NCJ Number
198293
Date Published
December 2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined statistics from selected apprehension reports for South Australia in 2000 in order to determine whether official crime statistics showed any association between detected property crime and drug offenses.
Abstract
The study identified the number of apprehension reports in 2000 that had an associated drug charge and identified the number of individuals apprehended in 2000 who also had a prior drug charge. The property offenses targeted for analysis were robbery, burglary and break-and-enter/criminal trespass, receiving and unlawful possession of stolen goods, larceny or illegal use of a motor vehicle, larceny (not of motor vehicle), misappropriation, and false pretenses (including credit/debit cards, checks). In 2000, 13,532 apprehension reports involved at least one of the property offense types. Almost half of the reports listed larceny (excluding vehicle theft) as the most serious property charge. Only a small proportion (3.8 percent) of the 13,532 apprehensions included at least one drug offense within the same report. Although juveniles represented 30.1 percent of all selected property-related apprehensions, they composed 34.7 percent of all such apprehensions that involved at least one drug offense; however, this may be due in part to the fact that juveniles cannot be issued a cannabis expiation notice; they must be charged. Of all apprehensions in which a drug charge was involved, nearly half (47.8 percent) had a major property charge of receiving or unlawful possession of stolen goods. A further 24.1 percent were connected with a major charge of larceny (excluding vehicle theft), and 14.5 percent involved break-and-enter/criminal trespass. The analysis showed that individuals whose most recent apprehension report in 2000 included a drug charge were more likely to have previously been reported for drug charges, with 38.3 percent of these individuals being linked to at least one previous drug offense, compared with 20.6 percent of those whose most recent report did not list any drug charges. Of the 9,186 individuals apprehended for a property offense in 2000, 2,169 (23.7 percent) either had a drug offense listed on their most recent apprehension report, or had previously been charged with a drug offense. Overall, the study did not show that apprehensions for property crime and drug offenses were as strong as might be expected; however, the fact that almost a quarter of individuals apprehended for property offenses in 2000 were either charged with a drug offense at the same time or had prior drug charges suggests a substantial association between the two types of offending. It is also likely that official crime statistics are not capable of fully reflecting the relationship between drug use and crime due to the nature of drug-related offending. 6 figures and 9 tables