NCJ Number
93285
Date Published
1983
Length
16 pages
Annotation
As some alcohol and drug users are responsible for a substantial amount of victimization, efforts are needed to deal more actively with these two interconnected problems areas.
Abstract
Victimization may result in destruction, injury, crime, other predatory activity, violence, costs for dealing with the affliction, the ensuing suffering, and visual pollution created by alcohol and drug users. Despite the limitations of the research on alcohol and drug users as victimizers, a wide range of studies using relatively sophisticated research techniques have permitted the documentation and quantification of the kind and amount of social harm that stems from the use of drugs. Similar documentation is just beginning to appear on the subject of alcohol. Although our society has many more alcohol abusers than drug abusers, national attention has focused largely on drug dependence. Legislative, media, and citizen attention needs to focus also on the reality of the extent and effect of alcohol abuse. Budget cutbacks have produced an emphasis on volunteer efforts rather than government action, but the seriousness of the problem deserves more urgent attention. Thirty-three references are listed.