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chapter
5
R
I
C
A
R
D
In the last couple of years we have found a, large number
Drugs and Crime
of marijuana plots in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
A to escape
Growers are planting their marijuana in this area
D that I never
forfeiture laws. So I came up with this idea
thought would work but I figured was worth R
a try. I typed a
I found in the
letter and left it at one of the larger plots we
E caught by
national forest. The letter said, “You have been
After you have completed this chapter,
you should have an
understanding of
● The relationship between
drug use and crime
● The structure of the illicit drug
trade
● Production and trafficking of
heroin
● Production and trafficking of
cocaine
● Production and trafficking of
marijuana
● Production and trafficking of
methamphetamine
N had you
the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office. We have
● Production and trafficking of
hallucinogens
N
E
by calling the following number, your penalties for growing
● Drug-related crime and
gangs
marijuana will be doubled.”
● Common methods of money
laundering
under constant surveillance. If you do not turn yourself in
2
4
grower call me and turn himself in. He claimed that he was
7
only growing marijuana for personal use. I didn’t even
9
have to pick him up. He drove to the sheriff’s office and
T
turned himself in. Incredible but true!
S
I couldn’t believe it, but it actually worked. I had one
—A sheriff’s deputy from Lumpkin County, Georgia
Drugs, Society and Criminal Justice, 3E by Ken Charles F. Levinthal.
Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education.
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For law-enforcement officers and other criminal
justice professionals who contend with drugs and crime
on a daily basis, the drug–crime connection is all too
real and an inarguable fact of contemporary society. As
stated in a training manual sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, “If there is a
reduction in the number of people who abuse drugs in
your community, there will be a reduction in the commission of certain types of crime in your community.”
For the general public, the news headlines reporting
acts of social violence linked to the world of illicit drugs
are relentless. Wherever we look, illicit drugs and crime
are seen as being bound together in a web of greed and
callous disregard for human life.
Currently, research on drugs and crime is supported
primarily by two federal agencies, the National Institute
of Justice (NIJ) and the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA). There is an increasingly close collaboration between NIJ and NIDA as they tackle the complex
issues surrounding a major social problem in the United
States today. This chapter will concern itself with the
facts as well as the still-unanswered questions about
drugs and crime in our society.1
Defining Drug-related Crime
Crimes that involve illicit drugs can be divided into two
general categories: (1) drug-defined offenses and (2) drugrelated offenses. Drug-defined offenses are violations
of laws prohibiting the possession, use, distribution, or
manufacture of illegal drugs. The possession of cocaine,
the cultivation of marijuana, and the sale of methamphetamine are all examples of drug-defined offenses.
Today, more than 50 percent of all federal prison
inmates are serving time for drug-defined offenses,
more than for any other type of criminal offense. While
rates of illicit drug use in the United States have
declined by roughly 50 percent since 1979 (see
Chapter 2), the number of adult drug arrests has tripled.
In 2009, the number of arrests for drug-abuse violations
exceeded 1.6 million. It is reasonable to conclude,
therefore, that the increase in incarceration rates of drug
drug-defined offense: Violation of laws that prohibit
the possession, use, distribution, and manufacture of
illegal drugs.
drug-related offense: Offense in which a drug contributes to the commission of a crime, either by virtue
of the drug’s pharmacological effects or the economic
need to secure the drug itself.
88
■
Part One
offenders reflects an intensified effort to step up druglaw enforcement rather than an increase in drug use.
Since the mid-1980s, state and federal legislatures have
enacted a wide range of criminal laws with respect to
the selling and possession of illicit drugs, and judges
have imposed longer prison sentences for drug offenders. The average time currently served by someone convicted of a drug offense is 42 months, slightly less than
the length of sentence for those convicted of arson and
possession of explosives or weapons.2
Drug-related offenses are offenses that do not involve
a violation of a drug law per se, but rather a violation of
a law of some other type. The crime a drug user comR might be caused by the acute effects of the drug
mits
itself or the need on the part of the drug user to gain
I
money to purchase drugs. While these crimes most
C come to mind as those associated with drug use, it
often
is A
important to recognize that a drug-related crime can
also relate to violent behaviors that are associated with a
R
drug-dealing
life. Violence can result from disputes over
territory
between
rival gangs involved in drug dealing,
D
punishment for defrauding a buyer, retaliation toward
, informants, or acts committed simply to enforce
police
discipline. Drug use, the drug business, and the violence
connected with both are all aspects of a lifestyle that
A
increases
one’s risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator
ofD
drug-related crime. As we will see, it is the character of
the drug-use lifestyle that is primarily responsible for the
R
complex relationship between drugs and crime.
I
E
Understanding
Drug Use
N
and
Crime
N
E use and the commission of criminal
Drug
acts are
strongly correlated. It is virtually impossible to find an
empirical study that has failed to find a relationship
2
between
these two behaviors. Not surprisingly, individuals4who drink alcohol and/or use drugs are significantly
more likely to commit crimes than are individuals who
7 drink nor use drugs.
neither
9 Historically, the process by which drug use and
crime is linked has been explored through three
T perspectives. The first perspective is called the
major
enslavement
model, also referred to as the “medical
S
model.” It asserts that individuals become forced into a
life of crime and drug abuse, either from social situations such as poverty or from a personal condition such
as a physical disorder. In other words, criminal activity
and drug use or abuse arise together from a common
adverse circumstance in one’s life. The predisposition
Drugs and Society: The Criminal Justice Perspective
Drugs, Society and Criminal Justice, 3E by Ken Charles F. Levinthal.
Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education.
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model, also referred to as the “criminal model,” asserts
that drug abusers are far from law-abiding citizens in the
first place and that they have already been involved in
criminal activity prior to initial drug use. A predisposition toward criminal activity is increased by the fact that
criminals exist in social subcultures in which drug use is
readily accepted and encouraged. The intensification
model, essentially a combination of the previous perspectives, asserts that drug use tends to perpetuate a life
of crime. In the words of one prominent researcher,
“Drug use freezes its devotees into patterns of criminality
that are more acute, dynamic, unremitting, and enduring than those of other [non-drug-using] offenders.” In
R
short, criminal careers have already begun, but they are
intensified by one’s involvement with drug use. The
I
intensification model is able to account for two basic
C
facts in the drug–crime research literature: (1) criminal
careers typically begin prior to drug use and (2) crimiA
nal activity declines substantially during times of drug
R
abstinence.3
D
,
Collecting the Statistics on Drugs
and Crime
Figure 5.1 shows information gained from a recently
A
revised version of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring
Percentage Testing Positive for Any of Ten Drugs
0
Atlanta, GA
Charlotte, NC
20 40 60 80 100
65
56
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
82
70
Indianapolis, IN
62
Minneapolis, MN
63
D
R
Marijuana
I
37 E
36 N
49 N
45
E
(ADAM) Program, known as ADAM II, conducted on an
annual basis since 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice. In ADAM II, a sampling of individuals who have
been apprehended for a serious offense in ten selected
U.S. metropolitan sites are tested through urinalysis for a
number of illicit drugs within 48 hours of arrest.
ADAM II statistics indicate that drug use among an
arrestee population is much higher than in the general
U.S. population. In 2009, the majority of arrestees tested positive for at least one illicit drug, with the percentage varying from 56 percent in Charlotte, North
Carolina to 82 percent in Chicago. From 12 percent to
28 percent of arrestees (depending upon the region of
the country) tested positive for more than one substance. In general, the most common substances identified during testing were, in descending order:
marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.
ADAM II statistics confirm our suspicions about
the correlation between drug use and criminal behavior.4 But do they indicate a causative relationship? Can
we conclude from the ADAM II statistics that drug use
caused crime to occur because drugs were in an
arrestee’s bloodstream? That prison inmates are more
likely than not to have been drug users prior to their sentencing may suggest that drug users are more likely than
nonusers to commit crimes, but does this imply that
Percentage Testing Positive
Cocaine
Heroin
Methamphetamine
Multiple Drugs
37
3
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