Abstract
At the end of a post-electoral crisis in 2011, urban delinquency in Ivory Coast is undergoing a deep change. Young adults and teenagers attack the population according to a triptych that signs a particular modus operandi. An interpretation of this criminality, which is foreign to the taxonomy of delinquency, attempts to situate the place of toxic substances in the criminal actions of those whom the population calls "microbes". This was a cross-cutting study lasting three (03) months. Based on the exhaustive sampling technique, 123 subjects out of 583 young people in conflict with the law enrolled in a resocialisation and reintegration project in 2020, were selected. The respondents were all male, aged 10-25 years old and all out of school. They were all polydrug users, with prevalences of 98.37% for cannabis and 95.12% and 91.87% respectively for psychotropic drugs diverted from their therapeutic use and alcohol. Their criminal trajectory revealed offences of theft in meetings (100%) and assault and battery (84.55%), 15.45% of which led to death. Ritualisation was noted in the preparation of the assaults and in their execution; the first stage being conditioning by the consumption of a "psychoactive cocktail", the second: acting in a gang, and finally the third stage: execution of a scene of murderous violence with knives and unusual weapons 97.28% (machete, axe and human bones). Criminal intentionality presides over the act in the case of "microbes". Drug use only serves to convey a feeling of omnipotence and an increase in cortical excitement. It thus responds to a ritualisation imbued with symbolic signifiers and constitutes a preparatory conditioning for planned predatory violence. The traditional tandem drug and crime should not be the only explanatory approach to all criminal violence among drug users.
Highlights
The hypothesis of a link between the use of psychoactive substances and the perpetration of acts of violence, among young people, is often raised in several studies
All our respondents were male, were in gangs and were between 10 and 25 years old. The majority of these young people came from Abobo, Yopougon and Adjamé, some popular townships of the city of Abidjan
This survey showed that the proportion of students who used drugs over a twelve-month period is higher among those living in a singleparent family structure than among those living in a twoparent family structure (38.5% vs. 24.1%) [10]
Summary
The hypothesis of a link between the use of psychoactive substances and the perpetration of acts of violence, among young people, is often raised in several studies. Numerous surveys conducted among a youth population known to have already committed violent acts (whether or not they were prosecuted) have reported high rates of drug and alcohol use among these young people [1,2,3]. These violent acts raise questions about the place of these toxic substances in criminal behaviour. As an inducer of criminal intent, a catalyst of criminal behaviour or a conditioning tool for the act, toxins are indexed as a determinant of violence in certain delinquent populations.
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