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Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence he has collated of links between (a)acquisitive and (b) violent crime and the use of (i) cannabis, (ii) amphetamines, (iii) LSD, (iv) cocaine, (v) ecstasy, (vi) heroinand (vii) crack. [66664]Mr. Bob Ainsworth: No statistical data are collected on offences that may have been committed due to specific drug taking. However,the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) research published between 1998 and 2001 sheds some light on thelinks between drugs and acquisitive crime. The research is insufficiently advanced to reveal the precise links between drugs andviolent crime.What the most recently published research does indicate is that users of both heroin and cocaine/crack (just under a quarter of thearrestees interviewed) are responsible for more than 60 per cent of the illegal income reported. Furthermore, 53 per cent of thearrestees reported having committed one or more acquisitive crimes in the last year. This increased to 62 per cent of those who hadused any drug in the past 12 months, and 75 per cent of those who had used heroin and/or cocaine/crack in the last year. The lattergroup reported an average of 432 acquisitive crimes in the year--nearly 10 times the rate for non-drug-users. Therefore, drug use ingeneral, and especially use of heroin and/or cocaine/crack, is associated with higher levels of crime.There is little evidence of any strong links between acquisitive or violent crime and cannabis, amphetamine, ecstasy or LSD use. |