Stealing and Dealing: Cocaine and Property Crimes (From Epidemiology of Cocaine Use and Abuse, 1991, P 139-150, Susan Schober and Charles Schade, eds. -- See NCJ-135854)

• NCJ Number: 135858
• Author(s): D Hunt
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

While logic and research bear out the assumption that there is a relationship between use of an expensive drug and criminal activity to support that drug habit, the relationship between cocaine and property crime is actually very complex.

Abstract

This chapter addresses crimes driven by an economic need related to drug use; other motivations result from the psychopharmacological aspects of drug use and from the violence endemic to the drug distribution system. These findings show a relationship between escalating cocaine use and criminal activity among marginal populations; specifically, cocaine use is related to criminal activity as a function of income level and prior criminal experience. In these populations, the cost of drug use often leads to a search for illegal sources. Many occasional and even regular users are able to fund their drug use through routine financial sources and never resort to criminal activity. For other users, cocaine is part of a criminal lifestyle rather than a motivation for it. Descriptions of three cases illustrate these three cocaine use-violence relationships. 2 tables, 1 note, and 34 references