U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Relationship Between Substance Abuse and Crime in Idaho

NCJ Number
235671
Date Published
December 2010
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report from the Idaho State Police Statistical Analysis Center explores trends in substance abuse in Idaho and examines the relationship between substance abuse and crime.
Abstract
Highlights from this report include: 1) in 2009, 16.3 percent of State residents were classified as cigarette smokers, a decrease from 2000; and those with less than a high school education were five times more likely to smoke than college graduates; 2) between 1998 and 2008, the percent of 12th graders who had ever tried tobacco decreased from 42 percent to 36 percent; 3) in 2009, 13 percent of State residents reported engaging in binge drinking in the past 30 days, 4) students between 9th and 12th grade reported higher rates of binge drinking ( 22 percent) than adults (13 percent); and 5) 35 percent of residents over the age of 18 reported both binge drinking and smoking, while 23 percent reported heavy drinking and illegal drug use. This study from the Idaho State Police Statistical Analysis Center explores the trends in substance abuse among State residents and examined the relationship between substance abuse and crime. Data for the report were obtained from various surveys conducted across the State. The information in the report is presented in four sections. The first section examines current research regarding the reasons for drug addiction and the relationship between drugs and crime, while the second section examines substance abuse trends within the State's population. The third section presents an analysis of data from the State's criminal justice system detailing information on adult and juvenile arrests, incarceration, drug courts, traffic crashes, numbers involved in treatment, and mortality. The final section examines implications for the State regarding the study's findings. Tables, figures, and references