CRIMINOLOGY TODAY

CRIMINOLOGY TODAY Chapters 13 & 15

Chapter 13: Public Order and Drug Crimes • History of Drug Abuse in the U.S. • The rampant and widespread use and abuse of mind – and mood-altering drugs, so commonplace in the U.S. today, is of relatively recent origin. • Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, the use of illegal drugs in America was mostly associated with artistic individuals and fringe groups. • Psychoactive substance – a substance that affects the mind, mental processes, or emotions. These substances gained widespread use during the hippie movement, a period of newfound freedoms embraced by a large number of American youths during the late 1960s and early 1970s. • With the advent of the hippie era, marijuana, LSD, hashhish, psilocybin, and peyote burst upon the national scene as an ever-growing number of individuals began to view drugs as recreational substances and as more and more young people identified with the tenor of the period.

Extent of Abuse • National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) – a national survey of illicit drug use among people 12 years of age and older that is conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. • 2006 – 20.4 million Americans – current users of illicit drugs – • Marijuana – most common – 73% reporting use • Cocaine – 2.4 million users • Highest rate of users are age 18 to 25 • Education – more education less likely drug use • Employment – 18.5% of unemployed, 8.8% of employed were drug users

Illegal Drugs • In 2000 Americans spent $64.8 billion to purchase illegal drugs • Dangerous drugs – a term used by the DEA to refer to “broad categories or classes of controlled substances other than cocaine, opiates, and cannabis products.” Amphetamines, methamphetamines, PCP (phencyclidine), LSD, methcathinone, and “designer drugs” are all considered to be dangerous drugs.

Stimulants • Stimulants include cocaine and crack cocaine, amphetamines like Dexedrine and Benzedrine, and methamphetamine. • Cocaine, the use of which has spread rapidly through American population centers, is available in powdered form or as small “rocks” of crack. Crack cocaine, which is much less expensive than powdered cocaine, is made by mixing cocaine powder with water and baking soda or ammonia. It is usually smoked in a “crack pipe” and is named for the fact that it makes crackling sound when burned.

Stimulants, con’t. • Cocaine sells in Columbia for $1,350 to $3,900 per pound and in the United States for $6,600 to $11,350 per pound (80% pure) at the wholesale level. • Methamphetamine – street names for the drug include “speed”, “meth” and “crank”. • Meth is used in pill form or in powdered form for snorting or injecting. Crystallized meth known as “ice”, “crystal” or “glass” is a smokable and still more powerful form of the drug.

Cannabis • Marijuana, hashish, cannabis plants, sinsemilla, and hashish oil. • Marijuana is a relatively mild, nonaddictive drug with limited hallucinogenic properties. • Time distortion, increased sex drive, enhanced appetite, uncontrollable giddiness, and short-term memory loss tend to accompany its use. • Pot, grass and weed. • Amount spent on illegal marijuana in the U.S. is $10.4 billion annually.

Drugs • Inhalants – gateway drugs – substances that initiate young people into illicit drug use. 22.9 million Americans have used. • Pharmaceutical diversion – the process by which legitimately manufactured controlled substances are diverted for illicit use. • Designer drugs – new substances designed by slightly altering the chemical makeup of other illegal or tightly controlled drugs. • Drug Trafficking – manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, importing, and exporting (or possession with intent to do the same) a controlled substance or a counterfeit substance.

Drugs & Crime • Drug – defined crime – a violation of the laws prohibiting or regulating the possession, use, or distribution of illegal drugs. • Drug – related crime – a crime in which drugs contribute to the offense (excluding violations of drug laws). • Relationship of drugs to crime: • Drug users report greater involvement in crime and are more likely than nonusers to have criminal records. • People with criminal records are much more likely than others to report being drug users. • Crimes rise in number as drug use increases.

Social Policy & Drug Abuse • Prior to 1907, any and all drugs could be bought and sold in the U.S. without restriction. • The era of patent medicines came to an end with enactment of the federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Although the law required disclosure of the chemical composition of marketed substances, it did not outlaw them. • The Harrison Act, passed by Congress in 1914, was the first major piece of federal anti-drug legislation.

Social Policy, cont’ • In 1919, 18th Amend to U.S. Constitution – Volsted Act – Prohibition of intoxicating liquors • In 1933 Congress passed and states ratified the 21st Amend – repealed Prohibition. • 1937 – passage of Marijuana Tax Act effectively outlawed marijuana. • 1956 Narcotic Control Act – increased penalties for drug traffickers and made the sale of heroin to anyone under age 18 a capital offense. • The most comprehensive federal legislation to address controlled substances to date is the 1970 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

Drug Courts Theory vs. Reality p. 553 • Drug courts which are generally used for nonviolent drug offenders, seek to identify eligible participants early in case processing. They offer an alternative to incarceration, which has not been effective in breaking the cycle of drugs and crime. • Drug court programs, which may divert offenders from further handling by other official agencies, feature supervised treatment and periodic drug testing. Their purpose is to use the authority of the court to reduce crime by changing defendants’ drug-using behavior. Defendants are typically diverted to drug court programs in exchange for the possibility of dismissed charges or reduced sentences.

Drug-Control Strategies • Anti-drug legislation and strict enforcement • Interdiction • Crop control • Forfeiture • Anti-drug education and drug treatment

Drug-Control Strategies • Interdiction – an international drug control policy that aims to stop drugs from entering the country illegally. • Forfeiture or asset forfeiture is another strategy – legal procedure that authorizes judicial representatives to seize all moneys, negotiable instruments, securities, or other things of value furnished or intended to be furnished by any person in exchange for controlled substance – • Sometimes abused by law enforcement • US Supreme Ct. – requires notice to owners of pending seizures – opportunity to respond • Also, Ct. said seizures of property value can not exceed certain amount related to fine.

DARE • D.A.R.E. – Drug Abuse Resistance Education – uses uniformed police officers and other experts to explain issues of drug abuse to school-aged children and attempts to build resistance to what might otherwise be perceived by youths as attractive drug-related activities. DARE focuses on developing competent decision making skills, combating negative forms of peer pressure, and providing meaningful alternatives to drug use. • A number of recent studies have questioned the effectiveness of DARE type interventions, finding after repeated evaluations – that their effects on drug use, except for tobacco use, are nonsignificant.

States List Meth Offenders on Web • Page 557 – What do you think?

Policy Consequences • Federal government drug control budget – in 2008 - $12.961 billion • Figure 13-7 at top of page 560 • Our courts, like all of government and commerce, are institutions of limited resources. To the extent that court resources must be diverted to deal with the enormous influx of drug prosecutions, these resources are not available to resolve civil matters… In some jurisdictions, drug cases account for as much as 2/3 of the criminal case filings. • Strict enforcement has combined with a lock-’em up philosophy to produce astonishingly high rates of imprisonment for drug offenders. The proportion of federal prisoners who are sentenced drug offenders rose from 38% in 1986 to 53% in 1990 and according to the Bureau of Prisons, is 55% today.

Alternative Drug Policies • Decriminalization – the redefinition of certain previously criminal behaviors into regulated activities that become “ticketable” rather than “arrestable.” • Legalization – elimination of the laws and criminal penalties associated with certain behaviors – usually the production, sale, distribution, and possession of a controlled substance.

Prostitution • The offering of one’s self for hire for the purpose of engaging in sexual relations, or the act or practice of engaging in sexual activity for money or its equivalent. • Except for Nevada, prostitution is a criminal act throughout the U.S. – generally classified as a misdemeanor. • In U.S. over 92,000 men, women and juveniles are arrested yearly for prostitution. • Legalized prostitution common in other countries, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands and Germany. Subject to public health controls and well as age and other restrictions.

Question this chapter asks. • The fundamental question underlying morals offenses like prostitution and drug use is whether and to what extent the criminal law should reflect and enforce the morality of the society it represents.

Chapter 15: Globalization and Terrorism • Globalization is defined as a process of social homogenization by which the experiences of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, can foster a standardization of cultural expressions around the world. • Transnational organized crime refers to unlawful activity undertaken and supported by organized criminal groups operating across national boundaries.

Human Smuggling and Trafficking • Human Smuggling – the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person(s) across an international border, in violation of one or more country’s laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents – it refers illegal immigration in which an agent is involved for payment to help a person cross a border clandestinely. • The State Department notes that the vast majority of people who are assisted in illegally entering the U.S. annually are smuggled, rather than trafficked.

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) • Can be compared to modern day slavery • Trafficking involves the exploitation of unwilling or unwitting people through force, coercion, threat, or deception, and includes human rights abuses such as debt bondage, deprivation of liberty, or lack of control over freedom and labor. • Trafficking is often undertaken for purposes of sexual exploitation or labor exploitation. • Each year 17,500 to 18,500 are trafficked into the U.S. • Extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunity, civil unrest, and political uncertainty are all factors that contribute to social environments in which smuggling and trafficking in persons occurs.

Federal Immigration and Trafficking Legislation • Open national borders until 1880s • Chinese Exclusion Act, became law in 1882 and was enforced 10 years later. This act sought to end a huge influx of mostly male workers coming from China. • 1924 Immigration Act – 1st comprehensive act – limited the number of immigrants who cold be admitted from any one country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living here. • 1952 the INA established the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). • 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) addressed the significant problem of trafficking of persons for the purpose of committing commercial sex acts, or for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. • Sex trafficking – the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.

Comparative Criminology • The cross-national study of crime. By comparing crime patterns in one country with those in another, theories and policies that have been taken for granted in one place can be reevaluated in the light of world experience. • Comparative criminologist – a criminologist involved in the cross-national study of crime.

Ethnocentrism • The phenomenon of “culture-centeredness” by which one uses one’s own culture as a benchmark against which to judge all other patterns of behavior. • People tend to think that their religion holds a spiritual edge over other religions, that their values and ethical sense are superior to those of others, and that the fashions they wear, the language they speak, and the rituals of daily life in which they participate are somehow better than comparable practices elsewhere.

Issues in Reporting • Definitional differences create what may be the biggest problem. For cross-national comparisons of crime data to be meaningful, it is essential that the reported data share conceptual similarities. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. • Economic differences among countries compound these difficulties. Auto theft statistics, for example, when compared between countries like the U.S. and China, need to be placed in an economic as well as demographic context. While the U.S. has two automobiles for every 3 people, China has only one car for every 100 of its citizens. For the Chinese auto theft rate to equal that of the U.S., every automobile in the country would have to be stolen nearly twice each year! • U.S. violent crime rates seem high when compared with violent crime rates of other developed countries. American crime rates, however, are far from being the highest in the world. (Figure 15-1 on page 627) • Murder rates in Colombia and South Africa, for example, are more than 12 times that of the U.S. Russia has a murder rate that is almost four times the U.S. rate, and homicide rates in Mexico are more than three times as great as those in the U.S.

Terrorism • Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience. • Terrorist acts are inherently criminal because they violate the criminal law; because they involve criminal activity, such as hijacking, kidnapping, and arson; and because they produce criminal results, such as homicide and property destruction. • The primary distinction between violent criminal acts and acts of terrorism, however, has to do with the political motivation or social ideology of the offender.

Terroroism • 6 types of terrorism • Nationalist terrorism • Religious terrorism • State-sponsored terrorism • Left-wing terrorism • Right-wing terrorism • Anarchist terrorism

Terrorism • Domestic terrorism – the unlawful use of force or violence by a group or an individual who is based and operates entirely within the U.S. and its territories without foreign direction and whose acts are directed at elements of the U.S. government or population. • International terrorism – the unlawful use of force or violence by a group or an individual who has a connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national boundaries against people or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Terrorism • Approximately 39,000 individuals worldwide were either killed or injured by terrorist attacks in 2006. Well over 50% of those victimized by terrorism were Muslims. Most were victims of attacks in Iraq, and approximately 70% of those killed or injured were civilians. • The making of a suicide bomber – page 632 – you be the judge

Cyberterrorism • A form of terrorism that makes use of high technology, especially computer technology and the Internet, in the planning and carrying out of terrorist attacks. • Infrastructure – the basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society, such as transportation and communications systems, water and power lines, and public institutions, including schools, post offices, and prisons. • Our economy and national security are fully dependent upon information technology and the information infrastructure. • U.S. government is building a whole new Internet of it own dubbed “GovNet” the service is planned to be a private voice and data network based on the Internet Protocol (IP), but with no connectivity with commercial or public networks.

The War of Terrorism • USA PATRIOT Act p. 638 • The Department of Homeland Security • 9/11 Commission report p. 642 • Foreign terrorist organization (FTO) a foreign organization that engages in terrorist activity that threatens the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the U.S. and that is so designated by the U.S. secretary of state. • Consequences of designation at FTO – p. 644 • State sponsors of terrorism – Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Iran is most active sponsor of terrorism today. • Future – individual terrorism – bottom of page 646 – will require another policy change to deal with.

Next Week • Turn in Term Paper. • Final test covering chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15. • Leave your e-mail address with instructor to have your test grade and final grade e-mailed to you.

CRIMINOLOGY TODAY