Chapter 10 Minds and Crime:

Alcohol, Drugs & Mental Illness

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 Chapter Summary
 Chapter Ten is an overview of altered minds and
crime. The Chapter begins with an overview of the
relationship between alcohol, alcoholism, and crime.
 The Chapter continues with an overview of the types
of illicit drugs, and the relationship between illicit
drugs and crime.
 The Chapter concludes with an overview of
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and how mental
illness is associated with criminality.

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 Chapter Summary
 After reading this chapter, students should be
able to:
 Understand the relationship between alcohol and
crime
 Discuss the drug classification and the
relationship between drugs and crime
 Describe the main mental disorders associated
with crime
 Understand the relationship between mental
illness and crime

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 The Scope of the Alcohol/Crime Problem
 Of all the substances used to alter mood and
consciousness, alcohol is the one most
directly linked to crime, especially violent
crime.

 One third of all arrests in the United States

are for alcohol-related offenses.

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 The Direct Effects of Alcohol on Behavior
 The effects of alcohol on behavior is a function
of the interactions of the pharmacological
properties of the substance, the individual’s
physiology and personality, and the social and
cultural context in which the substance is
ingested.
 Alcohol raises dopamine levels, decreases
serotonin, and increases GABA, a major inhibitor
of internal stimuli such as fear, anxiety, and stress.

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 Contextual Factors
 Alcohol is a releaser of behaviors that we
normally want to keep under control.
 In some social contexts, drinking may lead
to violence, but not others.
 Experimental research has shown that
drinking increases males’ fantasies of power
and domination.

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 Contextual Factors

 Two of the major cultural factors influencing the

relationship between alcohol consumption and criminal
behavior are: defining a drinking occasion as a time out
period in which control are loosened from usual
behavior and a willingness to hold a person less
responsible for their actions when drinking than when
sober by attributing the blame to alcohol.
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 Contextual Factors

 Binge drinkers: Consume anywhere

between 5 and 10 drinks in a few hours time
and are particularly likely to define drinking
as a time out period.
 Heavy alcohol intake has a substantial
disinhibiting effect on behavior; so alcohol-
induced disinhibition may be considered a
cause of anti-social acts.

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 Contextual Factors
 The substance and the setting are secondary in
causal importance to traits of individuals drinking
the beverage of their choice in the settings of their
choice.

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 Alcoholism: Type I and Type II
 Alcoholism: A chronic disease condition marked
by progressive incapacity to control alcohol
consumption despite psychological, spiritual,
social, or physiological disruptions.
 Most alcoholics do not get into serious trouble
with the law.
 Type I alcoholism: Characterized by a mild
abuse, minimal criminality, and passive-dependent
personality.

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 Alcoholism: Type I and Type II

 Type II alcoholism: Characterized by early onset,

violence, and criminality, and is largely limited to
males.
 Heritability estimates for Type II alcoholism are
about 0.90 and about 0.40 for Type I alcoholism
indicating that environmental factors are much
more important to understanding Type I
alcoholism than Type II alcoholism.

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 The Extent of the Illicit Drug Problem

 The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the

benchmark act for changing America’s concept
of drugs and their use.
 The Harrison Act reduced the number of
addicts, but it also spawned criminal black market
operations and ultimately many more addicts.
 As with delinquency and crime, drug use rises to
a peak in the age 18-20 category and then drops
precipitously.

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 Drug Addiction
 Drug addiction: Compulsive drug-
seeking behavior where acquiring and
using a drug becomes the most
important activity in the user’s life.
 Physical dependence: Changes to the
body that have occurred after repeated
use of it and necessitates its continued
administration to avoid withdrawal
symptoms.
 Psychological dependence: The deep
craving for the drug and the feeling that
one cannot function without it.

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 Figure 10.2
Illicit Drug Use in Past Month by Age: 2004

Source: Department of Health and Human Services, National

Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2005.

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 Table 10.1
Illicit Drug Use in Lifetime, Past Year, and Past Month
Among Persons Age 12 or Older: Percentages, 2003 and 2004

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 Drug Classification
 Schedule I substances—those that have high abuse
liability and no medical use in the United States.
 Schedule II substances—equally high abuse
liability, but have some approved medical usage.
 Schedule III and Schedule IV substances—
moderate to moderately high abuse liability and
are legally available with prescription.
 Schedule V substances—can be purchased
without prescription.

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 The Drugs/Violence Link

 Narcotics drugs are those that reduce the sense

of pain, tension, and anxiety and produce a
drowsy sense of euphoria (e.g. heroin).
 The stimulants have effects opposite to those
of narcotics (e.g. cocaine, crack,
methamphetamine).
 Hallucinogenic drugs are mind altering drugs
(e.g. LSD and Peyote).
 Synthetic look-alike, or designer drugs fall into
the general family of psychoactive substances.

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 Figure 10.3
Global Cocaine and Heroin Trafficking Routes: Countries of
Origin and Major Countries of Destination.

Source: The National Drug Control Strategy: 2000 Annual Report. Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.

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 Figure 10.3
Global Cocaine and Heroin Trafficking Routes: Countries of
Origin and Major Countries of Destination.

Source: The National Drug Control Strategy: 2000 Annual Report. Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.

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 Figure 10.4
Illegal Drug Marketing from Grower to Market
Grower Processor Transporter Wholesaler Retailer

Farmers plant Use of Smugglers use Organized Deals directly

and harvest chemicals such planes, boats, criminal groups with consumer
poppy, coca, as motor oil, trucks, and cut product in crack houses
and marijuana sulfuric acid, many other and distribute or on street
crops kerosene, and methods to get it to dealers
insecticides to product to
refine product wholesaler

Grower  Processor  Transporter  Wholesaler  Retailer

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 What Causes Drug Abuse?
 Paul Goldstein’s tripartite framework: Illegal
drugs are associated with violence in three ways:
 Pharmacological
 Economic-compulsive
 Systemic violence: Violence associated with
traditionally aggressive patterns of interaction
within the system of drug distribution and use.

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 What Causes Drug Abuse?
 Economic-compulsive violence:
Violence associated with efforts to obtain
money to finance the high cost of illicit
drugs.
 Pharmacological violence: Violence
induced by the pharmacological
properties of the drug itself.

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 What Causes Drug Abuse?

 Gottfredson and Hirschi: Crime and drug usage are

the same thing—that is the manifestation of low self-
control.
 Anomie theory: Drug abuse is a retreatist adaptation,
and drug dealing is an innovative adaptation.
 Social control theory: Drug abusers lack attachment
to pro-social others and lack a state in conformity.

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 What Causes Drug Abuse?
 Social-learning and subculture theories: Drug
abuse reflects differential exposure to individuals
and groups.
 Conflict theory: As the rich get richer, the poor
poorer and economic opportunities are shrinking
for the uneducated and the unskilled, drug dealers
have taken firm root among the increasingly
demoralized, disorganized, and politically
powerless “underclass.”

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 Does Drug Abuse Cause Crime?

 Illicit drug abuse is associated with criminal

behavior.
 A large body of research indicates that drug
abuse does not appear to initiate a criminal career,
although it does increase the extent and
seriousness of one.

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 Table 10.2
Male and Female Adult Arrestees Testing Positive for Various
Drugs (in Percentages) MALES

Any of Multiple Cocaine Heroin Methamp Marijuana

City Five Drugs hetamine
Drugsa
Atlanta 72.4 73.5 49.8 3.0 2.0 41.8
Chicago 86.0 86.0 50.6 24.9 1.4 53.2
Dallas 62.3 63.8 32.5 6.9 5.8 39.1
Houston 61.7 61.9 22.6 5.7 2.1 47.5
Los Angeles 68.6 68.9 23.5 2.0 28.7 47.5
New York 67.7 72.7 35.7 15.0 0.0 43.1
Philadelphia 67.0 68.8 30.3 11.5 0.6 45.8
Phoenix 74.1 76.8 23.4 4.4 38.3 45.8
San Diego 66.8 71.2 10.3 5.1 36.2 41.6
Washington 65.6 65.8 26.5 9.8 0.7 37.4

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 FEMALES

City Any of Five Multiple Drugs Cocaine Heroin Methampheta Marijuana

Drugs a c mine
Albany, NY 60.9 65.2 34.8 4.3 0.0 34.8
Chicago 61.1 66.7 33.3 22.2 0.0 38.9
Denver 69.1 24.9 52.5 6.1 5.0 34.3
Honolulu 74.5 27.7 8.5 6.4 57.4 29.8
Los Angeles 59.3 63.0 25.9 2.1 18.5 36.7
New York 67.7 72.7 35.7 15.0 0.0 43.1
New Orleans 58.8 17.8 37.3 13.3 0.8 30.3
Phoenix 74.6 78.5 16.8 6.1 41.6 31.6
San Diego 69.1 72.6 15.2 8.7 47.1 29.1
Washington 61.1 66.7 30.9 10.3 0.0 29.1
Source: Adapted from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program.
a. The five drugs are cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, opiates, and phencyclidine (PCP).
b. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Philadelphia did not sample female arrestees; Albany, Denver,
Honolulu, and New Orleans were substituted.
c. Multiple drugs are any of nine drugs that include the basic five plus barbiturates, methadone,
benzodiazepines, and propoxyphene. 28
 Mental Disorders and Crime

 Mental disorders: Clinically significant conditions

characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or
behavior associated with personal distress and/or
impaired functioning.
 Schizophrenia: The most widespread of the
psychotic disorders.
 Schizophrenia comes in a variety of subtypes.
 Catatonic: Rigid and unresponsive
 Paranoid: Hostile and distrusting

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 Mental Disorders and Crime

 Heberphrenic: Frenetic and wild

 Reactive: Usually marked by the onset of an acutely
stressful experience.
 Bipolar disorder: A disorder in which individuals
alternate between the poles of extreme elation or
euphoria and deep depression.
The prevalence of bipolar disorder in the general
population is about 1.6%.

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Causality: The Diathesis/Stress Model
 The genetic basis of schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder is well-established although
how strong the genetic effect is relative to
non-genetic effects remains an open
question.
 Both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are
primarily disorders of brain chemistry.

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 Causality: The Diathesis/Stress Model

 Diathesis/stress model: A biosocial model that

maintains that although mental illnesses reflect an
underlying genetic vulnerability, they are often the
products of multiple other factors interacting with this
vulnerability.
 People with mental disorders are disproportionately
from the lower socioeconomic classes of society and
from urban as opposed to rural areas.

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 The Link Between Mental Illness and Crime
 The majority of the mentally ill are nonviolent, and
because of their vulnerability, they are more likely to
be victims of violence than perpetrators.
 The mentally ill most at risk for committing violent
acts are the homeless, those who use alcohol and
other drugs, and those who do not take their
antipsychotic medications.

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The Link Between Mental Illness and Crime

 Although the mentally

disordered are at greater risk
for committing crimes,
especially violent crimes,
than the average person, they
are few in number, and thus
their crimes constitute only a
very small proportion of all
crimes committed.

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