The analysis rested on a conceptual framework in which drugs and violence were viewed as related in three ways: psychopharmacologically, economically, and systemically. The analysis focused on 414 homicides in selected precincts between March 1 and October 31, 1988. The homicides involved 491 perpetrators and 431 victims. About 45 of the homicides occurred in the street, and 35 percent took place in residences, mainly the victim's residence. Sixty-eight percent of the homicides involved firearms, usually handguns. Twenty-nine percent of the perpetrators and 34 percent of the victims were drug traffickers, usually low-level traffickers. Further analysis indicated that 52.7 percent of the homicide events were drug-related. Thirty-nine percent of the homicides were systemic in that they involved territorial disputes, assaults to collect debts, robberies of drug dealers, and similar circumstances. Sixty-percent of the drug-related homicides involved crack, and cocaine in some form was the main drug in about 84 percent of the drug-related homicides. Findings also support earlier findings that drug users are more likely to finance their drug use by working in the drug business than by engaging in violent predatory thefts. 47 references.
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Prevalence and Concentration of Fentanyl in Hair Collected for Court-Ordered Mandatory Drug Testing
- Identifying the Scope and Context of Missing and/or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) in New Mexico and Improving MMIP Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting
- Introducing "DoPP": A Graphical User-Friendly Application for the Rapid Species Identification of Psychoactive Plant Materials and Quantification of Psychoactive Small Molecules Using DART-MS Data