Drugs and Violence - Archives - National Institute on Drug Abuse

293 Pages·2002·1.68 MB·English

National Institute on Drug Abuse
RESEARCH
MONOGRAPH SERIES
Drugs and
Violence: Causes,
Correlates, and
Consequences
1 0 3
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services • Public Health Service • National Institutes of Health
Drugs and Violence: Causes,
Correlates, and Consequences
Editors:
Mario De La Rosa, Ph.D.
Epidemiology Research Branch
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Elizabeth Y. Lambert, M.S.
Epidemiology Studies and Surveillance Branch
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Bernard Gropper, Ph.D.
Drugs, Alcohol, and Crime Research Program
National Institute of Justice
NIDA Research Monograph 103
1990
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration
National Institute on Drug Abuse
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402
Drugs and Violence:
Causes, Correlates, and
Consequences
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This monograph is based on the papers and discussion from a technical
review on “Drugs and Violence” held on September 25 and 26, 1989, in
Rockville, MD. The review meeting was sponsored by the Office of
Science and the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research,
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
COPYRIGHT STATUS
The National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute of Justice have
obtained permission from the copyright holders to reproduce certain previ-
ously published material as noted in the text. Further reproduction of this
copyrighted material is permitted only as part of a reprinting of the entire
publication or chapter. For any other use, the copyright holder’s permission
is required. All other material in this volume except quoted passages from
copyrighted sources is in the public domain and may be used or reproduced
without permission from the Institute or the authors. Citation of the source
is appreciated.
Opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or official policy of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, National Institute of Justice, or any other part of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services or U.S. Department of Justice.
The U.S. Government does not endorse or favor any specific commercial
product or company. Trade, proprietary, or company names appearing in
this publication are used only because they are considered essential in the
context of the studies reported herein.
DHHS publication number (ADM)90-1721
Printed 1990
NIDA Research Monographs are indexed in the Index Medicus. They are
selectively included in the coverage of American Statistics Index,
BioSciences Information Service, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents,
Psychological Abstracts, and Psychopharmacology Abstracts.
iv
Contents
Page
Foreword vii
Charles R. Schuster
Introduction: Exploring the Substance Abuse-Violence
Connection 1
Mario De La Rosa, Elizabeth Y. Lambert, and
Bernard Gropper
Violence as Regulation and Social Control in the
Distribution of Crack 8
Jeffey Fagan and Ko-lin Chin
Violence Associated With Acute Cocaine Use in Patients
Admitted to a Medical Emergency Department 44
Steven L. Brody
The Operational Styles of Crack Houses in Detroit 60
Tom Mieczkowski
The Crack-Violence Connection Within a Population of
Hard-Core Adolescent Offenders 92
James A. Inciardi
v
Page
The Relationship Between Cocaine Use, Drug Sales, and
Other Delinquency Among a Cohort of High-Risk Youths
Over Time 112
Richard Dembo, Linda Williams, Werner Wothke,
James Schmeidler, Alan Getreu, Estrellita Berry,
Eric D. Wish, and Candice Christensen
The Drug Use-Violent Delinquency Link Among
Adolescent Mexican-Americans 136
W. David Watts and Loyd S. Wright
Gangs, Drugs, and Violence 160
Joan Moore
The Interrelationships Between Alcohol and Drugs and
Family Violence 177
Brenda A. Miller
Drug-Related Violence and Street Prostitution 208
Claire E. Sterk and Kirk W. Elifson
Drug Disorder, Mental Illness, and Violence 222
Karen M. Abram and Linda A. Teplin
Who’s Right: Different Outcomes When Police and
Scientists View the Same Set of Homicide Events,
New York City, 1988 239
Patrick J. Ryan, Paul J. Goldstein,
Henry H. Brownstein, and Patrica A. Bellucci
Summary Thoughts About Drugs and Violence 265
James J. Collins
List of NIDA Research Monographs 276
vi
Foreword
Drug abuse and drug-related violence are among the greatest concerns of
our citizens. There is a growing interest on the part of researchers, the
public, and all levels of our government in the causes, correlates, and
consequences of drugs and violence—both for better understanding of these
phenomena and for improving our efforts at converting understanding into
more effective prevention and control programs.
Many factors, such as the emergence of relatively cheap and widely avail-
able crack cocaine and widespread violence in drug trafficking, influence the
increase in drug-related violence within and outside the United States. The
challenge to public health and law enforcement communities is to develop
strategies for intervention and control that work. These are priority issues
within the missions and research agendas of both the National Institute on
Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
On September 26-27, 1989, NIDA, with the collaboration of NIJ, held a
Technical Review meeting on “Drugs and Violence.” The focus of this
meeting was to review recent research advances made in the study of the
relationships between drugs and violence. Data from a number of NIDA-
and NIJ-funded research projects addressing different aspects of these
relationships were presented and are included in this monograph. This
meeting and monograph underscore the continuing collaborative research
efforts by NIDA and NIJ to explore the linkages between drug use and
violence and other criminal behaviors.
The studies presented here represent only a sampling of the types of basic
and applied research efforts that contribute to development of a sound infor-
mational base from which health providers and law enforcement officials
can develop mote effective strategies and programs to combat these prob-
lems. It is hoped that this monograph will serve as a framework for further
efforts in these areas and help us teach our common goals of making our
society—and our world—a safer and healthier place to live.
Charles R. Schuster, Ph.D.
Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse
vii
The National Drug Control Strategy indicates that our Nation’s success in
overcoming the problems of drug abuse and drug-related crime depends
upon the efforts of all our citizens and all agencies of Government The
strategy provides a comprehensive framework and a balanced approach for
our priorities in prevention and control, supply and demand reduction, law
enforcement and treatment, research. and evaluation.
Research plays a vital role in supporting these efforts by assessing the
nature and extent of the problems, developing the scientific and technical
bases for effective public policies, identifying and assessing Programmatic
options, and evaluating the impacts of our drug control interventions.
The studies on drugs and violence within this volume exemplify the
collaborative relationships between the research programs of the National
institute of Justice in the Department of Justice and the National Institute
on Drug Abuse in the Department of Health and Human Services on these
priority issues.
The chapters encompass both qualitative and quantitative approach to
research, including: the development of conceptual frameworks; the
observation, description, treatment, prevention, and prediction of drug abuse
and related violence: and the translation of definitions into practice for
statistic databases and other applications. Though they focus on U.S.
populations and conditions, foreign researchers and governments express
continuing interest in our research methods, data, and approaches to
addressing drug abuse, drug-related crime, and drug-related violence. This
evidence reflects significant potential for making greater contributions to
solving these drug problems that affect our Nation and the world.
Charles B. DeWitt
Director Designate
National Institute of Justice
viii
Introduction: Exploring the
Substance Abuse-Violence
Connection
Mario De La Rosa, Elizabeth Y. Lambert, and
Bernard Gropper
The complex relationships between substance abuse and violence have posed
challenges to the research community and public health professions for
decades. Research literature on drugs and violence abounds and continues
to grow, with broad representation from the disciplines of education, medi-
cine, sociology, criminology, epidemiology, and psychology. Understanding
the causes, correlates, and consequences of drugs and violence is necessary
to develop effective public health and law enforcement strategies for preven-
tion and control. Some may despair, believing the links between substance
abuse and violence to be inseparable and complex, and, therefore, believing
that effective solutions cannot be found. Efforts to understand these rela-
tionships can contribute to a process for identifying ways to prevent their
occurrence or to reduce their magnitude, severity, and their recent apparent
intensification.
Links between alcohol abuse and violence have been recognized for years.
Recently, new varieties of violence have emerged, largely in relation to the
abuse and distribution of crack cocaine. The 1980s have seen a growing
number of apparently “random” or “impersonal” homicides—that is, homi-
cides of persons unknown or hardly known to their assailants. These so-
called “hit men” style slayings have been linked to the crack trade, with
drug dealers competing against other dealers to comer the market or pre-
serve their territories. Victims are typically young boys or men and are
often minorities living in inner cities. Occasionally, distinct patterns of
injury can be recognized: drug runners, young teenagers who carry drugs
and money between sellers and buyers, are being seen in emergency rooms
more frequently with gunshot wounds to the legs and knees; a more vicious
style of drug-related injury has emerged in the western part of the United
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