Drug use and street crime in Miami: an (almost) twenty-year retrospective.

Researchers at the University of Delaware have been conducting field studies of drug use and crime in Miami, Florida, since 1977. This paper reviews this research and its contributions to understanding drugs-crime relationships. Early studies tested mechanisms for accessing street populations of heroin users and assessing the nature and extent of their drug use and criminality. Subsequent studies targeted a variety of crime-involved heroin and cocaine users, including women as well as men, serious delinquents, adolescent and adult crack users, and cocaine users in treatment as well as on the street. Major findings include the low risk of arrest for income-generating crimes committed by heroin users, and the prevalence of HIV-risk behaviors among both serious delinquents and women crack users. Analyses consistently show the critical importance of sample characteristics in research on drug use, including age, cohort, and street-versus-treatment status.