Toward a Drugs and Crime Research Agenda for the 21st Century

For criminal justice practitioners who deal with drugs and crime day in and day out, the reality of the drugs-crime nexus is indisputable. In a manual designed to help police chiefs and sheriffs control drug abuse, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) stated unequivocal- ly its belief in "a significant though com- plex" relationship between drug abusers and criminal offenders. Change one group, IACP proposed, and you change the other: "If there is a reduction in the number of people who abuse drugs in your communi- ty, there will be a reduction in the commis- sion of certain types of crime in your community."