Controlling Drugs and Crime: Public Opinion and Perception.

• In Event: Emerging Areas for Substance Use/Misuse Research

Abstract

In the past few years in the United States there has been a shift toward reform in crime control. A recent review of the research has identified a shift in public opinion toward treatment, prevention and support for people with criminal convictions. Moreover, there has been a change in direction toward the liberalization of the prohibition regime around cannabis. This is the first such movement in over 40 years since the beginning of the ‘war on drugs’. The aim of this research is to explore the connections in the public mind between drug use and criminality and more importantly whether the perception of the ‘addict’ has experienced a shift. This is important because the way in which the ‘addict’ is understood underlies both the process of naming a social problem and how we respond to that problem. We analyzed these issues using a sample of college aged young people at the College at Brockport, New York.

Authors

• Eric Mikols, The College at Brockport, State University of New York

• Ingrid McGuffog, The College at Brockport, State University of New York