Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T03:29:35.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heroin Misuse and Delinquency in a New Town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Joy Mott  and
N. H. Rathod
Joy Mott
Affiliation:
Home Office Research Unit, Romney House, Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DY
N. H. Rathod
Affiliation:
St. Christopher's Day Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The subjects of this study were eighty misusers of heroin who lived in the New Town of Crawley, West Sussex. The relationship between their criminal histories and their histories of drug misuse were examined. It was found that more of the heroin misusers than would be expected had been convicted of criminal offences before they began to misuse drugs, while the reduction or cessation of heroin use during a four-year follow-up period was accompanied by a reduction in convictions. Some social characteristics of the male heroin misusers were compared with those of two other Crawley groups—a group of juvenile offenders who did not misuse heroin and their control group of non-delinquents. Characteristics commonly associated with maladjustment did not distinguish the heroin misusers from the juvenile offenders, nor were they found to be associated with the continued use of heroin. Analysis of the data in epidemiological terms suggested that among the necessary conditions for an outbreak of drug misuse in a particular community the availability of drugs together with socializing drug users were more important than the presence of predisposed individuals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 128 , Issue 5 , May 1976 , pp. 428 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bejerot, N. (1972) Addiction—An Artificially Induced Drive. Springfield: Thomas.Google Scholar
de Alarcon, R. & Rathod, N. H. (1968) Prevalence and early detection of heroin abuse. British Medical Journal, ii, 549–53.Google Scholar
de Alarcón, R., (1969) The spread of heroin abuse in a community. Bulletin on Narcotics, 21, 17–22.Google Scholar
de Alarcón, R., (1971) Milroy Lectures. Royal College of Physicians, London.Google Scholar
de Alarcón, R., (1973) Lessons from the recent British drug outbreak. Proceedings of the Anglo-American Conference on Drug Abuse. Royal Society of Medicine.Google Scholar
d'Orbán, P. (1970) Heroin dependence and delinquency in women. British Journal of Addiction, 65, 67–78.Google Scholar
d'Orbán, P. (1974) A follow-up study of female narcotic addicts. Variables related to outcome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 28–33.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. W. B., Ross, J. M., Hammond, W. H. & Tizard, J. (1966) Delinquency and social class. British Journal of Criminology, 6, 294–302.Google Scholar
Gordon, A. L. (1973) Patterns of delinquency in drug addiction. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 205–10.Google Scholar
James, I. P. (1969) Delinquency and heroin addiction in Britain. British Journal of Criminology, 9, 108.Google Scholar
Mott, J. (1973) The criminal histories of male opiate users. Read at a conference of the Forensic Psychiatry Section, Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Mott, J. & Macmillan, J. (1973) Sex differences in the number of opiate addicts known to the Home Office 1958–1972. Research Bulletin on Women Offenders. Home Office Research Unit, No. 16, 1–4.Google Scholar
Mott, J. & Taylor, M. (1974) Delinquency Among Opiate Users. Home Office Research Studies No. 23, H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Rathod, N. H. (1972) The use of heroin and methadone by injection in a New Town. British Journal of Addiction, 67, 113–22.Google Scholar
Rathod, N. H. (1975) Follow-up of narcotic injectors in a New Town. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, M. E. J. (1975) Delinquency in a national sample of children. British Journal of Criminology, 15, 167–74.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.