Toward a Drugs and Crime Research Agenda for the 21St Century U.S
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U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs SEPT. 03 National Institute of Justice Special REPORT Toward a Drugs and Crime Research Agenda for the 21st Century U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street N.W. Washington, DC 20531 John Ashcroft Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels Assistant Attorney General Sarah V. Hart Director, National Institute of Justice This and other publications and products of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice can be found on the World Wide Web at the following site: Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij SEPT. 03 Toward a Drugs and Crime Research Agenda for the 21st Century NCJ 194616 Sarah V. Hart Director Findings and conclusions of the research reported here are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The National Institute of Justice is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Contents Introduction . 1 At the Intersection of Public Health and Criminal Justice Research on Drugs and Crime . 11 Research on Drugs-Crime Linkages: The Next Generation . 65 The Drugs-Crime Wars: Past, Present, and Future Directions in Theory, Policy, and Program Interventions . 97 Appendix A: Summary of Proceedings. 163 Appendix B: Forum Agenda. 197 Appendix C: List of Participants . 199 iii Introduction Henry H. Brownstein with Christine Crossland For criminal justice practitioners who deal this knowledge not as an end in itself but with drugs and crime day in and day out, as a means to accurately define the prob- the reality of the drugs-crime nexus is lem of drugs and crime and promote indisputable. In a manual designed to help future research. The agenda for research police chiefs and sheriffs control drug was developed under NIJ and NIDA spon- abuse, the International Association of sorship at a forum held in Washington, Chiefs of Police (IACP) stated unequivocal- D.C., in April 2001. The findings of the ly its belief in “a significant though com- Drugs and Crime Research Forum are pre- plex” relationship between drug abusers sented here. and criminal offenders. Change one group, IACP proposed, and you change the other: “If there is a reduction in the number of In pursuit of the people who abuse drugs in your communi- ty, there will be a reduction in the commis- drugs-crime link sion of certain types of crime in your If we are going to make progress toward community.”1 solving the problem of drugs and crime, we need to shed light on the nature of the When IACP released its manual more than drugs-crime link by designing effective a decade ago, researchers already were responses. Developing a research agenda confirming what practitioners believed and on drugs and crime means tackling the documenting the relationship between central issue of the drugs-crime link. Is the 2 drugs and crime. Public policy and pro- link a matter of cause and effect or is it grams were and continue to be developed something far more complex? on the basis of this knowledge.3 But although researchers and practitioners There is no lack of theories. The direct alike knew the relationship existed, the cause model of the drugs-crime relation- nature of that relationship eluded them ship has attracted its share of supporters. then and continues to elude them today.4 It states simply that either drug use leads to crime or crime leads to drug use. The To shed light on the drugs-crime link simplicity is appealing. Who would not requires research, and the first step is to find it tempting to believe that reducing specify the research topics to be covered. drug use can lower the crime rate? In fact, Taking the lead, the National Institute of some policies and programs have been Justice (NIJ) and the National Institute on developed on the basis of the direct cause Drug Abuse (NIDA) brought together aca- model or the belief in a significant rela- demics and other researchers and asked tionship between drugs and crime. As them to answer three questions: What do IACP recognized, the relationship is real we know about drugs and crime, what do enough. And NIJ’s Arrestee Drug Abuse we not know, and, most important, what Monitoring program has demonstrated do we need to know? Both agencies see 1 SPECIAL REPORT / JULY 03 year after year that among people appre- Building on the past: hended and charged with a crime, a large percentage uses drugs.5 The Drugs and Crime Research Forum However, as sociologist Erich Goode has cautioned, “Even the fact that drugs and NIDA and the National Institute of Law crime are frequently found together or cor- Enforcement and Criminal Justice, NIJ’s related does not demonstrate their causal predecessor organization, were asked by connection.”6 The consensus among re- Congress in 1976 to find out what was searchers who study the issue confirms known about drugs and crime. The prod- Goode’s observation. The evidence for the uct of the agencies’ collaboration was direct cause model is just not there.7 Drugs and Crime: A Survey and Analysis of the Literature. Though not strictly a We seem more willing today to accept the research agenda, the survey was a first complexity of the drugs-crime relationship, step “to identify where the gaps in our more open to the notion that “[t]here is knowledge lie and to direct research to fill considerable uncertainty . about the those gaps.”10 It was intended to “set the degree to which drug use causes crime or stage for more focused future research.”11 the degree to which criminal involvement causes drug use.”8 In a recent review of In 2000, NIJ’s call for the development the literature, sociologists Helene Raskin of a research agenda was another step White and Dennis M. Gorman definitively toward meeting that need. The authors of dismissed the direct cause model. They Drugs and Crime noted at the time that concluded instead that the drugs-crime “few if any [studies] directly address the link is best explained by the common drugs-crime nexus issue.”12 This report on cause model, in which any association of the development of the research agenda drugs and crime has a cluster of causes.9 will demonstrate that although much has been learned in the intervening years Those who subscribe to the common about drugs, drug use, drug abuse, drug cause model believe that to adequately markets, and drug law enforcement, much understand the relationship of drugs to work is needed to shed light on the com- crime requires attention to many issues, plexities of the drugs-crime link. social, cultural, chemical, and biological among them. What the model means for Three papers were commissioned for the policy and practice is that any response to research forum. Each addressed the ques- drugs and crime that works in one set of tions of what we know, what we do not circumstances may not work in another. know, and what we need to know about For researchers, it means the research the drugs-crime link. Prepared by experts agenda is vast. Policy and practice can be in epidemiology, public policy, social work, informed by what we know up to this and allied disciplines, the papers served as point, but progress in responding to the the focal point and framework for discus- drugs-crime problem requires knowing sions by forum participants. (The forum more. summary, agenda, and a list of the partici- pants are presented in appendixes A, B, 2 TOWARD A DRUGS AND CRIME RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY and C.) After the forum adjourned, NIDA standing of the relationship in the most created a listserv for participants to contin- productive ways? ue to exchange their thoughts. ■ What do we really know about the The discussions did not all fit the same suspected causal connection between mold. Roundtables were generated from drugs and crime? In looking at drugs one-sentence statements by participants and crime, what is the intersection at about drugs and crime. What we do not which public health and public safety know about the drugs-crime relationship meet? How can we achieve the goals was treated at length. The many strands of of greater understanding and definitive thought, lines of discussion, and themes evidence and greater mastery in design came together when Forum participants and application in policy, programs, and addressed the final question: What future techniques to prevent and reduce harm- research is most important, and what re- ful health and safety consequences of search is needed most urgently? Mindful drug use? that the next generation of researchers will be tackling the problem of drugs and crime, ■ What do we need to do to integrate Forum participants recommended topics molecular biology, genetics, and neuro- for research by their graduate students. science into discussions of drugs and crime? What do we need to do to place discussions of the drugs-crime nexus in Probing drugs and crime: the context of history? How can we clar- ify the question of causal inference? Three perspectives How can we use the notions of scale “At the Intersection of Public Health and and rubrics to help understand the rela- Criminal Justice Research on Drugs and tionship between drugs and crime? Crime” was commissioned by NIDA from James C.