years
• Source Control
• Interdiction
• Punishment (Deterrence)
• Drug Education
• Drug Testing
• Drug Treatment

6
Drug Legalization?

• Pro?
• Reduce crime by eliminating drug-defined crimes
  
• Reduce violence generated by black market
• Reduce police corruption (?)
• Con?
• Increased drug use and social cost

7
Theories of Drug Use?

• Most theories of crime can also explain drug use
  (social learning, social control)
• The Gateway argument
• Are cigarettes a gateway to pot?
• Is pot a gateway to hard drugs?
• Alternative explanation
• Something causes both cigarette and pot use,
  both pot use and hard drug use

8
Exam II

• Multiple Guess
• 60-65 Questions
• Bring ID or remember ID number

9
Theories of Crime

• Deterrence/Rational Choice
• Biological/Psychological
• Sociological
• Anomie/Strain
• Social Disorganization
• Differential Association/Social Learning

10
Social Disorganization

• Chicago School (Shaw and McKay)
• Gist of what they did and found
• Ecological Factors, esp. social control

11
Anomie/Strain

• Durkheim
• Merton
• Messner and Rosenfeld (Institutional Anomie)
• Agnews GST
• Main Concepts, policy implications, criticisms?

12
Social Learning

• Edwin Sutherland
• Gist of DA, policy implications?
• Criticisms?
• Ronald Akers (how change Sutherlands theory?)

13
Deterrence/Rational Choice

• Classical School of Crime
• Deterrence Research
• Certainty
• Severity
• Specific vs. General Deterrence