What are the links between drugs and crime and what can be done towards drug-related crimes?
Drug culture has always been a key debate within sociology and has become even more integral as Drug Culture increases ever more in modern day, Western societies. It is estimated that in the U.K and Wales over twelve million people have consumed some kind of illicit drug with 5 million having admitting to using a Class A drug. These statistics seem startling for some and many link this to increasing crime statistics within certain inner city areas where both drug use, and drug related crimes are high and on the increase Although, there is a start of a change in attitude towards ideas related to the drugs and crime link and furthermore idea on how to reduce drug-related crimes can be reduced. Pervious attitudes towards drug culture was confirming ideas that drugs caused crime in most cases and prohibition would be the only way to stop this. Although more recent ideas relate to legalisation how this will dramatically reduce drug-related crimes through many different processes. There are two main studies, which are hugely helpful in this debate, Paul Goldstein’s tripartite framework, and David Matza and Gresham Sykes’ Subterranean play. The tripartite framework is one of the most cited research article on drug-related crimes and can be argued both for prohibition and legalisation whereas Subterranean play focuses more around the idea of legalisation and how this will reduce Drug related crimes.
Much of the work done surrounding the idea of drugs and crime mention Paul Goldstein’s work around his tripartite framework. His work is hugely influential in this topic area for this reason alone. He also becomes very useful in regards that he c...
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...d self-medication. Finally we started to see what can be done around drug related crime and came with two schools of thought. The first stronger controls through preventing drug use by education, stronger law enforcement and treatment, which has been seen to work with use of heroine. The other school of thought, progressive decriminalisation looked to reduce inequalities, international law reform and then step-by-step decriminalisation. When looking through the research done it seems that stronger controls over drug use will not lower drug related crime as Bean has proven. The idea of progressive decriminalisation seems to be backed up by much of the modern research being done and would help stop the inequalities leading to drug use and can stop Goldstein’s idea around economic- compulsive crime and therefore would be the better idea in reducing drug related crime.
Approximately given 80 to 90 million Americans have tried an illicit drug at least which once in their lives; marijuana alone is tried for the first time by about 6,400 Americans everyday. Furthermore, illicit drugs seem to be relatively easy to attain- in for 1999, 90 percent said which this about marijuana, also 44 percent about cocaine and finally 32 percent about heroin. Yearly, for which 35 million dollars is given just to control illicit drug trafficking. Moreover, over 400,000 of drug offenders caught are in jail, of which, some 130,000 are which for possession. Not for only are these statistics a international obvious embarrassment but because for these quantities which have been growing throughout history, we can only assume that they will get worse. We can already begin to for imagine the costs of these numbers which is it not already clear that we need for to find an alternative approach to this
As some criminologists have debated, the methods and approaches to crime control have failed miserably. They are of the opinion that the criminal justice system fails in achieving its aims in rehabilitating criminal offenders. For example, a report made in the U.K claimed that 58 per cent of the prisoners released in 1997 were convicted of another crime (SEU, 2000). Some argue that it seems for the criminal justice system there is only one answer to crime control, a prison sentence. Nevertheless, some question how accurate this method is for some crimes in society. That is to say, that for certain crimes, taking the consumption of marijuana as an example, a prison sentence is not the solution, rehabilitating individuals should be the main priority and in certain cases if not the only
As crime and corruption continues to rise in many countries and inner cities, more people and public officials have begun to discuss whether drugs should be legalized. In the passage “Legal Drugs Unlikely to Foster Nation of Zombies”, author Stephen Chapman argues in favour of his conclusion that drugs should be legalized as prohibition of drugs is causing more harm to society. Chapman’s conclusion is based on a convergent argument in which he provides three explicit premises for support that can be stated in standard from like this:
The reason with the old ways do not work, Alexander say, is because “self-destructive drug users are responding in a tragic, but understandable way” (226). It is not their drug- problem that caused the dislocation, but the dislocation that cause the drug problem. He uses the term dislocation to describe the lack of integration with “family, community, society and spiritual values” (226). Alexander goes on to explain that history proves that inability to achieve health opportunities can take on the form of violence, and damaging drug use. Therefore, the “drug problem” (226) is not the problem. The problem is more the “pattern of response to prolong dislocation” (226). Alexander supports this by explaining the reason for the dislocation as being globalized by a society that is market driven which can only be established by the displacement of tradition, economy, and relationships. This has been seen in history before in England during the 19TH century, when “a brutal, export-oriented manufacturing system” was accompanied by work...
In Douglas Husak’s essay titled “Three Points About Drug Decriminalization”, Husak argues that use of drugs should not be considered a criminal offense. He says that there is a plausible explanation to why it should not be criminalized. By “decriminalization” the author means that the use of a given drug should not be a criminal offense. He emphasizes on how the meaning of decriminalizing can differ and how he is looking for alternatives to punishment and not just different mode of punishments. His claim is that if the production and selling of drugs is banned and not possession or using, then it would be decriminalization of drugs.
When societies finally become comfortable with reality, they begin to abandon the murderous laws that impede their growth. Currently, the social stigma and legislated morality regarding the use of illicit drugs yield perhaps the most destructive effects on American society. Drug laws have led to the removal of non-violent citizens from society- either directly by incarceration or indirectly by death - which is genocidal in quantity and essence. I base my support of the decriminalization of all drugs on a principle of human rights, but the horror and frustration with which I voice this support is based on practicality. The most tangible effect of the unfortunately labeled "Drug War" in the United States is a prison population larger than Russia's and China's, and an inestimable death toll that rivals the number of American casualties from any given war, disease or catastrophe.
Is Prohibition (defined as a government decree against the exchange of a good or service) actually successful in reducing recreational drug consumption and drug-related violence? This is the question that will be analyzed in this paper. Drug enforcement officials frequently cite drug-related violence as a reason that drugs must be eliminated from our society. A contrary belief is that the system of drug prohibition actually causes most of the violence. Similar to alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and the rise of organized crime, drug prohibition inspires a dangerous underground market that manifests itself with violent crime throughout the U.S. and, in fact, the world. The illegal nature of drugs has significantly increased the price and the
Drug arrests occur too often and are taking up a majority of general arrests in America. “Drug arrests were the single largest category of arrests, accounting for more than 10% of all arrests in the country” (A drug, 2015). One out of ten of every arrest in the United States of America is a drug arrest. This over focus on drug arrests needs to stop as it is taking focus off of more damaging violent crimes. Overall drug arrests are up 8.3% from a decade ago” (A drug, 2015). Drug crimes are increasing because of the American government increased focus on drug crimes, despite the fact that it is not helping the problem. Even though drug arrests are going up, drug use in the United States of America is “... plentiful and widely used as ever” (Grenier,
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
For many years, a real push has been looming on the idea of legalizing now illegal drugs. This has become a hot debate throughout nations all over the world, from all walks of life. The dispute over the idea of decriminalizing illegal drugs is and will continue on as an ongoing conflict. In 2001, Drug decriminalization in all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, became a nationwide law in Portugal (Greenwald). Ethan Nadelman, essayist of “Think again: Drugs,” states his side of the story on the continuing criminalization of hard drugs, in which he stand to oppose. Whether it is for the good of human rights or not, decriminalizing drugs may be a good head start for a new beginning.
A “drug-free society” has never existed, and probably will never exist, regardless of the many drug laws in place. Over the past 100 years, the government has made numerous efforts to control access to certain drugs that are too dangerous or too likely to produce dependence. Many refer to the development of drug laws as a “war on drugs,” because of the vast growth of expenditures and wide range of drugs now controlled. The concept of a “war on drugs” reflects the perspective that some drugs are evil and war must be conducted against the substances
Many feel today we are loosing the war on drugs. People consider legalization unnecessary. They feel that it will increase the amount of drug use throughout the world. They state that in many cases, drug users who have quit quit because of trouble with the law. Legalization would eliminate the legal forces that discourage the users from using or selling drugs. They also say that by making drugs legal, the people who have never tried drugs for fear of getting caught by the law will have no reason to be afraid anymore and will become users (Potter 1998).
The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring is an intriguing narrative of the experiences Terry Williams witnessed first hand while observing the lives of “The Kids” and their involvement in the cocaine trade. Throughout this piece, there are numerous behaviors displayed by the drug dealers that are each examples of and can be attributed to well-defined criminological theories. This paper will explore how such criminological theories are associated with how and why individuals are introduced into the world of drug selling, as well as, why they leave it. I will elaborate on this by revealing the motivations and conditions that seem to pressurize these individuals to be drug dealers. Although there are multiples shown, the specific theories I will explore are all based on the same idea that an individual becomes a criminal by learning how to be one through experiences, examples, role models, etc. Such theories include the theory of Differential Association, Subculture of Violence Theory, and the Social Learning Theory.
One of the most prevalent misconceptions, Benson and Rasmussen, contend is the notion that a large percentage of drug users commit nondrug crimes, what might be called the “drugs-cause-crime” assumption implicit in the government’s drug-war strategy. If true, then an effective crackdown on drug use would reduce nondrug crime rates.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Recently, an MTV documentary on the drug issue highlighted coffeehouses in Amsterdam as a model for controlled, successful environment in which young Europeans can enjoy marijuana. However, the experience with legalizing drugs has had its negative effects. For instance, violent crime is a major problem in the Netherlands. A 1992 study of crime victims in twenty mostly European countries ranks the Netherlands as the number one country in Europe for assaults and threats (Olson 79 ). The British system didn't work.