Drug-Crime Nexus Explored: A Study on the Youths of Selected Urban Areas in Munshiganj District, Bangladesh

Abstract

The literatures on the ‘drug abuse–crime’ connection reveal that there is a causal relationship between abusing drugs and involvement in criminal activities. The findings of this study affirmed that relationships exist between drug abuse and involvement in criminal offences indeed vis-à-vis studying a selected sample of one hundred and eighty two drug addicted youths in Munshiganj district, Bangladesh. This study found that a significant number of respondents (73.54%) addicted by the influence of peer groups while a considerable number of addicts (37.87%) took drugs because of broken family or family conflicts. This study also reveals that a significant number of the drug addicts have experience of committing property crimes while more than half the addicts are involved in personal crimes. In addition, it shows that specific types of crimes are related to the particular content of drugs. The findings of the study have been explained through sociological, psychological and biological theories.

Keywords: Drug abuse, Crime, Bangladesh, Sub culture.