NCJ Number
139737
Date Published
1992
Length
65 pages
Annotation
Data from the computerized case files for all adult arrestees maintained by the Pretrial Services Agency in Washington, D.C., and dated between July 1985 and June 1986, were used to analyze differences in criminal-career parameters and their impact on the potential incapacitative effects of alternative sentencing policies directed at drug-involved offenders. The two categories of offenders used here included drug dealers and predatory offenders, namely robbers and burglars, who also abused drugs.
Abstract
Specifically, the research studied the influence of drug use on three aspects of the subjects' criminal careers: participation, frequency of offending, and termination rate. The findings showed that, among both groups of offenders, drug use was associated with worse offending in terms of greater participation in arrests, higher arrest frequencies, and a lower likelihood of termination. Use of stimulatant drugs seemed to be related to participation in predatory offenses while use of depressants was correlated to a lower likelihood of terminating offending careers. However, there was no evidence that drug use served as an aggravating factor for future offending by predatory offenders. Drug offenders had significantly lower levels of involvement in the more serious and violent offenses than did those subjects initially classified as predatory offenders. The implications of these findings in terms of sentencing policies for drug-involved offenders are outlined. 10 tables, 6 figures, 13 notes, 3 appendixes, and 12 references