Crime and Drug Use - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages It is, in other words, an integral part of prisoner rehabilitation programmes which target the possibilities of recidivism by addressing their root causes, in this case, drugs.
While not claiming that drugs are responsible for the entirety of the recidivism rate which the UK currently suffers, it is one of its more important causes (Burnett, 2004). Drug rehabilitation programmes for offenders has the potential to significantly reduce recidivism rates and, thus, to reduce the nation's overall crime rate (Burnett, 2004). Indeed, Burnett (2004), a criminologist and offender management expert and researcher, argues that the Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) and the Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) which evolved from it, derive from the empirically-proven link between drugs and crime and are motivated by the imperatives of reducing the nation's crime rates by confronting one of the primary causes of recidivism. This research, however, will not proceed from a premise of unquestioning acceptance of the correlation between addiction and crime, hence treatment and reduction in recidivism rates. Instead, the research will critically analyse attempts to divert drug users out of the prison system and reduce recidivism rates through their inclusion in drug treatment programmes, with particular reference to DTTO and DRR. The study will first begin with the identification and definition of its key terms, following from which it will discuss the relationship between drugs and crime, review causal models of the drug-crime relationship and then examine the extent to which DTTO and DRR have emerged as solutions, at least partial, to the problem under investigation.
2 Overview of Key Terms
The research employs four key-terms. This section of the study will briefly resent and define each one of them.
2.1 DTTO
Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, a type of community sentence, were introduced within the framework of the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 (Hough et al., 2003, p. 1). As Hough et al (2003) explain, DTTOs "were designed as a response to the growing evidence of links between problem drug use and acquisitive offending." As such, they are a sentencing scheme which is designed to rehabilitate heavy drug users and, in so doing, facilitate their reintegration into society and limit the potential for their re-offending.
2.2 DRR
According to a Home Office (2005) publication on drug rehabilitation programmes Drug Rehabilitation Requirement entered into force in April 2005 as a replacement for DTTOs. The Home Office (2005, para 3) defines DRR as "the main delivery route for drug interventions within community sentences for adult offenders. It involves treatment (either in the community or in a residential setting) and regular drug testing."
2.3 Therapeutic Community
Therapeutic Community Programmes were the first drug rehabilitati ...Download file to see next pagesRead More