Patterns of Delinquency in Drug Addiction

Abstract

A forensic study of 60 male patients from a London hospital drug clinic showed that 92 per cent held a court conviction. 48 per cent had been convicted before drug use. After drug use, the incidence of larceny offenders was unaltered but the incidence of violent offenders increased. Drug users with no pre-drug convictions had experienced less early deprivation than drug users with pre-drug convictions, but their patterns of post-drug offences only differed in there being a higher incidence of larceny in pre-drug offenders. All patients were multiple drug users. 70 per cent had used heroin. Heroin users differed from non-narcotic users in a higher incidence of larceny and an increasing incidence of violent offenders after drug use. Criminality and drug dependency emerged as a combined expression of deviancy in the clinic population.