Discuss in detail the three contextual relationships between drug use and crime
using examples you have researched from the newspaper, internet, or other professional or public journals. Your conclusion should include a comparative analysis of these relationships from your perspective, indicating which one invokes the greatest social threat.
Violent crimes are very rampant in our everyday society. It’s very rare that you see the evening news without any reports about crime and violence. It’s been said that one of the major factors of the continuous soaring of crime rates is the rampant usage of illegal drugs. Drug trafficking is no longer a new matter to the society. It’s been existing since the rebirth of drug use in the sixties. What’s really shocking is the youth’s constant involvement and dependence on drugs. Many of the crimes committed which are drug-related are often involving juveniles, or even young adults.
It is funny that illegal drugs are now very often used by our fellow citizens as “de-stressors”, or to alleviate whatever psychological or social stress they are going through, whereas before, these drugs were primarily used as medication. Early on, the Chinese immigrants had brought the habit of smoking opium when they were digging railways. Drug use was very accessible back then, it was sold even as cough syrup. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, drug use was at its ebb, even though large importations of heroin to the US were slowly growing. (Must 1991; Rouse and Johnson 1991). But on the 1960’s, drug use found a revival in young adults. According to a survey, the proportion of the population
reporting having used marijuana increased from 4 to 24 percent, and the heroin
addict population grew from 50,000 to 500,000 (DuPont 1978). Also, with the increase of drug use was also an increase on drug related crimes. It was also found that most of the drug users and assaulters were middle-class youths. That rise of drug use and crime triggered the government to declare war on drugs. Following that were a number of legislations that also tried to help remove illegal drugs from the society and away from young people. According to the Italian Voice, “nearly half (48%) of all men arrested for homicide and assault, test positive for drugs at the time of their arrest.”
http://www.wustl.edu/~reel/180/drgcrime.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-2222994.html
In your opinion, what legislation of the past 3 decades has had the greatest impact on the drug-crime relationship? Defend your response.
Using the Library’s resources and the Internet, find the effects of three types of substances discussed in this unit. Please discuss these three effects. Then choose one and locate two articles describing situations where a crime was committed by a person under the influence of a specific substance. Find an article where you believe the substance is mostly responsible for the crime. Find another article in which the person is mostly responsible for the crime
Describe, in your opinion, the most “dangerous” drug. Support your opinion with fact. (Cite your sources.) What is the relationship between this drug and crime?
In my opinion, the most dangerous drug is Methamphetamine, more popularly known as Math. According to Sarah Childress, “Methamphetamine is a ruthless drug, it leaves a feeling of euphoria that addicts chase it for the rest of their lives but never catch it. It even leaves them destitute and at the brink of death. It ruins their lives.”
Methamphetamine is a synthetic stimulant drug which induces a strong feeling of euphoria and is highly psychologically addictive. Pure methamphetamine is a colorless crystalline solid, sold on the streets as glass, ice, or crystal. A stimulant drug chemically related to amphetamine but with stronger effects on the central nervous system. (Wikipedia) Methamphetamine, called “poor man’s cocaine”, causes the user to be relatively keeps the user very alert and awake and gives them the “ultimate high” that they keep on chasing for the rest of their lives. Prolonged use of math may also cause Methamphetamine Psychosis. According to Wikipedia, “Amphetamine psychosis is a form of psychosis which can result from amphetamine or methamphetamine use. Typically it appears after large doses or chronic use; although in rare cases some people may become psychotic after relatively small doses.” Methamphetamine even dries out the saliva of the user, causing him to grind his teeth, thus causing decay.
These findings can support my opinion that Math is the most dangerous drug of today. It not only destroys the lives of the users but also the lives of the people around them. They may even pose a threat on unknowing passers-by.
Methamphetamine ruined the life of a young mother and professional, Kimberly Fields, who was living in the stately Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge. She had everything she wanted, a husband, two kids, a car, and a great house. But she threw all of this away only for the high that Math gave her. Soon after, she started shoplifting and stealing cold pills. She was left by her husband and he filed Divorce papers claiming that she was no longer capable of taking care of their kids. Soon, she turned her house into a math lab. She was cooking Math in her own house. She was arrested for drug-related cases.
As in the example above, the need for the feel of the rush brought by the drug, some users are pushed to the edge. They steal just to get the drug they need.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine psychosis
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8770112/site/Newsweek/
Explain, in a 3-5 page paper in your own words, how sociology and psychology influence drug abuse. Then describe the relationship between these two explanations of drug abuse and crime. Support your paper with examples found from the Internet.
Psychology, as by defined in the dictionary, is the “Scientific study of human behavior, mental processes, and how they are affected and/or affect an individuals or group’s physical state, mental state, and external environment. its goal is to describe, understand, predict, and modify behavior.” And so is sociology. Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Based on these definitions, we can already say that psychology and sociology have a big impact on drug use.
Sociology and psychology go hand in hand in shaping and sculpting the life of a person. Sociology and psychology are the foundations of the social life of every human being.
A human being is a social being. He cannot exist alone. He needs other people to survive. All humans are co-dependent on each other to fill their sociological needs. That’s the reason why everyone is subjected to peer groups and sociological leveling. He is also part of a culture, which means he has to conform to what society dictates of him. And besides that, he has to cope up with things that happen within himself.
These factors are enough to make him shrink away from society and turn to something else to alleviate any bad feeling that he has. Things like illegal drugs are easily at hand to suppress any bad feeling that he has. Peer pressure and stress are most often the biggest contributing factors to drug use and abuse especially in teenagers since they are the most lenient and are easily persuaded into doing these kinds of things. When people are subjected to social pressure, especially younger people, they easily give in. being part of a peer group and being “in”, are always the most important things for young adults, despite the health hazards they face. Being in a peer group in itself is not bad. It’s even good that one has people he can trust, hang-out with, have fun with, or even cry with.
But the bad thing is when the peer group is the bad influence. At times, it’s inevitable that young ones get into doing things like trying drugs, or drinking.
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/content/9b7584dea1897592/
www.elissetche.org/dico/Pham
What do you think has more effect on a person’s inclination to abuse drugs: social factors or psychological factors? Support your answer with evidence.
Some drug cases are processed in court while others are processed outside the court system. Using the Internet and all other resources at your disposal, write an analysis of the major stages of each process (in court and out of court). What works and what doesn’t for each process?
In your own words, define drug trafficking. Describe what you feel might be the solution to combat this “business of drugs.” Why do you think your solution would work? Support your theory.
Drug trafficking is the selling of illegal drugs. I think the way to combat drug trafficking is by constantly keeping vigilant watch over what’s being imported or exported out of the country and making sure that no illegal drugs comes in or goes out of the country. The effects might not be immediate, but in a little while, the effects of this method will be felt.
This solution I offer is pretty simple: only to keep a very vigilant watch over what’s coming in and out of the country. That may not be so difficult. Just make sure all the borders are well guarded against anyone wanting to bring something out or into the country. The key to the success of this undertaking lies in the those people who guard the borders and check the baggage. That is where the success or failure of this undertaking is, because if those people chose not to put their hearts into doing their job, the whole undertaking is pointless. And also, dogs that could sniff out drugs from anywhere would really be a big help.
This solution would work because it’s relatively simple and only need the help of those people who really put their hearts into doing their job. It won’t even cost anything because there are no fancy equipments to buy, only the dogs. The only real downfall of this is if the checkers are lazy enough as not to check the baggage thoroughly and just to let things slide.
I strongly think that this theory will work because it will only illicit the help of people and that the drug trade will be cut off from its source. If supplies for making math, for example, are no longer able to get into the country, the local industry of making math would soon die down.
What is your stance on decriminalization? What about Drug Maintenance and Harm Reduction? Explain how you think each of these possible solutions would work. Describe an alternative to each of these solutions.
In some aspects, I can favor decriminalization, because there are some acts that cannot really be considered criminal acts. Homosexuality for one. It’s not a crime to be a homosexual. Even if you one tries to be straight, there is nothing that can be done about one’s gender preference. That cannot be called illegal or anything against any man-made law.
But on some aspects of decriminalization, I am really not in favor of it. Like the decriminalization of prostitution and some prohibited drugs. Why do you decriminalize prohibited drugs? They have been found out to have negative effects on humans, why decriminalize them? Maintenance drugs however, I find very understandable since there are a lot of people with chronic illnesses and one of the ways of keeping their illnesses in a safe side is by taking maintenance drugs. Maintenance drugs are also proven safe and effective. On Harm-Reduction, I’m not really in favor of this. It’s like allowing people to do some things they shouldn’t because of the fear that they may still do it in secret. It
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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