Statistics compiled by the Family Research Council (FRC) prove without doubt that the social problems of drugs use and crime are closely interconnected. In research compiled in a study conducted for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in January of 1998, the FRC reported the following statistics, among others, that prove that drugs and crime do go together:
80% on inmates—1.4 million—have histories with substance involvement (In other words, they have violated drug or alcohol laws, they were high when they committed their crimes, they stole property to buy drugs, and/or they have histories of drug/alcohol abuse and addiction).
Among the 1.4 million substance-involved inmates are parents of 2.4 million children, many of them minors.
One of every 144 American adults is behind bars for a crime in which the drugs and/or alcohol were involved.
By the year 2000, if current trends continue, the nation will break the $100 million-a-day barrier in spending to incarcerate individuals with serious drug and alcohol problems.
49% of state inmates convicted of violent crimes were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol during their crimes.
51% of state inmates convicted of property crimes were under the influence of drugs and or alcohol during their crimes.
32% of state inmates have parents who were regular drug users.
There is a great deal more empirical evidence that link drugs and crime as a combined social problem for the majority of crimes committed. While drug usage has been going down in the past decade among adults, it has been on the rise among the adolescent population. Marijuana use by itself has jumped an incredible degree among children who attend the eight grade, “Marijuana smoking among teenagers has jumped more than 141% between 1992 and 1995, and overall teenage drug use has more than doubled,” (Maginnis, 1996: 1). Backing up these studies is a grea...