Drug Crimes and Merton’s Anomie Research Paper

Introduction

In the U.S, illegal drugs are linked to crime in various ways. It is a big offense to have drugs or to engage in the production and distribution of those drugs that are considered to have the possibility of being abused. The production and trafficking of illicit drugs are under the control of organized crime groups and drug cartels.

Statistics of Drug Crime

It is pointed out that in the year 2002, approximately 25 percent of the convicted drug as well as property offenders in the local prisons had engaged in committing those crimes to get funds for drugs in comparison with five percent of the public order as well as violent offenders (Dorsey, 2009). Moreover, in the year 2004, there was the same trend among the State convicts, having thirty percent property criminals and twenty-six percent drug criminals having a high likelihood of perpetrating crimes to obtain cash for drugs as compared to the ten percent violent criminals as well as seven percent public-order criminals. On the other hand, in the Federal jails, the property criminals, constituting eleven percent, were less likely by fifty percent than the drug offenders constituting twenty-five percent to point out the drug money as being a motivation for committing the offenses (Dorsey, 2009).

It is also reported that in the year 2004, seven percent of the State inmates in the United States jails and eighteen percent of the Federal prisoners pointed out that they engaged in committing offenses to receive money for the drugs (Dorsey, 2009). The percentages are a representation of an increase for the Federal inmates from sixteen percent in the year 1997 and a decrease for the State inmates from nineteen percent in the year 1997 (Dorsey, 2009).

Drug Crime and its Effects

Drug abuse, as well as drug addiction, is linked to the crime related to drugs. In a number of the jurisdictions of the United States, it has been reported that “benzodiazepine misuse by criminal detainees has surpassed that of opiates” (Yacoubian, 2003, p.127). Moreover, studies that have been conducted relating to the crime related to drugs have established that the misuse of drugs is linked to several crimes which are partially linked to the invincibility feelings that can turn out to be mainly marked with abuse. The challenging crimes that are linked to this include property crime, shoplifting, and drug dealing among others (Australian Government National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, 2007). Moreover, the studies conducted in Australia established that the consumers of benzodiazepine have a high likelihood of becoming violent and they are also reported to have a high likelihood of having been in police custody, and they also have a higher likelihood of having encountered criminal charges as compared to the ones that have been using opiates. The illegal benzodiazepines majorly come from the medical experts but find their way onto the illegal scene as a result of doctor shopping as well as diversion. Even if just quite a small fraction came from the fake prescriptions as well as stealing among other illegal ways, it is majorly benzodiazepine and not opiates, which are targeted partly for the reason that benzodiazepines are normally kept in vaults and there are no stern laws that control their storage as well as prescription of many of these drugs. It is reported that Temazepam “accounts for most benzodiazepine sought by forgery of prescriptions and through pharmacy burglary in Australia” (National Drug Strategy; National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, 2007, p.1).

It has been found out that there has been utilizing of the benzodiazepines by serial killers among other killers as a tool for their killing operations. These drugs have also been utilized in facilitating robbery as well as rape crimes and benzodiazepine dependence has been associated with activities such as shoplifting “due to the fugue state induced by the chronic use of the drug” (Tang, Pang, & Ungvari, 1996, p.265). Where there is utilizing of benzodiazepine for criminal activities against a particular victim, these drugs are usually put in drinks or food (Ohshima, 2006).

It is reported that midazolam, as well as temazepam, are found to be the most widespread forms of benzodiazepines that are utilized in facilitating date rape (Negrusz & Gaensslen, 2003). There has been an abuse of alprazolam to commit incept as well corrupting the teenage girls (Kintz, et al., 2005). But on the other hand, alcohol remains to be the well-known drug that is associated with drug rape instances (Weir, 2001). It is also reported that even if ethanol, as well as benzodiazepines, are the most common substances that are utilized in sexual abuse, “GHB is another potential date rape drug that has received increased media focus” (Saint-Martin, et al., 2006, p.145).

Drug Crimes and Merton’s Anomie

Robert Merton came up with a theoretical framework to explain the rates of crime which was different from that which was set up by the “Chicago School of criminologists” (“Review of the roots of youth violence”, 2010, p.1). He presented an argument that it was the strict devotion to the conservative American values which brought in increased crime rates as well as deviance. In the actual sense, Merton held a belief that the most common compliance with the American value and the American passion with the economic prosperity, in particular, created increased levels of such serious crimes as a drug crime. Getting to understand the reason for Merton making such an argument calls for having to understand the way he looked at American society (Merton, 1938).

Robert Merton pointed out that the U.S puts extraordinary emphasis on economic prosperity. Even more unusual is the way such an emphasis tends to be general. All the people in the American society, from the rich to the poor, credit the “American Dream” that in case a person was just having a willingness to engage in working hard adequately, he or she would, without doubt, receive economic gains from such work. However, according to Merton, the problem is that; despite the most common faith in the potential for “upward social mobility, the American social structure limits individuals’ access to the goal of economic success through legitimate means” (“Review of the roots of youth violence”, 2010, p.1). For instance, on one hand, the possibility of achieving economic possibility would be promoted by receiving a college education, on the other hand, it is not every member of the American society that is in a position to do this. The members of this society that are found at the bottom of the “social-economic ladder” are especially defenseless and this is because of their comparatively underprivileged position in fighting towards acquiring wealth.

In the actual sense, the work presented by Robert Merton carried a discussion about the way social structure, as well as a culture, could bring about increased rates of crime. There is no matching of the emphasis put on achieving economic prosperity by a simultaneous normative emphasis put on what ways are lawful for attaining the desired objective. Subsequently, this problem is intensified by the component of the social structure that Merton discusses which points out the structural obstacles that might play a role in limiting people’s access to lawful means for achieving the objective of economic prosperity. Such a disjunction “between culturally ascribed goals and the availability of legitimate means to attain such goals, in turn, puts pressure on the cultural norms that guide what means should be used to achieve the culturally prescribed goal” (“Review of the roots of youth violence”, 2010, p.1).

Such weakening of the cultural norms was referred to by Robert Merton as “anomie”. The taking up of this term was based on the reference made by Durkheim (1897) to the normative order weakening within society. Robert Merton went ahead to point out that there will be deteriorating of institutionalized standards, and there will be coming in of anomie in those societies which attach great importance on the economic prosperity. In case this comes about, working towards prosperity is not directed by the normative measures of what is moral or immoral anymore. He points out that instead, “the sole significant question becomes: which of the available procedures is most efficient in netting the culturally approved value?” (Merton, 1968, p.189). This is the main reason why drug crime is very common in American society. People engage in drug trafficking to achieve economic prosperity. Others use the drugs and engage in committing crimes to achieve economic gains.

References

Australian Government National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (2007). Benzodiazepine and pharmaceutical opioid misuse and their relationship to crime. Web.

Dorsey, T. L. (2009). Drugs and crime facts. U.S Department of Justice. Web.

Durkheim, E. (1897). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. New York, N.Y: Free Press.

Kintz, P. Et al. (2005). Identification of alprazolam in hair in two cases of drug-facilitated incidents. Forensic Science International , 153 (2), 222–6

Merton, R.K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York, N.Y: Free Press.

Merton, R.K. (1938). Social structure and anomie. American Sociological Review, 3(1), 672−682.

National Drug Strategy; National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (2007). Benzodiazepine and pharmaceutical opioid misuse and their relationship to crime – An examination of illicit prescription drug markets in Melbourne, Hobart and Darwin. Web.

Negrusz ,A. & Gaensslen R.E. (2003). Analytical developments in toxicological investigation of drug-facilitated sexual assault. Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, 376 (8), 1192–7.

Ohshima, T. (2006). A case of drug-facilitated sexual assault by the use of flunitrazepam. Journal of clinical forensic medicine, 13 (1), 44–5.

Review of the roots of youth violence: literature reviews, Volume 5, Chapter 6: Strain theories. (2010). Web.

Saint-Martin, P, et al.. (2006). Chemical submission: a literature review. Therapie, 61 (2), 145–50.

Tang, C.P, Pang A.H, & Ungvari G.S. (1996). Shoplifting and robbery in a fugue state. Medicine, science, and the law , 36 (3), 265–8

Weir, E. (2001). Drug-facilitated date rape. Journal of Canadian Medical Association, 165 (1), 80

Yacoubian, G.S. (2003). Correlates of Drug use among a sample of arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program. Substance Use & Misuse, 38 (1), 127–39