Youth, Crime and Media MEP208

1. Youth, Crime and MediaMEP208 8. Drugs, gangs, deviance and labelling theory

2. Questions to consider • Is there a causal relationship between youth, crime and drug use? • How do age and gender characteristics affect trends in criminal/drug offences? • How is a ‘drug user’ defined by other drug users (as belonging) and by non-drug users (as deviant)? • Is there a typical drug offender?

3. Youth and drugs are linked • Rare in early teens, increases sharply in mid teens, peaks in late teens or early twenties (ISDD 1994) • Cannabis most popular – amphetamines, ecstasy and polydrug use has increased (Parker et al. 1998) • Some stabilising of drug use but increased cocaine use since mid-90s (Ramsey 2001) • Focus on vulnerable groups (Collison 1994)

4. Gender, drugs & other offences • Peak offending for MALES – 14 for property offences, 16 for violent offences, 17 for serious offences and 20 for drug offences (Graham and Bowling 1995) • Peak offending for FEMALES – 15 for property and serious offences, 16 for violent offences, 17 for drug offences (ibid) • Male drug offenders persist into 20s, 30s…

5. But does drug use cause youth crime? (Muncie 2004) • Most drug use is ‘recreational’ and relatively controlled • Most of those who commit crime to buy drugs were criminals before drug-taking • Less than 5% finance their drug use through crime • Police crackdowns fail to reduce drug availability or levels of criminal activity

6. Becoming a drug user (Becker 1953) • 50 interviews with marijuana users • Focus away from psychological or pathological to social pleasures • Pleasure only came after a “learning process” – newcomers need to be taught how to appreciate a ‘high’ from experienced members of the gang

7. Labels and careers • Jazz musicians as deviant – marijuana users, creative types, etc. • Synonyms for marijuana “change as soon as musicians feel that they have gained currency among outsiders” (Becker 1997) • Musicians label outsiders as ‘square’ • To be called ‘hip’ requires experience and understanding – a career attitude

8. Three types of youth drug takers (Young 1971) • CONFORMIST – future productive roles: alcohol, tobacco – “these drugs come to symbolise for conformist youth the achievement of adult status” (p.144) • DELINQUENT – minority group – no future productive career roles: much illegal drug use but not readily available • BOHEMIAN – associated with hippies…

9. Bohemian youth (Young 1971) • They choose to disassociate with the conformist work ethic • Drug use is available and sought after • Middle class, well-educated • “Society reacts, then, not to the use of drugs but to the type of people who use drugs” (p. 149).