NCJ Number
142742
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The relationship between cocaine use and violence was studied using samples of male and female street drug users in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City.
Abstract
The data collection began in 1984 and continued through 1987. Participants were recruited from field contacts, through snowball sampling techniques, and from a local methadone maintenance treatment program. The 152 male and 133 female participants were studied as both perpetrators and victims of violence, and the volume of cocaine use was the primary independent variable. The research was guided by a three-part conceptual model of the general relationship between drugs and violence. Results revealed several differences between males and females. Together with the results of a previous analysis of the relationship between the frequency and cocaine use and violence, these findings indicate the complexity of the relationship between drugs and violence in general and between cocaine and violence specifically. Tables and 22 references (Author abstract modified)