Crime & Drugs



Crime & Drugs Lecture Note Outline

Lecture & Group Discussion Points:

Street Crime –Crime Rate vs. Public perception of crime, types of street crimes (D&B ch 8); “

White Collar Crime --Definition & costs to society vs. Street crime ((D&B ch. 8)

Drug Crime –Drug Arrest totals trends, vs. other types of crime, & largest type of drug arrests are for marijuana possession,– War on drugs is largely war on marijuana… (D&B ch. 8).

How are drugs categorized as dangerous by govt --(Schedules 1-5)- health effects role? Realistic assessment?

Alcohol and Tobacco annual deaths, legal drugs, compared to annual deaths from all illegal drugs combined (Benavie rdg. 29 in C&V)

Extreme racial inequalities in marijuana arrests despite nearly equal mj. use rates among major races. (lecture only)

Example of new approach—Colorado and Washington state recently legalize marijuana possession, conflict with federal policy… Also, DC & MD recently decriminalize possession of small amount of marijuana (lecture only)

US prison Population growth since 1980, & role of increasing drug enforcement (D&B, ch. 8) {see also “prison industrial complex” as part of this growth]

Extreme Race and Ethnic inequality of US drug prisoner population vs. Drug use rates. [Lecture only]

War on Drugs as a losing battle, but lots more imprisonment – user punishment not deter use, profits are too high, & street-level dealers easily replaced / hydra effect , drug prison sentences long compared to other (even violent) crimes; demand for drugs key to drug problem (Benavie rdg. 29 in C&V, D&B ch. 8).

Baltimore drug policy changes – treat demand side of problem with increased access to drug treatment, cost & crime advantages of treatment over imprisonment for users. Cost of imprisonment compared to drug treatment-- & results of treatment $ (Shenk web rdg.).[Also, case study at end of D&B ch. 8 also talks about drug and alcohol treatment programs key for ex-offenders staying out of jail.]

White-Collar Crime Video--Scenes from movie “Inside Job” (on Wall Street role in 2008 Economic Crisis)

• Govt. Deregulation of banking industry 1980s’ onward, esp. 1990s onward. Less gov.t oversight of banking and wall Street finance markets, created more opportunity for fraud and other white-collar crime. Many examples of this 1990s onward.

• Deregulation also led to increased size of banks and lots of risk-taking with little oversight, which along with fraud & other misconduct, led to 2008 massive financial crisis, failure of several large banks and US govt. having to “bail-out” the rest to protect US and world economy from collapse, banks were “too big to fail.”

• Much of misconduct & crime was fraud in home loan/mortgage industry, with new models of making loans to homeowners and then selling bundles of mortgage loans to investors. Many unsafe loans made and hidden from investors [and many big banks have since had to pay fines for such fraud, noted in Schoenberg et al. web rdg.]

Impact of increasing border enforcement on illegal / unauthorized Mexican immigration; & Impact of Latino immigrants on US city crime rates (Massey & Sampson web rdg)

White-Collar crime very expensive to society, but little prosecuted, few penalties. (D&B ch. 8)

Examples -Bank money laundering for drug cartels, & lack of much penalty for banks, too big to jail… vs. harsh penalties for small-time drug offenders (Smith et al. web rdg.),

Fraud-ing of investors at Goldman Sachs, etc (accounting fraud at Lehman Bros. bank) key part of economic recession (Schoenberg et al. Web rdg.)

“Code of the Streets” Centered on respect, & roots of code, “Decent” families vs. “Street” families. How did “code” emerge, what social conditions in neighborhoods? (Anderson rdg. 28 in Ch & Vig)

NYC “Stop & Frisk” policy (& brief video clip) --extreme racial & ethnic inequality who is stopped and searched, but white more likely to be guilty when searched … (Goldstein & Lowery web rdg.) & Looked in-depth at more of data form policy

Social Structural Causes or crime, not just bad choices by individuals – lack of legitimate opportunities, poverty, unemployment, low levels of education, fragile families, etc. (D&B ch. 8)

& How to reduce crime and prison populations-- Youth programs, social services, more legitimate opportunities, job training, drug rehab. for ex-offenders, etc. (D&B ch. 8)

Not covered but should know

Historical roots of drug illegality and relationship to racial prejudice. (Benavie rdg. 29 in C&V)

Also, see Group Discussion Q’s for list of key topics in readings (many addressed in class)

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