Abstract
Given the relationship between drug abuse and criminal behavior, it is important for criminologists to understand what drug addiction is and how it occurs. This article examines the process of becoming addicted to drugs (specifically, cocaine) via epigenetic processes. Frequent drug usage leads to an allostatic (the changing of a physiological system by the calibration its set points) brain changes in its pleasure centers. We first examine the reward dominance theory of approach-avoidance behavior, and then explore epigenetic processes in the context of the opponent process and the incentive-sensitization models of drug addiction, and in terms of environmental stress.
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