Drugs in Society

1. responds should be addressed to Mary Cothem

I firmly believe that drug abuse causes criminal behavior. I am going to share my personal experience that I witnessed firsthand. Me and my ex-husband were married for sixteen years when we married he was clean and had a job. He had told me that he had some drug issues in the past and even spent some time in jail due to this. I had never been around drugs or anyone that abused them and did not know what was coming. Needless to say he started using again sneaking at first then lost his job, started spending bill money on drugs started hanging around friends and staying gone. One day the police showed up and arrested him for breaking in some ones house. This was devastating to me, I found out he had been selling the stolen goods to buy more drugs. He spent some time in prison and I believed he had learned his lesson he went through all the programs for drug abuse in prison. He came home and got a job and done really good for about a year and the same thing happened. We were married for sixteen years however in this sixteen years he was actually out of prison and or jail for eight .Finally, after many heartbreaks tears and prayers I realized I could not do this anymore. The viscous cycle carries on He is currently serving time again in prison after getting on methamphetamines and committing robberies once again .

2. This should be addressed to Mary Rainey

Hypothesis III theory, drug use and crime share common causes, in my opinion convey the strongest explanation correlating both drug use and criminal behavior. Based on research, Levinthal (2012) suggests the link of drug use and crime is indirectly related due to interactional circumstances. Evidence affirms crime rates are higher in communities of poor social status, where drug use is likely to occur (Levinthal, 2012). However, circumstances can fluctuate, depending on the individual’s circumstance, environment, and economic status. Reiss and Roth’s 1993 study (as cited in Gorman & White, 2000) confirms, based on the National Research Council, the risk factors of childhood violence were the same for teenage drug use, as well as, adult alcohol and drug problems. Furthermore, an individual’s atypical lifestyle affects the behavioral pattern one portrays.

The metaphor of the “chicken and egg” in comparison to the relationship between drug use and crime can be interpreted in multiple ways. In terms of which came first, depends on the time of the initial drug use and acts of criminal behavior. Since the drugs were unregulated, records were not reported; thus, researchers cannot prove the drug-crime relationship of which came first. The question can be asked whether the drug, crime, or other aspects such as mental illnesses contributed to the drug-related crime.

References

Gorman, D. M. & White, H. R. (2000). Dynamics of the drug-crime relationship. The Nature of Crime: Continuity and Change, 1, 170-196. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/criminal_justice2000/vol_1/0…

Levinthal, C. (2012). Drugs, crime, and criminal justice (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall.