The relationship between drug use and crime: a puzzle inside an enigma

Abstract

The recreational/dependent drug use dichotomy has very quickly become the established wisdom within drugs literature. The paper uses the concept of ‘drug career’ to demonstrate that this bipolar distinction is problematic. The research it reports suggests that, alongside ‘recreational drug use’ and ‘dependent drug use’, a third form or ‘episode’ of drug use can be observed: what we call here ‘persistent drug use’. Following this exploration of drug careers, the article examines the interaction between drug use and crime. It is purported that a simple unilateral causal explanation is overly simplistic as the relationship is not consistent throughout the career of a drug user and through the qualitative exploration of drug careers the nuances of this relationship are identified. It is therefore suggested that both classifications of drugs and the relationship between drug use and crime are products of local social contexts and environments.

Introduction

As the title of the paper suggests, the relationship between drug use and crime is complex, despite the dominance of the drugs leads to crime hypothesis. Hough (1996, p. 11) in his review of the literature argues that the precise nature of the causal process can take several shapes and provides the following example:

• Dependent drug misuse can predate other forms of crime, and precipitate these.

• Involvement in property crime can also predate drug misuse, facilitating experimental or casual misuse and then dependence.

• Dependent drug misuse may often amplify property offending.

• Drug use and property crime may both increase in an upward spiral.

In other words, the debates surround whether involvement in crime may cause drug use, or illicit drug use may cause crime or finally whether they are intertwined in a more complex manner. Previous research has tended to focus upon dependent drug users and in particular dependent heroin users to examine this relationship (Baker, Dorn, & Seddon, 1994; Bennett & Write, 1986; Chaiken & Chaiken, 1989, Chaiken & Chaiken, 1990, Covington, 1988, Faupel, 1988, Fazey, 1987, Fazey, 1992, Mott, 1986; Parker, Newcombe, & Bakx, 1986). The aim of this paper is to move away from this reliance upon dependent heroin users to explore the drugs–crime relationship.

Initially, the methodological approach adopted for this research will be discussed before moving on to an exploration of drug using careers where it will be argued that the recreational-dependent dichotomy that has become axiomatic in drug literature is problematic. I will suggest that classification of drugs may be products of local social environments and that drug careers in Deighton contained three categories or episodes: dependent use, persistent use and finally recreational use. The second part of this paper will then explore the relationship between each of these episodes and other criminal activity. It will be argued that when young people make transitions through different forms of drug using behaviour their involvement in drug-related crime changes. Thus, it is argued that a simple unilateral model of causation is overly simplistic as it fails to account for the complexities of drug using careers.