Day-to-Day Criminality of Heroin Addicts in Baltimore - A Study in the Continuity of Offense Rates

• NCJ Number: 102160
• Date Published: 1983
• Author(s): J C Ball; J W Shaffer; D N Nurco
• Length: 48 pages
• Grant Number(s): 52-070-1445
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

Between July 1973 and January 1978, 354 male narcotic (principally heroin) addicts living in the Baltimore metropolitan area were interviewed to determine the type, extent, and pattern of their criminal activity over time.

Abstract

The subjects were a random sample selected from a population of over 7,500 known opiate users arrested or identified by the police between 1952 and 1976. The sample was unselected for criminality but stratified by race and year of police contact. The interviews focused on drug use, criminal behavior, work, living arrangements, drug selling, and income sources. Subjects detailed addiction, abstinence, and incarceration periods. Each subject's years, months, and days at risk were classified as addicted to or abstinent from opiates. The subjects committed well over 775,000 crimes during the 9 years they were in the community; 88 percent of these crimes were committed in addiction periods. Theft was the most common offense, followed by drug sales, 'other crime,' violent offenses, and con games. Although there was no support for a maturation hypothesis regarding the association between crime and opiate addiction, there was substantial support for the thesis that drug dependence is a major contributor to criminality. 21 references and 9 tables.