Drug Addiction and Criminal Behavior Drug addiction can have profound effects on the lives of those who are addicted as well as those people who care about the well being of these drug users. The focus in this paper will be the examination of the association between drug addiction and subsequent criminal behavior by addicts.
Question and hypothesis
The research question will be; what are the factors that motivate drug users to commit crimes to further their addiction. Hypothesis, the researcher hypotheses will read as follows: H1: There is a relationship between drug addiction and criminal behavior, H2: There is a relationship between criminal behavior and drug addiction, H0: There is no relationship between addiction and criminal behavior
Research Design The intention of this researcher is to use survey design, because it provides a numeric representation of trends within a population. This researcher will study the resulting data by random sampling of the population and generalize the results. This study will use a random sample of recovering drug addicts who served time for crimes committed to further their addiction.
Drug use
In the U.S. more than a half a trillion dollars a year is spent as a direct result of substance abuse (Volkow, Baler and Goldstein, 2011). According to Volkow et al. a large percentage of this money goes to social projects associated with criminal activities and family services. Essentially these monies go to incarcerate, rehabilitate, and support those who committed crimes because of their dependencies on drugs, along with providing for the children who may have lost their only source of financial support.
Parents who use drugs may be more likely to have offspring that use drugs than parents who do not use drugs. These children who use drugs are likely to attract and retain friends who share the same bad social habits (Brook et al., 2011). The cost of continuing this chain of bad behavior has a twofold economic effect on society (a) reduces the number of productive adults in the workforce, (b) increase the costs associated with incarceration, and (c) perpetuates the next generation of criminal offenders.
This issue of substance abuse is not new, but little research exists about how to break this chain of drugs and criminal activity. This study is worthy of research because the health risks associated with drug use are well documented, as is the costs of treatments (include citations). The focus of this study will be members of a narcotics recovery group who have served time in jail/prison because of crimes directly related to their drug addiction. The role of the researcher in this proposed study will include contacting known members of support groups for assistance in examining this issue. Members will be asked to refer others that may be interested in contributing to this research effort.
Theoretical Framework This study is guided by two theoretical frameworks: Family Interactional Theory [FIT; Brook et al., 1990], and Developmental and Life-Course Criminology [DLC; e.g., Farrington,