FACT AND FICTION OF AN URBAN SOCIAL PROBLEM - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DRUG AND NON-DRUG USERS ARRESTED IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, 1974

• NCJ Number: 39072
• Author(s): ANON
• Date Published: 1975
• Length: 80 pages
• Grant Number(s): 72-DF-06-0042; 72-ED-06-0017
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: New Orleans Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

RESULTS OF STUDY BY MAYOR'S COUNCIL DIFFERS SOMEWHAT WITH POPULAR VIEWS ON CRIMINAL PATTERNS OF DRUG USERS.

Abstract

THIS ONE-MONTH 1974 SURVEY FOUND THAT DRUG USER COMMIT SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER VIOLENT CRIMES THAN NON-DRUG USERS. THE BULK OF THEIR CRIMES CONSIST OF ACTIONS DESIGNED TO PRODUCE MONEY FOR THEIR DRUG HABIT. MORE THAN 80 PERCENT OF ARRESTS FOR DRUG USERS IN THE SAMPLE INVOLVED MONEY-PRODUCING CRIMES, SUCH AS BURGLARY, ROBBERY, AND LARCENY. NON-DRUG USERS IN THE SURVEY HAD COMMITTED NEARLY TWICE AS MANY VIOLENT CRIMES AS DRUG USERS. THE DRUG USERS, HOWEVER, HAD SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PRIOR ARRESTS THAN THE NON-DRUG USERS, AND THEY ALSO HAD MORE ARRESTS IN THE YEAR FOLLOWING THE STUDY THAN DID THE NON-DRUG USERS....BS