Citation

Dolu O. Turk. J. Occup. Envir. Med. Saf. 2017; 2(1): e9.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Engin TUTKUN; Bozok Üniversitesi)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Drug-crime relationship is one of the hot topics in criminology literature. Particularly, possibility of a causal link between drug use and criminal behavior has been investigated by many researchers with large scale surveys on general public and with studies on forensic populations. However, such criminological research is very limited in Turkey and there is a lack of scientific knowledge about the relationship between drug use and criminal conduct. Moreover, there is not any statistical information on what percentage of criminals uses drugs, either in lifetime or before committing crime. This study reports findings from the "Socioeconomic Correlates of Crime in Turkey Study", conducted by the author in 2015. The author investigated the ratio of drug users among inmates, most frequently used drugs, duration and amount of drug use in lifetime, in the last 12 months before crime, in the last 30 days before crime, and drug use in the same day before committing crime.

FINDINGS revealed striking results about drug use among criminals: one average37% of all prisoners were under the influence of drugs at the time of committing crime. Further, there is a huge discrepancy of drug use at the time of crime for different crimes. A heavy majority of prisoners who committed crimes against property, particularly burglary, were under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime. However, drug use at the time of crime was very low for violent crimes. Overall findings indicate that the amount of drug use among criminals is well beyond what was expected before.

Language: en