Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

There has been considerable speculation as to the proportion of crime that is drug-related. This report, based on research in 5 English locations, gives a clear assessment - based on urine testing - of recent drug consumption on the part of samples of people arrested by the police. It also illuminates, through interview data, a wide range of related issues, including the extent to which acquisitive crime is committed to fund the purchasing of drugs.

Title: Drugs and Crime: The Results Of Research On Drug Testing And Interviewing Arrestees
Author: Trevor Bennett
Series: Home Office Research Study 183
Number of pages: 120
Date published: 1998
Availability: Download full document PDF (585 Kb)

Key points

The study has identified a number of key findings which might need to be addressed in the future. The main finding is the high prevalence rate of drug use among arrestees. The research also raises issues relating to problems relating to health, drug dependency, and lifestyle. Overall, the research draws attention to the overarching problem that, with some notable exceptions, arrestees come into contact with the criminal justice system and are released again (either immediately or eventually) without any of these issues being addressed.

The research concludes by encouraging policy makers to consider developing an arrestee monitoring programme (and associated research capacity) in this country. It is argued that arrestee monitoring can provide a large number of potential benefits, including:

• An alternative measure of drug use among a high-use population over time and across different geographic areas.

• A means of providing information which can help generate local-level profiles of drug use and which can be used to inform intervention strategies.

• A method of predicting changes in the rate of crime (through known correlations between drug use and crime) or seriousness of crime (through additional information on use of weapons and the nature of the drugs-crime link).

• A means of evaluation for local programmes which have attempted to prevent or modify in some way local drug use.

The research was carried out for the Home Office by the University of Cambridge, broadly along the lines of an established programme in the United States.

Getting a copy

Download an online version of Drugs and Crime  PDF (585 Kb)