Drugs and crime.

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Drugs and crime are of concern to all communities, particularly drug possession, manufacture and trafficking, the involvement of criminal syndicates in the drugs trade, the acquisitive crime committed by drug misusing offenders to feed their habits, and the anti-social behaviour and feeling of menace that the drug culture generates within neighbourhoods. Many police forces estimate that around half of all recorded crime has some drug related element to it, whether in terms of individual consumption or supply of drugs, or the consequent impact of it on criminal behaviour.1 This essay will seek to examine the connection between drugs and crime. It will aim to define what a 'drug' is, the extent to drug use among offenders, the volume of crime committed in order to obtain drugs, or feed drug habits and also the sorts of crimes committees using drugs as an aid e.g. date rape. The use of illegal and legal drugs will be looked at in their connection to crime. This essay will concentrate mainly upon the problem of drug use in relation to crime in the UK, with an occasional consideration of the problem in the USA. It will also indicate which criminological theories best assist our understanding