Criminality in a sample of drug abusers in Greece.

Criminality as expressed by self-reported arrests and convictions was studied in a sample of 294 drug--mainly heroin--abusing subjects, 77.6% of whom had been arrested and 57.1% convicted. The majority had more than one arrest or conviction for a variety of crimes. Arrests and convictions for other than drug offences outnumbered the drug offences. Only a minority of the subjects were responsible for the majority of criminal acts. In half of the subjects, involvement in criminality predated initiation to heroin use. Gender, polydrug use, unemployment, low education level--not injecting heroin as main mode of use--were found to be among the main factors significantly predicting criminality.