Associations between substance use and type of crime in prisoners with substance use problems – a focus on violence and fatal violence

Abstract

Aim

The present study aimed to study the associations between substance use patterns and types of crimes in prisoners with substance use problems, and specifically whether substance use patterns were different in violent offenders.

Methods

Interview data of prisoners with substance use problems (N=4,202, mean age 33.5 years, SD 9.8), derived from the Addiction Severity Index, were run against criminal register data on main types of crimes in the verdict.

Results

In binary analyses, compared to those with acquisitive and drug crimes, violent offenders had lower prevalence of illicit drugs and homelessness, but higher prevalence of binge drinking, and higher prevalence of sedative use than clients sentenced with drug crimes. Clients with violent crime had lower prevalence of injecting drug use, compared to all other crimes. In logistic regression, binge drinking and sedatives were positively associated with violent crime (as opposed to non-violent crime), whereas heroin, amphetamine, cocaine, and injecting drug use were negatively associated with violent crime. Among violent offenders only, sedatives tended to be associated with fatal violence (p=0.06), whereas amphetamine, homelessness, age, and (marginally significant, p=0.05) heroin were negatively associated with fatal violence, as opposed to non-fatal violence.

Conclusion

Treatment and risk assessment in violent perpetrators with substance use may need to address sedatives and alcohol specifically. Limitations of the study are due to self-reported and cross-sectional data and because a large majority of the prison sample studied here are men.

Keywords:

• Addiction Severity Index
• prison
• criminal justice
• violence
• substance use disorder
• alcohol
• sedatives

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the staff of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service for the interview data collection and to the statistical register service of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service for their help with the register data collection.

Author contributions

VJ and AH jointly planned the study. AH was the principal investigator of the overall project. VJ carried out statistical analyses and wrote the first draft of the paper. AH finalized the writing of the manuscript. Both authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting and revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

AH has received speaker fees and travel reimbursements for conference contributions (from Lundbeck in 2011 and 2012) and for teaching purposes (arranged by Schering-Plough, Reckitt-Benckiser, Skåne County, and Uppsala University on four occasions until 2011). He holds a researcher position at Lund University, Sweden, in collaboration with the Swedish governmental monopoly for gambling (Svenska spel) as part of that body’s government-supported responsibility for research and prevention in the pathological gambling field. These collaborations are unrelated to the present paper. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.