Drug Related Involvement in Violent Episodes (DRIVE)

• NCJ Number: 137197
• Author(s): P J Goldstein; D S Lipton; B J Spunt; P A Bellucci; T Miller; N Cortez; M Khan; A Kale
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 126 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA-03182; DA-04017
• Sponsoring Agency: New York State; National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Corporate Author: National Development and Research Institute, Inc. (NDRI)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; New York State
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Interviews with 152 male drug abusers and drug dealers in the lower east side of Manhattan, New York City formed the basis of an analysis of the relationships among drug abuse, drug trafficking, and violence.

Abstract

The research was initiated in 1984. Participants all completed a life history interview and eight weekly interviews; some also provided special tape-recorded interviews on important topics. Research staff members also maintained ethnographic field logs of their experiences. Results revealed that 81 of the individuals were involved in 193 violent events during the 8-week reporting period. About 50 percent of the violence in which the participants were involved appeared to be unrelated to drug abuse or drug trafficking. In addition, in most violent situations, the participants were about as likely to be victims as perpetrators. Moreover, the most common situations involving violence were disputes unrelated to drugs (30 percent), robberies (20 percent), and drug-related disputes (18 percent). Furthermore, the majority of the violent events did not involve weapons. Violence occurring while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs was the most common form of violence. These findings are preliminary, and further analyses are planned. Tables and 95 references