Addiction Services Guide - Articles

Drugs and crime
Alcohol / Drug-related crime has been the subject of considerable
attention in recent years. As well as imposing substantial
economic and social costs upon society and victims of crime,
it has a high profile among the public, media and politicians.
The question of how addiction treatment influences criminal
behaviour is important for the implementation and evaluation of
drug treatment programmes and the development of policies to
tackle drug misuse. Although clinical services mostly focus on
tackling drug misuse and its associated health problems, the
reduction of crime is also seen increasingly as a goal of drug
misuse treatment.1
Alcohol / Drug misusers frequently come into contact with the law, as the
use of illegal drugs makes them liable to arrest. There are also
other links between drug misuse and crime. Heroin, on a
weight-for-weight basis, is more expensive than gold and the
regular use of illicit drugs places an excessive economic burden
upon the user which, in most cases, cannot be met by
legitimate means. Two common ways of obtaining drugs, or
obtaining money for drugs, are through acquisitive crimes and
through drug dealing or supply. Some drug users support their
habit through prostitution, though this is less common.2
Drug dependence, in particular, imposes a huge financial
burden on the user who needs to raise money for drugs, often
on a daily basis. The regular use of heroin or cocaine has been
linked to income-generating crimes, and offences such as theft
(including shoplifting, burglary, and robbery) are common
among addicted drug misusers. Police estimates have
suggested that about half of all recorded crime in the UK may
be drug-related. The high rates of criminal behaviour are
reflected in similarly high rates of contact by drug misusers with
the criminal justice system. This criminality and the associated
demands upon the criminal justice system represent a
considerable burden on society.
Crime and drug dependence prior to
treatment
The patients who sought treatment in the NTORS programmes in
1995 presented with a range of serious and chronic drug and
other problems.3 Just over 1,000 drug misusers reported more
than 27,000 acquisitive offences during the 90 days prior to
commencing treatment.4 Shoplifting was the most common type
of acquisitive crime, both in terms of number of offences and the
percentages of drug users committing the offence.
For the majority of drug misusers, the amounts and types of
crime committed were strongly influenced by their current
addiction status. Drug users who were more severely dependent
on heroin and cocaine tended to be more heavily involved in
crime, with increased use of heroin strongly related to higher
rates of offending. However, the vast majority of acquisitive
crimes were committed by a small minority of drug users, with
ten per cent committing about three-quarters of all acquisitive
crimes.4 The high-rate offenders in the NTORS study were more
than ten times more likely to be regular heroin users and were
also three times more likely to be regular cocaine users,
compared to those who reported no criminal involvement.
Drug selling offences were frequently reported by the NTORS
clients. Nearly 40,000 drug dealing offences were reported
during the 90 days prior to treatment. However, as with
acquisitive crimes, not all drug users were involved in selling
drugs. Less than one-third reported selling drugs and for the
majority of those who were selling drugs, this was reported to
be an occasional activity.
A minority reported being highly active as drug sellers.
Their involvement with drug dealing was of a different order from
that of the other drug sellers: 71 individuals (seven per cent of
respondents) reported almost 35,000 drug selling offences
during the 90 days prior to admission.
The term “drug selling” refers to a range of different activities
which are conducted for different reasons. It is possible that the
involvement in drug selling of the high-rate offenders reflected a
more “professional” approach to dealing. The high frequency of
heroin use among these clients could be seen, at least partly,
as a consequence of their ready access to the drug. Dealers
could benefit from bulk buying and passing on costs to lower
level buyers.
There were differences between men and women in the types
of crimes committed. Shoplifting was reported by 44 per cent
of women compared to 36 per cent of men. Men were more
likely to have committed burglary (15% vs 5%), and robbery
(6% vs 3%). More men than women were involved in selling
drugs (32% vs 20%).
An important finding from NTORS – which is sometimes
overlooked – is that crime and drug misuse do not inevitably go
together. Half of the clients were not involved with acquisitive
crime and more than two-thirds were not involved with drug
selling crimes during the period before admission. Of those
who were involved in crime, the majority were relatively
infrequent offenders.

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