What Has Been Learned from Research on the Drugs-Crime Connection?

The term the “drugs-crime connection” refers to the relationship between drug misuse and criminal behavior. It is used by governments in their strategy documents to suggest that drug use and crime are linked in some way. This chapter investigates the nature of the drugs-crime connection by summarizing the research evidence on the relationship between use of drugs and the commission of crime. The evaluation is divided into four sections: the first section considers what has been learned about the drug-crime connection from studies of drug users and offenders; the second examines the relationship between specific types of drugs and specific types of crimes; the third looks at variations in the drugs-crime connection by selected demographic characteristics; and the fourth section examines evidence on the causal connection between drug use and crime.