Drugs and Crime Connection and Offense Specialization: A Latent Variable Approach (From Criminological Controversies: A Methodological Primer, P 125-156, 1996, John Hagan, A R Gillis, and David Brownfield -- See NCJ-163816)

• NCJ Number: 163822
• Author(s): D Brownfield
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 32 pages
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter applies latent variable analysis as a technique to address the controversies of the drug-crime relationship and the issue of offense specialization.

Abstract

Latent variable analysis may allow researchers to take a somewhat different perspective on these controversies, and it may further help them to resolve some of the questions surrounding the debates. Latent variable analysis can help researchers to test whether a single general scale may be created to describe involvement in a variety of forms of illegal behavior. The chapter therefore focuses on the issue of how general involvement in deviance may be. It also examines to what extent there may be progressive involvement in either crime or drug use. Such analysis may facilitate a more systematic understanding of the causes and correlates of crime and avoid a fragmented or piecemeal approach. The findings of latent structure analysis suggest that involvement in drug use, theft, vandalism, and assault can be reasonably understood as manifest indicators of a single latent variable. The implications of such findings are significant for the debates over the causal relationship between drug use and crime and the issue of specialization among offenders. Consistent with most prior research, there is apparently little specialization among offenders and considerable diversity or variety in the types of crime committed. The construction of a single latent variable of deviant behavior also renders meaningless to a large degree the issue of the causal relationship between drug use and crime. 5 tables