Drugs and crime : a study of incarcerated female offenders

Holly Johnson
ISBN 0 642 53861 1 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology: 2004
(Research and public policy series, no. 63)

Chapter 1 : Overview of drug use among women in Australia

Introduction

Drug and alcohol use are considered important factors in criminal offending (White & Gorman 2000; Fagan 1990; Chaiken & Chaiken 1990). The tangible costs to Australian society of drug and alcohol-related crime have been estimated at over $4 billion (Collins & Lapsley 2002). In a recent report, the cost of crime in Australia was estimated to be at least $32 billion, and drug offences to be at least $1.96 billion, but could possibly be higher because drugs are implicated in many other crimes (Mayhew 2003).

The Australian Government has responded to drug abuse through the Australian National Drug Strategy, a partnership of federal, state and territory governments and the non-government sector. The National Drug Strategy aims to improve health, social and economic outcomes for Australians by preventing the uptake of harmful drug use and reducing the harmful effects of licit and illicit drugs in society. Eight priorities are identified as areas for future action within the 2004-2009 National Drug Strategy:

1. prevent the onset of drug use;
2. reduce the supply of drugs;
3. reduce drug use and related harms;
4. improved access to treatment;
5. develop the workforce and organisations to respond effectively;
6. strengthen partnerships among governments, communities, organisation, business, medical professions and research institutions;
7. implement the National Drug Strategy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Complementary Action Plan 2002-2003; and
8. identify and respond to emerging trends through research, environmental scanning and evaluation.

(Source: http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/publishing.nsf/Content/978CCA3285B6CA42CA25717D000297A4/$File/framework0409.pdf)

The Australian Government's National Illicit Drug Strategy (NIDS) forms a significant part of the National Drug Strategy. In addition to a supply reduction initiative, the latest phase of the NIDS, introduced in 2003-04, identified a number of new priorities focusing on psychostimulants, co-morbid drug use and mental health problems, research into prevention and treatment, support to families, diversion of users from the criminal justice system into education and treatment, and expansion of treatment programs (see Baker, Lee & Jenner 2004; Teesson & Proudfoot 2003). The Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) and the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) projects are initiatives funded under NIDS and managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology. DUCO and DUMA are the only national research projects that focus on the interconnections between drug use and crime. The main objective of the DUCO project is to contribute to the key areas of research and monitoring through the examination of alcohol and illicit drug use and the criminal careers of incarcerated adult males, adult females and juveniles. The results of the DUCO male study were released in 2003 (Makkai & Payne 2003a) and the results of the DUCO juvenile study are expected in 2005. This report summarises the results of the female component.

Offenders in the DUCO female study were interviewed in prisons in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Northern Territory in 2003. As the following brief overview of drug use among women in Australia will show, although women are generally less likely than men to be drug users, and are less likely than men to be charged and imprisoned for committing crimes, drugs play an important role in women's contact with the criminal justice system, perhaps a different role than for men. An important question is whether the level of drug abuse among women in correctional institutions and the risk markers for drug abuse are the same or different as for men. Lack of reliable statistical data in this area has hampered our understanding of the nature of these links, and has affected the development of policy and treatment programs for women both inside and outside of prisons.

The DUCO female study will contribute to the empirical evidence about the interaction between drug use and criminal offending among women. Despite the limitations inherent in studying an incarcerated population, this study has some particular benefits. Drug use (especially heroin, cocaine and amphetamine use) is relatively rare among the general population, so that very large random samples would be needed to examine the connections between drug use and crime. Targeted studies of known offenders are therefore warranted. One particular harm associated with drug use is crime, and targeted studies of drug use among known offenders can add to discussions about the links between them. Studies like this one and the DUCO male and juvenile studies provide empirical data that can help target efforts to reduce drug and alcohol abuse among offenders, and reduce crime among drug and alcohol abusers, therefore avoiding a criminal career.

Unlike some other criminological research, this study has the added advantage of covering a wide variety of offences and criminal careers in addition to the offence that led to the current incarceration. Since the current offence may be unusual or atypical in the overall history of the offender, this method provides a more accurate description of lifetime offending frequency and patterns. This study also covers a wide range of drugs. It is not restricted to a small number of drugs such as heroin or amphetamines in the way that some other more targeted research has been. It uses a large sample of incarcerated offenders and covers most jurisdictions in Australia. It therefore offers a comprehensive examination of drug and alcohol abuse and offending patterns among women that can be compared to male offenders (Makkai & Payne 2003a).

This monograph begins with a description of drug use in Australia among the general population and among offenders, summarises the literature on women, drugs and crime, and presents the responses of the women interviewed to questions about their drug use, criminal offending and connections between the two. Separate chapters focus on alcohol use and Indigenous offenders. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for the reduction of drug abuse among women offenders.

Indicators of drug use among women in Australia

Illegal behaviour, such as the use of illicit drugs, is difficult to quantify. However, there is a range of monitoring activities in Australia that together can help estimate the level and patterns of drug use among women in society, as well as certain harms associated with drug use, such as arrest and incarceration. These include:

• the National Drug Strategy Household Survey;
• arrests for drug offences;
• women incarcerated for drug offences; and
• levels of drug use among women detained in police custody.

National Drug Strategy Household Survey

In the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), a random sample of Australians are interviewed about their drug use at approximately three-year intervals (AIHW 2002). In 2001, almost 27,000 people aged 14 years and over were interviewed about their drug consumption patterns, and their attitudes and behaviours concerning tobacco, drugs and alcohol. According to the NDSHS, 14 per cent of females and 20 per cent of males reported using illicit drugs in the 12 months prior to the survey. This was comparable to rates of drug use in 1995, but lower than in 1998 when 19 per cent of females and 25 per cent of males and reported recent drug use.¹ The highest rates of drug use were among 20 to 29-year-olds, for both females and males (31% and 40%, respectively).

Females reported a lower prevalence of recent drug use than males for all types of drugs. The illicit drug most commonly used was cannabis, followed by amphetamines and ecstasy. Small percentages of females and males had recently used heroin or were injecting drug users. The most common type of drugs to be injected were amphetamines, heroin and other opiates. According to the NDSHS, an estimated 32,400 women and 58,600 men were injecting drug users in 2001.

Arrests for drug offences

Arrest statistics reflect only those crimes that come to the attention of police and for which an offender is identified and arrested. Arrests for drug offences are therefore more an indication of police action around the enforcement and detection of drug-related activity than a measure of drug use in the community. Police action can be affected by the availability of resources and setting of priorities, including targeted operations, which may shift over time. Nevertheless, the number of arrests is a good indicator of the number of women who are at risk of being criminalised and imprisoned for their drug use.

There were 12,924 women arrested for drug offences in 2002-03, just two per cent less than the number in 1996-97 (13,180) (Australian Crime Commission 2004). However, trends vary according to the type of drug. Arrests for cannabis offences declined by 10 per cent, which may be a consequence of decriminalisation in some jurisdictions or diversion schemes such as cautioning. Figure 2 shows trends in the number of women arrested for other types of drugs, excluding cannabis. The number of women arrested for heroin offences reached a high in 1998-99 then declined by 73 per cent during the time of the heroin shortage. At the same time, arrests for amphetamines and other drugs (hallucinogens, steroids and others) increased. Arrests for amphetamines more than doubled between 1996-97 and 2002-03, while arrests for other drugs increased by 65 per cent. Cocaine arrests increased by 40 per cent up to 2001-02 then dropped dramatically in 2002-03. Trends were similar for men.

For both women and men, about 80 per cent of arrests in 2002-03 involved drug consumers and 20 per cent involved providers of the drugs (producers, importers and dealers); however, this varied according to the type of drug. For example, 35 per cent of heroin arrests, 25 per cent of amphetamine arrests and 21 per cent of cocaine arrests involving women were for provider offences, compared to just 18 per cent of cannabis arrests. The number of women arrested for consumer offences rose by 10 per cent since 1996-97 while the number arrested for provider offences dropped by 32 per cent. This is somewhat different than the pattern for male offenders which saw a decline in arrests for both consumers (10%) and providers (43%). In 2002-03, 17 per cent of all arrests involved women offenders. Women were implicated in a smaller proportion of arrests for cocaine (13%) and a larger proportion of arrests for 'other' drugs (21%).

Imprisonment for drug offences

Women make up a small but growing number of prison inmates. On a prison census taken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on 30 June 2003, 1,198 women were under sentence in Australian prisons, up 67 per cent from 718 on 30 June 1994 (ABS 2004b). The number of male prisoners rose 23 per cent over the same period. As a result of the higher growth rate of women prisoners, they made up a growing proportion of total prisoners, from five per cent in 1994 to seven per cent in 2003.

Since many prisoners are admitted following conviction for more than one offence, offenders are categorised in the prison census according to the most serious, determined as the offence that resulted in the longest sentence. Although the number of women incarcerated in Australian prisons is much smaller than the number of men, a higher proportion of incarcerated women are serving prison sentences for drug offences as the most serious offence - 14 per cent compared to 10 per cent of men. Higher proportions of women are also incarcerated for fraud and theft, whereas men are more likely to be in prison for violent offences. The number of women counted in the prison census who were incarcerated for drug offences increased by 40 per cent between 1994 and 2003, from 118 to 165 (Figure 3), while the number of males declined four per cent, from 1599 to 1666. This rise occurred despite the drop in women arrested for the more serious offences of trafficking, manufacturing or importing (provider offences) that tend to result in a prison sentence.

Court statistics show that only about 10 per cent of all convictions for drug offences result in a prison sentence (ABS 2004a). In contrast to arrest statistics which show the largest proportion of arrests were for possession of illegal drugs, about 80 per cent of adults incarcerated in Australian prisons for drug offences were serving sentences for trafficking in drugs, 12 per cent for manufacturing, and only seven per cent for possession (ABS 2004b). This reflects the different sentences given for drug trafficking and manufacturing as compared to possession of illegal drugs where possession more often results in a non-custodial sentence.

Prison census figures must be used with caution as they undercount the true number of drug offenders in prison. This is because under ABS counting rules, only the most serious offence is recorded for each person imprisoned. Consequently, someone imprisoned for drug offences, in addition to another offence that resulted in a longer sentence, will not be counted among drug offenders. In addition, these figures represent a snapshot of the number of women incarcerated on 30 June each year; the number going through the justice system on drug-related charges each year is far higher. Women serving short sentences may serve more than one period in prison during a given year and may be counted only once or not at all.

Drug use among police detainees

The Drug Use Monitoring in Australia project (DUMA), managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology, measures drug use among male and female detainees in seven sites across Australia, through a combination of interviews and urine tests. This project is designed to gain a more accurate picture of previous drug use among this high-risk population, to better understand the links between drugs and crime, and to measure patterns of drug use.

In 2003, 80 per cent of women and 72 per cent of men arrested by police in the DUMA sample tested positive to at least one drug. Across all sites, female detainees were more likely than males to test positive for methylamphetamines (41% compared with 28%), benzodiazepines (40% and 24%) and heroin (23% and 14%). Cannabis was the only drug for which a slightly higher proportion of males tested positive (57% compared with 53% of females). The differences between men and women fluctuate each year, which may be due to smaller sample sizes for women (Milner, Mouzos & Makkai 2004). However, these percentages are considerably higher than those reported by women in the general population (as shown in Figure 1).

Similar drug monitoring programs overseas found the following results:

• in the United Kingdom, 75 per cent of female arrestees tested positive to at least one drug, 43 per cent tested positive for multiple drugs, 45 per cent for opiates (including heroin), 30 per cent for cocaine, and 33 per cent for cannabis; women were significantly more likely than men to test positive for opiates and cocaine (Bennett 2000); and
• in the United States, more than half of the women tested positive to at least one illicit substance, and in half of the 29 sites 63 per cent or more tested positive (US Department of Justice 2003).

Summary

This overview highlights the limited data available in Australia to monitor drug use among women and the connections to criminal offending. The DUCO female study is designed to help address some of the shortcomings in available empirical information by providing statistical data about the level of drug use among women offenders, the role of drug use in criminal offending, the temporal ordering of drug use and offending, and risk factors for drug dependency and chronic or persistent offending.

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