Factors affecting the growth of recidivism among drug addicts

According to various estimates, from 3 to 8 million people in Russia are taking drugs. More than half of drug users sooner or later become subjects of criminal prosecution to find themselves in places of deprivation of liberty. The causes that affect the growth of drug addiction and crime rate among drug addicts are various and depend on many factors. Some causes directly inducing people to use drugs are: 1) circumstances related to the development and structure of the organism (certain hereditary diseases, sex, age and other characteristics of an individual); 2) psychological causes connected with the personality, interests, habits, and mental abilities; 3) social causes (family, friends, fellow students, colleagues, education, profession, culture of society, religion, place of residence and historical time, as well as trends in drug abuse in a given period of time. Along with the above-stated causes, there are social factors that can be considered as primary in affecting the rate of drug addiction, and secondary ones, determining further criminal behaviour. A group of recidivists, who have been in places of deprivation of liberty many a time, demonstrate criminal behavior caused by the following group of factors: - firmly-established patterns of criminal behaviour connected with individual personality traits, persistent criminal activity, which causes repeated offence; - everyday, labour and domestic disorder upon returning from places of deprivation of liberty leading to the use of narcotic substances in order to escape from reality and problems; - drug dependence encouraging the use of substances and, as a consequence, leading to committing crimes to illegally obtain money for narcotic substances. These causes and factors, depending on the level of the individual’s criminal activity, more or less affect criminal behaviour. Their study, based on the analysis of criminal cases and opinion polls among convicts and those who are on preventive registration, is of paramount importance for the development of state policies aimed at crime prevention among the above-stated category of people, as far as it is labour disorder, lack of social ties, housing and decent living conditions as well as drug dependence that predetermine criminal activity and the growth of recidivism.

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