Alcohol, Drugs, and Violence

While some researchers suggest that the assumption that substance use causes crime is overly simplistic, others report correlations that indicate that alcohol is much more strongly linked to crimes of violence than any other drug. Brunelle et al. (2000) state that their juvenile respondents did not report that drugs caused their violence and write that “…this explanation has been increasingly argued to be inadequate, simplistic, and incomplete” (p. 843). In a study conducted for Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, (Pernanen et al. 2002) reported much more crimes of violence occurred while consuming alcohol than any other substance. Farabee et al. (2001) found predatory offenders are more likely to be dependent on alcohol only rather than illicit drugs. They also report that, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (1998), “violent crime… is more closely associated with the use of alcohol than with the use of illicit drugs” (p. 215).

Even when the research shows that the substance with the strongest link to violent crime is alcohol, we are not at a point of being able to attribute causality of aggression to alcohol. Fagan (1990), when exploring the role of substance use in aggression concluded:

Research on the nexus between substance use and aggression consistently has found a complex relation, mediated by the type of substance and its psychoactive effects, personality factors and the expected effects of substances, situational factors in the immediate settings where the substances are used, and the socioeconomic factors that channel the arousal effects of substances into behaviors that may include aggression (p. 241).

While alcohol’s psychoactive effects may have a link to aggression for some people, it does not for all people. It seems reasonable to assume that if the act of ingesting alcohol led to violent behavior in all humans, it would be a highly controlled and criminalized substance. Therefore, Fagan’s (1990) research suggests that the link between alcohol and violence results from a combination of alcohol’s effects (such as lowering inhibitions) with the personality, beliefs, and learned behavioral patterns of the individual and with the immediate situation. It appears, ironically, that the main links to violence are with the use of alcohol and the operation of the illegal drug trade. From this perspective, Canadian drug policy may be contributing to outcomes that are quite different than intended (see the discussion under “Patterns of Crime in the Illegal Drug Market” below).

Patterns of Substance Use to Facilitate the Commission of Crime

Another factor in the link between substance use and crime may be that psychoactive substances are sometimes used to assist an offender in committing a crime by way of reducing anxiety or blocking feelings of guilt. Brunelle et al. (2000) determined that the link of drug use to crime that was most often reported was intentionally using a substance either before carrying out an offence to reduce anxiety and/or increase courage, or using after committing a crime to avoid feeling guilt or fear of consequences. Those who engage in both property and violent crimes reported this behavior. Pernanen et al. (2002) ended their research report on proportions of crimes associated with alcohol and drugs in inmates and arrestees by stating that the occurrence of planned use of intoxicants as a tool to assist in carrying out criminal behavior “implies serious conceptual problems for the assignment of a causal role to a substance” (p. 115).

Patterns of Common Etiologies

Perhaps the most compelling explanation for the strong statistical coincidence of drugs, alcohol and crime is that both substance abuse and crime stem from similar underlying causes. This concurs with the belief that addictions and criminal lifestyles are behavioral manifestations of more deep-rooted problems in the individual and/or society in general.