UTILITY OF CORRECTIONAL DATA FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DRUGS-HOMICIDE CONNECTION

• NCJ Number: 144238
• Journal: Criminal Justice Review Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1993) Pages: 46- 60
• Author(s): B Spunt; C Tarshish; M Fendrich; P Goldstein; H Brownstein
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 15 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA-01-04017
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revised version of paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, 1990, Baltimore

Annotation

This paper looks at the role of drugs in a sample of homicides perpetrated in New York State, as revealed in a specialized correctional department's database.

Abstract

The link between drugs and homicide was defined according to a tripartite model of the general relationship between drugs and violence. Even though the database incorporated detailed quantitative and qualitative data from various criminal justice sources, it was found that the drug-homicide connection was probably underestimated. About 25 percent of homicides were clearly drug-related, and 66 percent were classified as not drug-related. In 10 percent of the cases, there was an indication of a drug-homicide link but more information was needed. In about half of the drug-homicide cases, perpetrators were black, 29 percent were Hispanic, and 22 percent were white. The median age of perpetrators was 25 years. About one in five had graduated from high school, and about half were single. Alcohol was the substance most often linked to homicides having a psychopharmacological dimension, while cocaine was most often related to homicides containing an economic- compulsive dimension. 29 references and 4 tables