NCJ Number
155047
Journal
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: (April-June 1981) Pages: 199-211
Date Published
1981
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article uses qualitative and quantitative data to compare the four major categories of older men in street populations, i.e., street addicts, nonaddict street criminals, professional thieves, and men on Skid Row.
Abstract
These comparisons show that criminally involved older men on the street are different in prestreet background, criminal activities, and experiences and preferences in drug use than younger men in the same populations. The evidence shows two kinds of age-associated dissatisfaction for aging street criminals, namely dissatisfaction with their social support systems, and increasing dissonance between their own subcultural knowledge and the realities of street life. The authors suggest that this dissatisfaction may provide older men in street populations with a motivation to drop out of that lifestyle, which does not apply to younger men. This analysis explains why there are so few known street addicts over the age of 40. The data suggest the need for an integrated perspective on older men in street populations, regardless of their individual patterns of drug use. 44 references