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 4 : Linking drugs and crime

An important question for the development of effective drug treatment and crime prevention programs for women is the extent to which drug use is related to criminal offending. Accurate information can assist in a clearer understanding of how interventions and treatment might help avert drug use and/or crime. This study provides numerous ways in which to assess the role of drug and alcohol abuse in the criminal behaviour of these incarcerated women, including:

1. intoxication at the time of the current offence;
2. the women's own perceptions of the effect of drugs and alcohol on their criminal careers;
3. reasons given for committing crimes in general;
4. the main reason for committing the current offence;
5. methods used to obtain drugs;
6. drug use in the backgrounds of offenders; and
7. drug dependency among offenders.

Together, these various dimensions measuring the link between drug use and crime will help establish the prevalence of women's offending that can be directly or indirectly attributable to their drug use. From a policy perspective, methods 1 and 4 will help quantify the percentage of offenders who attributed drug or alcohol abuse to their current offences, while the others will help quantify the effect of drugs and alcohol on their lifetime criminal careers.

Intoxication at the time of the current offence

A high percentage (58% of all women) reported they were under the influence of illegal drugs and/or alcohol at the time of the offence for which they were imprisoned: 31 per cent were under the influence of illegal drugs, 16 per cent alcohol, and 11 per cent both drugs and alcohol. Altogether, 42 per cent were high on drugs when they committed the offence. Table 10 lists the types of drugs present at the time of the offence. Most prevalent were amphetamines, heroin, cannabis and benzodiazepines. It is obvious from the high percentages that these women were using more than one type of drug at the time of the offence: 21 per cent of those under the influence of drugs were using two types, and 32 per cent were using three or more. Three in 10 women also said they were 'sick' or 'hurting' due to lack of drugs. By comparison, a slightly higher percentage of incarcerated males in the DUCO male sample, 62 per cent, said they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the current offence (Makkai & Payne 2004b: 8). However, males were less likely to be under the influence of illegal drugs (24% as compared to 31% of women) and more likely to be under the influence of alcohol (21% compared to 16% of women), or both drugs and alcohol (17% compared to 11% of women).

Table 10: Intoxication at the time of current offence

Type of substance	n	%
Illegal drugs	145	31
Alcohol	77	16
Both drugs and alcohol	50	11
Not intoxicated	198	42
Total	470	100
Sick or hurting (lack of drugs) at time of offence	137	29
Type of drug at time of current offence	n	%
Alcohol	127	47
Amphetamines	114	42
Heroin	93	34
Cannabis	82	30
Benzodiazepines	59	22
Morphine	25	9
Ecstasy	15	6
Cocaine	14	5
Methadone	11	4
LSD/hallucinogens	6	2
Total1	272
1 Multiple responses were permitted. Percentages are based on the number of women under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the offence Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

Intoxication by illegal drugs or alcohol varies according to the type of offence. With respect to the main offence for which these women were incarcerated, they were most often under the influence of alcohol when they committed violent offences such as murder or assault (Figure 6). Drug intoxication occurred most commonly during burglary, robbery and theft. Driving-related offences were committed while offenders were intoxicated by drugs in 46 per cent of cases and one-third involved alcohol (a total of 65% of driving offences involved impairment by drugs or alcohol). One-third of women incarcerated for fraud offences were under the influence of drugs at the time of the offence. The role of alcohol in the criminal backgrounds of these offenders is discussed in detail in Chapter 7.

Heroin and amphetamines were especially likely to have been present during the commission of certain types of offences. Heroin intoxication was reported by:

• 44 per cent of women imprisoned for burglary or theft as the main offence for which they were incarcerated;
• 29 per cent imprisoned for robbery;
• 22 per cent of those incarcerated for drug offences; and
• 14 per cent of those imprisoned for fraud or driving offences.

Amphetamines were especially likely to be present among women whose main offences were:

• robbery (35%);
• driving offences (35%);
• burglary or theft (30%); and
• drug offences (28%).

Women whose main offence was theft, burglary or robbery were most likely to say they were 'sick' or 'hurting' due to lack of drugs at the time of the offence (62%, 59% and 47%, respectively).

Perceptions of the effect of drugs or alcohol on criminal careers

Women who reported ever using drugs or alcohol were asked to describe in their own words the effect of their personal alcohol or drug use on their offending careers. The results of this analysis will help quantify the effect of drugs and alcohol on lifetime criminal offending. It is important to note that attributing alcohol or drugs to a pattern of offending does not necessarily indicate that use of drugs or alcohol is the cause of these crimes, although some offenders reported their drug or alcohol use had a substantial effect on their lifetime offending. The majority of the women interviewed (91%, n=429), provided responses that could be quantified into general response categories. As shown in Table 11, 35 per cent said that all (100%) of their criminal offending could be attributed in some way to their personal use of alcohol or drugs. A further 23 per cent said drugs or alcohol had a very large effect on their criminal offending, and six per cent said it had some effect. About one-quarter of the sample of women said that drugs or alcohol had nothing to do with their criminal activities. Comparing these results to the DUCO male study, women were more likely to say that 100 per cent of their offending was attributable to drugs or alcohol (35% compared to 26% of males) (Makkai & Payne 2003a: 46).

Table 11 : Lifetime offending attributions by type of offender

	All offenders		Regular offenders		Non-regular offenders
	n	%	n	%	n	%
None	125	27	71	21	54	44
Some	28	6	22	6	6	5
A great deal	110	23	91	26	19	15
All	166	35	147	42	19	15
Unspecified	41	9	16	5	25	20
Total	470	100	347	100	123	100
Type of effect
Psychopharmacological	99	32	75	29	24	53
Economic/compulsive	61	20	60	23	-	-
Other1	145	48	125	48	20	44
Total	305	100	260	100	45	100
- fewer than five cases 1 Includes unspecified responses, drink-drug driving offences and drug offences. Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

Other results show:

• regular offenders were more likely than less persistent offenders to make the attribution that their criminal careers were totally affected by alcohol or drugs (42% compared to 15%);
• women who were regular sex workers were more likely than others to attribute all their offending to alcohol or drugs (56%); and
• women whose preferred drug was heroin or amphetamines attributed all their criminal offending to their drug use in 64 per cent and 48 per cent of cases, respectively.

With respect to the type of effect, of the women who said alcohol or drugs had an effect on their lifetime history of offending,160 provided sufficient information in their open-ended responses to categorise them as either psychopharmacological (32%) or economic/ compulsive (20%), and an additional 145 (48%) gave general or unspecified responses.

Psychopharmacological effects include being high, drunk or 'sick' or 'hurting' for drugs at the time of the offence. Economic/compulsive includes committing gainful crimes for money to buy drugs or, to a lesser extent alcohol, including dealing in drugs. Other unspecified responses include those that simply state that drugs caused the offending history, or if it were not for their drug habit they would not be in jail. 'Other' also includes driving offences relating to drugs or alcohol, and possession of illegal drugs. Results showed:

• regular offenders were more likely than non-regular offenders to indicate that the effect was economic/compulsive;
• non-regular offenders more likely to state that the effect was psychopharmacological;
• property offenders were more likely to say the effect of drugs or alcohol on their criminal careers was based on economic need (26%); and
• violent offenders were more likely to state that the effect was psychopharmacological (49%).

A sample of verbatim responses to the question about the effect of their alcohol or drug use on women's offending careers are shown below. Those who identified an economic effect often highlighted the difficulties drug users have holding down a legitimate job:

It's a high-price lifestyle. You can't have a job and a habit at the same time.

The more money you bring in, the more heroin you use.

I break the law to get an income. If you're a drug user you're not really up to doing a real job.

The drug turns me into a thief. Because I've been stealing for so long, I think the stealing's become a habit.

The psychopharmacological effect was usually explained in terms of the courage provided by drugs or the lack of judgment that resulted from drug use. For example:

Drugs, speed made me crazy. You live in an unreal space. I was quite psychotic when I did my armed robbery.

Drugs give me courage and I think I can do anything, so I do crime.

It made me feel good and happy, but my decisions between right and wrong were cloudy.

Other, unspecified responses often pointed to other troubles in the women's lives that preceded drug use, or the effect of drugs on their lives in general:

I started to drink and take drugs because of my anger and sadness of my childhood.

It was because I was drunk.

It has been based around my offending, but mainly stuff leading up to the events, mainly the sexual abuse as a child.

Had an effect on me, on my criminal history and my family, my life and the community I live in. Affected everyone around me.

Loss of freedom, loss of friends, loss of health, loss of family. General loss of everything.

It has ruined my life. It has taken control of my life.

Reasons for committing crimes

The primary reasons women gave to explain why they became involved in crime are related directly to their drug and alcohol use. The most common reason given for committing property crime was to obtain money to buy drugs (52%) and the second most common reason was that they were drunk or high at the time (44%) (see Figure 7). Overall, 31 per cent of property offenders said they committed property crimes because they were unemployed and needed money, a figure that rises to 42 per cent of those whose drug of choice is heroin. Women with a preference for heroin also committed property crimes because they were high at the time (46%), or to get money to support their drug habit (87%). They were less likely to say they committed these crimes for kicks (eight per cent), a reason more likely to be given by amphetamine users (19 per cent). Amphetamine users were also more likely to say that committing property crime was what they did for a living (33%).

Among women who reported involvement in violence offences, a small number (15%, n=37) said their violence was associated with obtaining money to buy drugs. Half were drunk or high at the time of committing a violent offence (see Figure 8). Using violence to acquire money for drugs was more common among women who were involved in armed or unarmed robbery (36% and 29%, respectively) than among those involved in assaults (10%). In a separate question, only six per cent of women said they used a weapon or threats of violence to obtain their preferred drug; those whose preferred drug was heroin were twice as likely to have used violence to obtain drugs (12%).

In an open-ended question asking offenders to describe the main reason why they started committing crime, 30 per cent spontaneously said their initiation into crime had to do with their drug use. Seven per cent said it was related to alcohol abuse. Other responses related to boredom or personal problems in their background, such as sexual or physical abuse or other family problems.

Main reason for committing the current offence

Offenders were also asked to describe in their own words the main reason they committed the offences related to their current incarceration. Half of all women attributed their current conviction to either alcohol (10%), drugs (35%) or to gambling debts (3%) (Table 12). Gambling debts were associated exclusively with fraud and theft offences. In fact, 92 per cent of women who said that the reason for their current offence was to acquire money to pay a gambling debt had committed a fraud offence, and 83 per cent were regular fraud offenders.

Property offenders were more likely than violent offenders to attribute their current offending to illegal drugs (42% compared to 28% of violent offenders), while women incarcerated for a violent offence were more likely to attribute their offending to alcohol (17% compared to 4% of property offenders). The reason drug use was thought to contribute to offending was more likely to be economic motivation in the case of property offences: 20 per cent compared to eight per cent of women convicted of violent offences.

Table 12 : Reason for committing the current offence by type of current offence

	All offenders		Property offences		Violent offences
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Alcohol	48	10	6	4	27	17
Drugs	163	35	62	42	46	28
Gambling debts	12	3	12	8	0	0
Other	247	53	69	46	90	55
Total	470	100	149	100	163	45
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

With respect to offenders' verbatim responses to the question asking them for the main reason they committed the offences that lead to the current conviction, many just said 'addiction', 'drugs' or 'money for drugs'. Examples of more detailed responses are listed below:

Because we [partner] were using. We got addicted and produced and sold drugs to feed our habits. It got out of control towards the end.

Defending myself - he (my husband) was hitting me - said he would kill me.

Drugs and homelessness. In six months I went from having my own home with good stuff to being homeless. I sold all my belongings for drugs and gave my son to my mum and ended up with nothing.

My child was sexually assaulted so I stabbed my partner. I didn't realise he was a paedophile.

Methods used to obtain drugs

A range of methods were used to pay for the drugs these women used. When asked how they obtained their drug of choice, the majority, 92 per cent, paid cash, but a proportion also engaged in criminal activities to pay for drugs: 29 per cent traded in stolen goods, seven per cent stole the drugs, five per cent traded sex, and five per cent forged scripts (multiple responses permitted; Figure 9). Added together, this amounts to 35 per cent who used illegal means to obtain drugs. This adds evidence to the argument that drug users are economically motivated to commit certain crimes. Some drug types are more likely to be acquired through illegal means:

• 61 per cent of those with a preference for heroin and 55 per cent of those who preferred amphetamines used illegal means to acquire drugs, including trading in stolen goods (54% and 51%, respectively) and trading in sex (13% and 8%); and
• women with a preference for heroin or amphetamine were more likely to have traded in other goods (45% and 41%), swapped drugs (40% and 31%) or re-cut previously obtained drug deals (14% and 18%).

This reflects the highly addictive nature of these drugs and the high frequency and cost of daily use that often leads to illegal means to sustain a drug habit.

Drug use in offenders' history

Regular drug use is widespread in the lives of these offenders. Table 13 shows the proportion of regular offenders who reported regular drug use in the six months prior to their arrest, by type of offender and type of drug. These results show that:

• overall, 78 per cent of regular offenders were drug users and drug use was higher for women who regularly engaged in sex work (92%) than for property offenders (76%) or violent offenders (69%);
• violent offenders, sex workers and drug offenders used an average of three drug types while property offenders used an average of two;
• a higher percentage of property offenders were cocaine users (48%) as compared to other offenders (10%);
• sex workers were more likely than either property or violent offenders to be users of all drug types except cocaine;
• the drugs most prevalent among violent offenders were cannabis and amphetamines; and
• there is a clear association between frequency of offending and illegal drug use as 15 per cent of non-regular offenders compared with 78 per cent of regular offenders were regular drug users at the time of their arrest.

Table 13 : Regular drug use in six months prior to arrest by type of regular offender (percentages)

	Property offenders	Drug offenders	Sex work	Violent offences	Total regular offenders	Non-regular offenders
Cannabis	44	56	61	54	49	15
Heroin	39	42	50	27	36	-
Cocaine	48	10	10	10	8	0
Amphetamines	50	58	64	44	49	5
Benzodiazepines	19	24	38	19	20	-
Other drugs1	22	24	32	15	20	-
Mean number of drug types	2	3	3	3	2	2
Mean number of drug types, excluding cannabis	1	2	3	2	2	1
Any current regular drug use	76	91	92	69	78	15
(n)	(160)	(293)	(62)	(48)	(347)	(123)
- fewer than five cases Includes only illegal drug use Total property offenders exclude those who were also violent offenders or sex workers 1 Includes hallucinogens, ecstasy, street methadone and morphine Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

The relative importance of each of these drug types for different categories of offenders is difficult to assess due to multiple drug use among these women offenders. However what is clear is that the likelihood of being a persistent offender increases for users of multiple drug types. Women who used one drug were more likely to be regular property offenders and four times as likely to be regular sex workers than women who did not use any drugs. Women who used two or more types of drugs were twice as likely to be regular property offenders and eight times as likely to be regularly engaged in sex work as compared to women who did not use drugs. Differences in the prevalence of regular violent offending by number of drug types used were not statistically significant (Figure 10).

Drug and alcohol dependency

Not only is drug use widespread among these female inmates, over half of them fit the criteria for drug dependency. Using a six-item scale (see Box 2), 55 per cent of DUCO women were classified as drug dependent, 27 per cent were dependent on alcohol (14 per cent were dependent on both). Just one-third of women were not dependent on either drugs or alcohol. This dependency scale was piloted for the first time in the DUMA program in 2003 and produced similar results among persons detained by police: 52 per cent were dependent on illegal drugs and 27 per cent were dependent on alcohol (Milner, Mouzos & Makkai 2004: 18). Women in this prison study who were regular drug users at the time of their arrest fit the criteria for drug dependency in 80 per cent of cases, whereas just over half (57%) of regular alcohol users were also considered to be alcohol-dependent. Due to the priority of examining the connections between drug use and crime in this study, women classified as dependent on drugs are combined and examined jointly with those dependent on both drugs and alcohol for the remainder of this analysis. The connections between alcohol dependency and criminal offending are presented in Chapter 7.

Current users of drugs or alcohol in this study were asked to name their preferred drug of choice. Twenty-two per cent identified alcohol. When asked to consider illegal drugs only, the most commonly preferred drugs were heroin (33%) and amphetamines (31%) followed by cannabis (26%). Just three per cent stated a preference for benzodiazepines and seven per cent named other drugs. Drug-dependent women were slightly more likely to state a preference for heroin (37%) and amphetamines (34%) (Table 15). Among women who did not fit the criteria of being drug-dependent, 48 per cent identified alcohol as their preferred drug and 15 per cent cannabis. Just as escalation from experimentation to current regular use is high among drug users (see Table 6), dependency was especially high in some drug categories. For example, 95 per cent of women who gave heroin as their preferred drug were drug-dependent, as were 90 per cent of women who preferred amphetamines and 75 per cent of those who preferred benzodiazepines. Because of the high rate of multiple drug use, however, it cannot be determined that the dependency is for the drug identified as the preferred drug.

Table 15 : Drug of choice for drug-dependent women

	n	%
Heroin	95	37
Amphetamines	86	34
Cannabis	50	20
Other	23	9
Total	257	100
Includes those who were dependent on drugs alone or both drugs and alcohol Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

Certain crimes also tend to be associated with drug dependency. As shown in Table 16, drug-dependent women were more likely to be in prison for acquisitive crimes (robbery, burglary or theft), or driving offences, as their most serious offence that lead to the current prison sentence. Women without a drug dependency were more likely to be in prison for the violent crimes of murder and assault and for fraud.

Table 16 : Type of current offence by drug dependency (percentages)

	Drug-dependent		Total
	Yes	No
Murder and related	7	17	11
Assault	8	16	12
Robbery	19	3	12
Break and enter	8	3	6
Theft	12	3	8
Fraud	12	25	18
Driving-related	11	4	8
Drug offences	12	16	14
Other	11	13	11
Total	100	100	100
(n)	(257)	(213)	(470)
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

With respect to lifetime offending patterns, women with a more chronic and persistent history of offending had a higher rate of drug dependency as compared to non-regular offenders. Overall, 70 per cent of regular offenders were drug-dependent compared to just 12 per cent of non-regular offenders. The prevalence of drug dependency was higher for sex workers (84%) and property offenders (71%) than for violent offenders (58%).

While chronic offenders clearly have higher rates of drug dependency, drug-dependent women also tend to have more persistent and chronic offending patterns. Drug-dependent women in this sample were regular offenders in 95 per cent of cases compared to 49 per cent of women who were not drug-dependent (Table 17). Drug-dependent women were especially likely to be regular drug offenders (91%) and property offenders (44%). One in five were regularly engaged in sex work. Violent offending was as prevalent among women who were not drug-dependent as among those who were.

Table 17 : Levels of regular offending by drug-dependent women (percentages)

	Drug-dependent		Total
	Yes	No
Property offenders	44	22	34
Violent offenders	11	9	10
Drug offenders	91	28	62
Sex workers	20	5	13
All regular offenders	95	49	74
(n)	(257)	(213)	(470)
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

The frequency of property offending was also markedly higher for drug-dependent women: 44 per cent of these women committed property offences at least weekly, twice the percentage of non-dependent women (22%; Figure 11). A minority of drug-dependent women (16%) said they had never committed property offences before in their lives compared to half of women without drug dependencies. When asked about their current imprisonment, drug-dependent women reported being imprisoned for an average of 11 property offences, twice the average for women without a drug dependency (five offences).

As shown in Table 18, some of the other associations between drug use and crime covered earlier in this chapter occurred against a backdrop of drug dependency. For example, women with drug dependency were 12 times as likely as other women in the sample to be high on drugs at the time of the current offence, about six times as likely to be 'sick' or 'hanging out' at the time of the offence, and seven times more likely to attribute the current offence to their drug use. Drug-dependent women were more likely to say that the effect of drug or alcohol use on their offending history has been 100 per cent. They were also many times more likely to obtain drugs through illegal means such as trading in stolen goods or forging scripts. Women with a drug dependency were more likely to pay cash for drugs whereas non-dependent women perhaps received drugs from friends or in the context of a social situation but were less likely to initiate payment for them. Women with drug dependencies were also more likely to have accepted drugs in payment for a job. Nine per cent of drug-dependent women traded sex for drugs, a situation that was never reported by women not dependent on drugs.

Table 18 : Drug dependency by aspects of offending and obtaining drugs (percentages)

	Drug-dependent		Total
	Yes	No
High on drugs at the time of the offence	71	6	42
'Sick' or 'hanging out'	46	8	29
Current offence attributed to drugs	57	8	35
Effect of drug/alcohol use on offending history was 100 per cent	51	16	35
Method to obtain drugs
Paid cash	93	66	81
Traded stolen goods	43	4	25
Traded other goods	35	3	20
Traded sex	9	0	5
Received in payment for a job	22	-	13
Forged scripts	8	-	5
(n)	(257)	(213)	(470)
- fewer than five cases Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file]

Drug buyers and sellers

Drug buyers and sellers come into regular contact with illegal drugs and therefore might be expected to be more likely to report regular drug use. Among the women offenders who were regular drug buyers or regular drug sellers, all were regular drug users in the six months prior to their arrest. Both groups had higher rates of regular use of every type of drug than women who were not regular buyers or sellers.

Perhaps due to their regular access to drugs, drug sellers tended to use drugs with greater frequency than other women. Almost three-quarters of drug sellers used heroin several times a day, 56 per cent used cannabis, and 47 per cent used amphetamines with the same frequency. These are higher than the proportions for all regular users of these drugs as shown in Table 5. Drug buyers and sellers were also more likely than other women in the sample to have a drug dependency: 80 per cent of regular drug buyers and 84 per cent of regular drug sellers were classified as drug-dependent

.

Is there a causal link between drug abuse and crime?

This study provides convincing evidence of a strong link between drug and alcohol abuse and offending among these incarcerated women. But to what extent can the relationship between drug and alcohol use and crime be said to be causal? Is there a portion of crime by women that can be said to be directly attributed to drugs or alcohol?

Researchers involved in the DUCO male study were concerned about this question and devised a methodology to arrive at a conservative estimate of the proportion of crime committed by a sample of incarcerated males that was caused by alcohol or drug abuse. The percentage of offences with a causal attribution to drugs or alcohol was based on a combination of (a) those attributable to addiction and (b) those where the offender was intoxicated at the time of the offence. Estimates of the first of these two components, those attributable to addiction, were based on those offenders who reported (a) addiction at the time of the current offence, and (b) that the reason they committed that offence was related to drugs or alcohol (Makkai & Payne 2003a: 154). Using this methodology, it is estimated that 24 per cent of all current offences committed by males were causally attributable to addiction: 18 per cent to addiction to illegal drugs, three per cent to alcohol and three per cent to both drugs and alcohol.

The same method can be used to calculate causal attribution to addiction for women offenders, although there were differences in the method used to estimate 'addiction' in the two DUCO projects. Men in the DUCO male study were asked which drugs they think they were addicted to in the six months prior to arrest. By contrast, the concept of 'dependency' was measured in the DUCO female study by way of the six-item scale discussed previously. The word 'addiction' was not used which may affect the comparability of these two approaches. The results show that 41 per cent of male offenders reported being addicted to cannabis, amphetamines, heroin, cocaine or any combination of these drugs (Makkai & Payne 2003: 152). Among female offenders, 55 per cent were considered to have a dependency on drugs (types of drug were not specified). Without further research, it is not possible to know the extent to which these methods over- or under-count drug-related problems in comparison to the other.

Using the same method used in the DUCO male study to calculate the percentage of crimes attributable to addiction (dependency at the time of the current offence and the reason for the offence was related to drugs or alcohol), 39 per cent of all current offences committed by these women offenders were causally attributable to addiction: 30 per cent to addiction to illegal drugs and eight per cent to alcohol, while just one per cent were attributable to both drugs and alcohol. Addiction to illegal drugs in particular was higher for women than for men (30% compared to 18%). Addiction attributions varied across type of offending: 60 per cent of regular sex work offenders attributed their offending to addiction, as did 49 per cent of regular property offenders and 46 per cent of regular violent offenders. It is difficult to say how these results are affected by the different methodologies for determining 'addiction'.

The second component of this equation, intoxication at the time of the offence, was calculated through a combination of intoxication at the time of the current offence and attributions that alcohol or drugs were the cause of their offending. Twenty-nine per cent of male offenders were intoxicated at the time of the offence for which they are currently incarcerated, and attributed their offending to their use of alcohol or drugs: 11 per cent to illegal drugs, 10 per cent to alcohol and eight per cent to both alcohol and illegal drugs (Makkai & Payne 2003b: 8). The comparative figure for women in the DUCO female study is higher at 35 per cent: 25 per cent involving illegal drugs, nine per cent involving alcohol and one per cent involving both drugs and alcohol (Table 19). Once again, women were more likely than men to attribute their offending to intoxication, and especially to illegal drugs, although men were more likely to attribute their intoxication to both drugs and alcohol. The fact that women were more likely than men to attribute their offending to intoxication, using measures that were exactly the same in both the male and female surveys, adds credibility to the differences found in addiction attributions, where the measures were not identical.

A calculation of how much crime in total can be said to be caused by illegal drugs or alcohol uses a combination of these two figures, both addiction and intoxication attributions. Using this methodology, the DUCO male study concluded that 39 per cent of current offences were causally linked to drugs or alcohol, while for DUCO females the figure was similar at 41 per cent. In other words, for 41 per cent of female prisoners their current offence was causally attributed to intoxication or addiction at the time of the offence: 31 per cent to illegal drugs, nine per cent to alcohol and one per cent to both drugs and alcohol (Table 19). While overall levels of attribution are similar for males and females, women gave higher levels of both intoxication and addiction attributions and a higher level of overlap between the two. This suggests that women who were intoxicated at the time of the offence were likely to be drug-dependent more often than is the case for men.

Table 19 : Model attributions for intoxication and addiction for males and females (percentages)

	Intoxication		Addiction		Combined
	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
No attribution	65	71*	61	76*	59	61*
Attribution
Illegal drugs	25	11*	30	18*	31	18*
Alcohol	9	10*	8	3*	9	9*
Both	1	8*	1	3*	1	12*
Total	35	29*	39	24*	41	39*
* statistically significant, chi square, p < .01 Sources: Australian Institute of Criminology, DUCO female survey, 2003 [computer file], n=470; DUCO male survey, 2001 [computer file], n=2,135

As these attributions relate to the offence for which these offenders are currently incarcerated, it is appropriate to examine the percentage of offenders who gave these attributions according to their current main offence type. As shown in Figure 12, certain offences were more likely to be linked causally to offenders' drug or alcohol abuse. For example, women whose main offence was burglary, robbery or theft were most likely to attribute their offending to their drug and alcohol abuse (Figure 12). Murder and fraud were less likely than other offences to be causally related to offenders' drug or alcohol abuse. Sample counts were too low to examine causal attributions to drugs and alcohol separately.

Summary

This study provides a wide range of techniques through which to examine the relationship between drug use and criminal offending. Results demonstrate a clear link between drug use and crime among this group of incarcerated women offenders, and the link with persistent offending and drug use is stronger than with non-persistent offenders. The evidence shows, for example, that:

• 42 per cent of these female prisoners were under the influence of drugs at the time of their current offence;
• half of property offenders committed their offences in order to obtain money to buy drugs;
• 55 per cent of offenders were drug-dependent;
• 35 per cent attributed all of their criminal history to their personal drug or alcohol use;
• in total, 41 per cent of criminal offending by these women was causally linked to alcohol or illegal drugs either through intoxication at the time of the current offence or addiction; women were far more likely to attribute their offending to drugs than to alcohol;
• 78 per cent of regular offenders are regular drug users as compared to 15 per cent of non-regular offenders; and
• 95 per cent of drug-dependent women were regular offenders and their offending was more chronic.

Drug use clearly played a significant role with respect to both the offence that led to the current incarceration and the criminal histories of these women prisoners. Overlaps between the two indicate that intoxication at the time of the offence is symptomatic of a lifetime of drug problems requiring treatment. Compared to the DUCO male study, crimes committed by these female prisoners were more likely to be causally attributed to drug use. Women were more likely than men to attribute their offending to drug addiction or drug intoxication. This indicates that drug treatment should be widely available for women offenders, and that drug treatment programs may aid significantly in efforts to reduce criminal offending by women.