Drug Related Burglary in New South Wales (From Burglary - A Social Reality, P 222-232, 1985, Satyanshu K Mukherjee and Leona Jorgensen, eds. - See NCJ-102649)

• NCJ Number: 102656
• Author(s): I Dobinson
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

A total of 225 property offenders in New South Wales (Australia) penal institutions were interviewed between May and August 1983 to determine if their pattern of property offenses was related to illicit drug use.

Abstract

The sample was divided into users and nonusers based on their regular use of one or more of the following drugs: barbiturates/hypnotics, cocaine, heroin, and other opiates. There were 89 users and 136 nonusers in the sample. The principal income source for users was illicit activities. Nonusers, however, tended to obtain their income from licit sources. Nearly 50 percent of the users indicated burglary as their primary form of property crime. There was a 73-percent chance that a user would progress from an initial burglary to the regular commission (at least one per week) of burglary. There was only a 31percent chance this would occur with nonusers. Nearly 65 percent of those convicted of burglary had some level of drug or alcohol intoxication at the time of the offense. Regular property crime tended to occur after rather than before serious drug use. 8 data tables and 15 references.