‘I like money, I like many things’. The relationship between drugs and crime from the perspective of young people in contact with criminal justice systems

Abstract

Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in ‘bulimic societies’ that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition.

Keywords:

• Young people
• drugs
• crime
• criminal justice system
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 Quotations are accompanied by a code indicating the country, the interview number, the measure (home arrest – HO, therapeutic community – CO, prison – PRI, other alternative measures – ALT), gender (M/F) and the age (no. of years). Only quotations from Denmark are not accompanied by complete information because of anonymity issues.

2 The ‘bottle’ refers to the way for smoking crack, while the ‘monkey’ is a slang term to indicate the compulsion.

3 A benzodiazepine-derived prescription drug available in the illegal market.

Additional information

Funding

The project 768162/EPPIC has received funding from the European Union’s Health Programme (2014–2020). The content of this article represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains. See also www.eppic-project.eu. The Polish part of this scientific study was co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education from the funds assigned to conduct a co-financed international project for the years 2017–2019.