Links between drugs and crime

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Links between drugs and crime
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• Intuitively links exist between drug use and
  crime, but what are they?

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Crime

• Crime is an intentional act or omission, in
  violation of criminal law (statutory or case law)
  committed without defense or justification and
  sanctioned by the state as a felony or
  misdemeanor.

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• Intentional act or omission
• Mens rea
• Actus reus

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• In violation of criminal law
• Statutory law
• Case law

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• Committed without defense of justification
• Insanity
• Infancy
• Intoxication
• Consent
• Duress
• Necessity
• Entrapment

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• Sanctioned by the state as a felony or
  misdemeanor.
• Felony
• Misdemeanor
• Mala in se
• Mala prohibita

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Drugs and crime

• How are the two linked?

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Behaviors that are defined as criminal

• Possesion
• Distribution
• Manufacture
• Possession with intent to distribute
• Selling to a mimor

10
Pharmacological violence

• Pharmacological violence model suggests that some
  individuals, as a result of long or short term
  ingestion of some specific substance become
  excitable, irrational and may exhibit violent
  behavior. The most relevant substances are
  alcohol, stimulants, barbiturates and PCP.

11
Economic compulsive crime

• This model suggests that some drug users engage
  in economically- oriented crime e.g. robbery or
  prostitution to support drug usage.

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Systemic violence

• In the systemic model, violence is intrinsic to
  involvement with the illicit substance. Systemic
  violence refers to the traditionally aggressive
  patterns of interaction within the system of drug
  distribution and use. Systemic violence may
  include
• Disputes over territory between rival drug
  dealers.

13

• Assaults and homicides committed within dealing
  hierarchies as a means of enforcing normative
  codes.
• Robberies of drug dealers and the usually violent
  retaliation by the dealer or his/her bosses.
• Elimination of informers.

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• Punishment for selling adulterated or phony
  drugs.
• Punishment for failing to pay ones debts.
• Disputes over drugs or drug paraphernalia.
• Robbery violence related to the social ecology of
  drug activity.

15

• Making, distributing and selling drugs illegally
  is a business.
• Victimless crime?
• Links between drugs and crime remain unclear.