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Drugs and crime are American institutions and have been inherent in our culture for centuries. While the specific trends of drugs and crime have changed, race, ethnicity and gender have remained political and social tools for those in power to distribute the penalties and stigmas associated with drug use and crime. This combination provides for an interesting examination into how social structure predicts individual behavior. Recently,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the United Nations issued a report [2005] on how crime is both the cause and consequence of poverty around the world. The present article attempts to discuss the issues of drug use, crime and race and the connections these social elements have to poverty.
For assessing linkages between crime,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], drug use and poverty one must look at more abstract systems such as national policy and state institutional practices in welfare reform and prison. Treatment is an essential tool in breaking the linkages between these variables. If we can better understand treatment alternatives structural barriers can be set up to help prevent drug users from entering poverty and criminal lifestyles.
When looking at prison data, Blacks and Hispanics are incarcerated at higher rates than other races. Layered over these data, the percentage of prison and jail inmates who committed their offense to get money for drugs is stable at about 16% for all categories of inmates [U.S. Department of Justice, 2005]. One can safely assume that Blacks and Hispanics are over-represented here. With drug laws becoming harsher over the last quarter of the 20th century,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], it is no wonder that more drug-related crime is leading to higher incarceration rates while particular racial and ethnic groups are shouldering both the incarceration and economic hardship burdens.
Poverty in America
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Treatment as Policy Initiative
Having addressed the connections between crime, drugs and poverty, the issue now becomes one of treatment and policy. Effective treatment of drug users must be an integral component of State policy. The Federal government will not do this with laws alone. One way to diminish the impact of drug use (and thus, hopefully diminish the rates of crime and poverty) is to treat the drug user so that he/she doesn’t use and is able to merge back into society as a healthy contributing member. There are a myriad of drug treatment solutions being practiced in the U.S. These range from “Drug Court” initiatives and “Halfway Houses” to “Faith-Based” org
Drug Use, Crime & Incarceration
According to government data the major categories of “crime” (Property & Violent) show trends of decline and/or stabilization over the past decades. Thus, viewing crime as “prevalent” is misleading at best. The “Drug War” laws of the 1980s and 1990s have had a large impact on these data for particular classes of people. Imprisoning drug offenders has led to a delayed effect on poverty and we are seeing the effect today in the context of an economy that is struggling. Drugs coupled with crime lead to devastating consequences for individuals and the larger society as a whole.
Economic hardship is a staple among many in the U.S. Today, 12.6% of our population lives below the poverty level [U.S. Census Bureau, 2008]. Drugs and crime have played a role in the regularity of poverty since 1980. Blacks and Hispanics have relatively much higher rates of poverty than Whites and Asians. Thus, race is structurally embedded into the politics of poverty while drug use and crime play a role in these politics.