A preliminary report on crime and addiction within a community-wide population of narcotic addicts

Abstract

This paper discusses the criminal behavior of narcotic addicts and is based on a sample of males identified as narcotic abusers by a large urban Police Department in the United States over a twenty-year period (1952–1971). The records of 252 subjects (representing a 92% interview response rate) were analyzed to determine whether there were differences between blacks and whites with regard to criminality before first use and after first regular use of narcotics. The findings generally support previous ones in regard to the increase of criminal activity after the onset of narcotic addiction. In addition, this community-wide population of narcotic addicts revealed that black addicts tend to commit more crimes, and more serious crimes, than white addicts before first use of narcotics and after the onset of addiction. Further, weighted crime index scores of both the “before” and “after” segments appear higher for blacks who became addicted in the most recent years, while this appears to be true for the whites only after the onset of their addiction.