Online Custom «Drug Use and Social Justice» Essay Sample

Any paper should be based on the evidence presented by a credible source. In order to indicate whether the source could be employed in research, it is vital to read the work through and try to understand what the author wanted to state, as well as see whether the presented evidence is ample to prove the hypothesis of the researcher. The final paper required for the course will analyze the standpoints of five researchers regarding the burning issues of today’s U.S. society in the field of drug use and social justice. The paper will concentrate on the analysis of the reasons why drug abuse has grown to one of the significant problems American society faces nowadays, and why the rate of drug-related crimes is on the rise.

The burning topic suggested by N. Mocan (1998) in his article “An Economic Analysis of Drug Use and Crime” will be an important part of the final paper. In the article, Mocan tries to get a deeper insight into the issue of how the rates of criminal activity are connected with the use of drugs in relation to an economical aspect. The conducted research has drawn the author to the conclusion that the crime rates and drug abuse habits are interconnected. Although crime is not regarded as unacceptable in its economic model, it still suggests that the criminal activity is the reaction of an individual towards economic factors. The study at hand proves that the major reason for people to use drugs is the economic triangle, “drug prices, drug consumption and drug profits” (Mocan, 1998, par. 2). Thus, it has significantly influenced the drug use issue in the USA. The author states that worsening of the situation induced the increase in a crime rate, which presupposes the increase in the number of criminals caught and sent to jail. The efficiency of such measures decreases when jails become overcrowded and the criminals who committed drug-induced crimes without employing violence get released. In such a way, the released further commit the non-violent crimes because the amount of punishment exerted on them will be not enough. If such a tendency continues to exist, the rates of crime will also be increasing gradually.

The second topic to be addressed in the final paper is discussed by Harrell and Roman (2001) in the article “Reducing Drug Use and Crime Among Offenders: The Impact of Graduated Sanctions.” The focus of the study was to investigate the influence that the judicial monitoring may have on drug addicts that had been exposed to sentencing rather than to undergoing rehabilitation. According to the authors, the rate at which addicts quit the habit of drug use appeared to be higher than the rate of those who were exposed to a rehabilitation program. The difference is in the fact that those who were sentenced to jail tended to become unwilling to return to a place where they had been kept involuntarily unlike drug addicts undergoing the rehabilitation program. Thus, the authors made an assumption that the stricter punishment applied to the criminals who committed drug-related offenses would positively influence the crime recurrences. Taking into account a fact that the point of view presented in this article differs from the standpoint of the previous writer, it will be utilized as a vital source for the final paper. The value of the source is in the fact that it not only offers additional solution for the elimination of the drug habit in today’s society, but also manifests the existence of several various standpoints regarding the resolution of the issue at hand.

“Psychiatric Services: Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Substance Abuse Treatment: The Role of Criminal History and Socioeconomic Status” by Lê Cook and Alegría (2011) will be the third source used for the final paper. The focus of the article is the uneven treatment of drug addicts from various ethnic backgrounds. Furthermore, the article discusses the statistics, which shows that the majority of those undergoing drug treatment are the offenders. If a person commits a crime, he or she will be exposed to mandatory drug treatment. Such action means that the government is able to impose a legal power to make addicts quit the habit. Thus, if the addict agrees to quit the receipt of drugs, he or she will either get released on condition that they will be supervised by the authorities or drop the charges, so that a criminal will have a chance to get employed in the future (Lê Cook & Alegría, 2011, par. 9). However, such a strategy has a flaw because many people who exercise the drug intake but are willing to quit the habit are left alone without a possibility to undergo the treatment. Therefore, the crime rate among such group of people keeps rising. The aspect discussed by the authors is vital for the final paper and cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the research conducted by Lê Cook and Alegría proves its credibility by means of ample evidence presented in the work.

The other topic to be discussed in the final paper is based on the research “Suicide & Life - Threatening Behavior: Demographic, Criminal, and Psychiatric Factors Related to Inmate Suicide” conducted by Blaauw, Kerkhof, & Hayes (2005). The authors mentioned nineteen studies, which focused on the signals coming from the prisoners who were prone to committing suicide due to a number of reasons: poor mental well-being, age, previous convictions, offences, use of drugs, homelessness, etc. The analysis of the following factors as well as studying a number of prisoners allowed the authors to conclude that the specimen with negative background tended to show the signs of suicide inclination. Such a tool, i.e. the awareness of prison staff of the signs suicidal prisoners manifest would prove good for preventing the latter from suicide. However, the prison system lacks the specialists who would watch, examine, and diagnose the disposition to suicide.