Drugs, Crime and Social Policy (CRIM 6970)

Spring, 2007
Dr. Charles Faupel

Office: HC 7022
Phone: 844-2820
e-mail: faupece@auburn.edu

Course Description

Drugs, Crime and Social Policy is intended as a focused course on the relationship between drug use and crime, and the implications of this relationship for drug policy in the United States. 

Course Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• recognize the broad types of drugs and the major drugs comprising each type
• articulate the major theoretical positions regarding the relationship between drug use and crime
• identify  the major sources of data on drug use and crime
• recite major empirical findings on the relationship between drug use and crime
• appreciate the subcultural context of drug use and crime
• recognize major approaches to drug policy in the United States
• articulate appropriate policy in relationship to the theoretical positions on drug use and crime
  

Required Texts

Faupel, Charles E., Shooting Dope. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1991

Gaines, Larry K. and Peter B. Kraska,  Drugs, Crime, and Justice: Contemporary Perspectives  (2nd ed.).  Prospect Heights, IL:  Waveland Press, 2002

Various articles located on e-reserve in the library (ER)

Course Requirements

1. Students are expected to attend all classes.
2. There will be one exam, a take-home final.
3. All students will be expected to participate in a debate on some issue in drug use or drug policy (see below).
4. All students will be expected to write a position paper on some issue in drug use or drug policy (see below).
5. Graduate students will be required to write a comprehensive topical paper on any topic related to the subject matter of this course (see below).
6. Required readings are to be completed to the class for which they arc assigned.
   

Basis for Course Grade

Presentation...........................................15%
Discussion.............................................15%
Drugs/Crime Paper ...............................20%
Social Policy Paper................................20%
Final Exam.............................................30%

TOTAL...............................................100%

Grading will be straight scale: 90+=A; 80-89=B; 70-79=C; 60-69=D.

AVAILABILITY OF INSTRUCTOR

Office hours are posted at the top of this syllabus. If you need to see me at a time other than the posted hours do not hesitate to contact me. My first priority as your professor is to enhance your learning experience. You are never imposing on my time if it can contribute to your learning experience.

E-mail availability:  I can be contacted by e-mail.  You may use e-mail me for "nuts and bolts" type questions (e.g., scheduling, to inform me of an absence--though see the policy on class attendance and make-up work below).  I do NOT respond to substantive questions by e-mail (e.g., detailed questions about material you are studying for the exam).  I require that you stop by my office if you need any sort of substantive review.  Normally, I respond to e-mails within one "business day."  (If you e-mail me on Friday, I will usually get back to you by the following Monday.)

Format of the Course

This course will be primarily seminar/discussion in nature, though the first 2 or 3 weeks will be lecture.  Thereafter, students will be responsible for presenting and discussing course content.

Explanation of Course Requirements

Presentation and Discussion

Students will be assigned articles to present  during the first 2 weeks of class.  The presentation will include:

• a summary of the article
• a critique of the article (this may include methodological flaws, theoretical shortcomings, ideological disagreements, etc.)
• leading the class in discussion of the article

All students will be expected to participate substantially to the discussions for all articles.

Drugs/Crime Paper

This paper will focus on some aspect of the drugs/crime relationship.  The following are offered merely as suggestions:

• Focus on a specific drug, such as crack, alcohol or marijuana with regard to its relationship to criminal behavior
• Examine the relationship between drugs and crime historically
• Look at both drug use and crime as a career, and interpret this relationship through a careers perspective
• A meta-analysis of the literature examining support for the various theories of the drugs/crime nexus

Papers are to be prepared according to the following guidelines:

• A minimum of 12 pages in length
• A minimum of 10 scholarly references, integrated throughout your discussion
• Include a title page indicating title, author (you), class and date
• Use headings to separate the major sections of your paper.
• Use ASA-style referencing
   

Social Policy Paper

Your second paper will be a social policy paper.  Here, you will examine an area of social policy with respect to drugs and crime and make recommendations for such a policy based on the research that has been conducted.  The following are offered merely as suggestions:

• Harm reduction as a social policy applied to one or more aspects of drug use (e.g., drug education, treatment, etc.)
• Target a particular population group (e.g., women) for policy suggestions in a particular area (e.g., drug treatment)
• Examine an current issue in drug policy for purpose of making a reasoned recommendation (e.g., needle exchange, medical marijuana)
• Examine each of the three broad policy options (prohobition, legalization and decriminalization) with regard to their impact on crime

As with the drugs/crime papers, these papers are to be prepared according to the following guidelines:

• A minimum of 12 pages in length
• A minimum of 10 scholarly references, integrated throughout your discussion
• Include a title page indicating title, author (you), class and date
• Use headings to separate the major sections of your paper.
• Use ASA-style referencing
   

Course Outline
(Tentative)

Week 1: The Psychoactive Drugs: An Overview

• Gaines and Kraska: Ch. 2
• Film: Altered States: A History of Drug Use in America

Week 2:  Defining A Sociological Approach to Drug Use 

• Gaines and Kraska Ch. 1,3
• ER: Lindesmith, "Dope Fiend Mythology"; Reinarman, "The Social Construction of Drug Scares"

Week 3:  Measuring Drug Use and Crime  

• ER: Reuter, "Drug Use Measures: What Are They Really Telling Us?" ; Harrison, Understanding the Differences in Youth Drug Prevalence Rates Produced by the MTF, NHSDA and YRBS Studies; Sloan et al., Respondent Misreporting of Drug Use in Self-Reports.

Week 4: Theoretical Linkages Between Drug Use and Crime

• Gaines and Kraska Ch. 4, 5
• ER: Goldstein, "The Drugs/Violence Nexus"; Fagan, "Intoxication and Aggression"

Week 5: Empirically Examining Drug Use and Crime I: Quantitative Approaches

• ER: Inciardi, "Heroin Use and Street Crime"; Nurco et al., "Differential Criminal Patterns of Narcotic Addicts Over An Addiction Career"; Deschenes and Anglin, "Narcotics addiction: Related criminal careers, social and economic costs"

Week 6: Empirically Examining Drug Use and Crime II: Qualitative Approaches

• Gaines and Kraska, Ch. 6
• ER: Faupel, "Drugs-Crime Connections: Elaborations from the Life Histories of Hard-Core Heroin Addicts"; Walters, "'Taking Care of Business' Updated: A Fresh Look at the Daily Routine of the Heroin User" ; Fields and Walters, "Hustling: Supporting a Heroin Habit"

Week 7: Careers in Drug Use and Crime

• Faupel, Shooting Dope;

• ER, Coombs, "Drug Abuse As Career"

Week 8: The Illegal Drug Industry

• Gaines and Kraska: Ch. 8, 9, 10, 11

• Goldstein et al., "The Marketing of Street Heroin in New York City"

Weeks 8-9: Drugs, Crime and Social Policy I: General Policy Orientations

• Gaines and Kraska: Ch. 20

• ER: Nadelmann, "The Case for Legalization"; Inciardi and McBride, "Legalization: A High-Risk Alternative in the War on Drugs"; Jacobs, "Imagining Drug Legalization": Trebach, "Why Not Decriminalize?";

Weeks 10-11: Drugs, Crime and Social Policy II: Drug Law Enforcement

• Gaines and Kraska:  Ch.  12, 13, 14

• ER: Harris, "Driving While Black"

Week 12: Drugs, Crime and Social Policy III: Drug Treatment

• Gaines and Kraska: Ch. 16, 17

• ER: Faupel, "A Theoretical Model for a Socially Oriented Drug Treatment Policy"; Hubbard et al., "Overview of 1-Year Follow-Up Outcomes in the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study"

Week 13: Drugs, Crime and Social Policy IV: Drug Education

• Gaines and Kraska: Ch. 15

• ER: Tobler and Stratton, "Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature; Ennett et al., How Effective is Drug Abuse Resistance Education? A Meta-Analysis of Project DARE Outcome Evaulations"

Week 14: Drugs, Crime and Social Policy V: Harm Reduction as Social Policy

• ER: Nadelmann, "Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug Prohibition"; Nadelmann, "Commonsense Drug Policy"; Rosenbaum, "Kids, Drugs and Drug Education: A Harm Reduction Approach": Roe, "Harm Reduction as Paradigm:  Is Better than Bad Good Enough?  The Origins of Harm Reduction.

Week 15: Open Forum

Policy on Class Attendance and Makeup Work (Including Exams)

The policy on class attendance is simple: class attendance is required. Any number of mechanisms may, at the professor's discretion, be implemented to enforce this policy: attendance may be taken; announced or unannounced quizzes may be given; in all circumstances, if you miss class for whatever reason, it will be your responsibility as a student to acquire the information that you missed on your own.

If you must miss for whatever reason, including university-recognized excuses, it is mandatory that you inform the professor in advance of the class day that you will miss, except in those circumstances that absolutely prohibit such notification (e.g., that you were in an accident on the way to class). If you fail to notify the professor prior to a scheduled exam or due date on an assignment, you will not be allowed to make up this work or turn it in late. This policy is in effect for university-recognized excuses as well as other excuses not officially recognized by the university.

The student may contact the professor in advance in any of the following ways: (1) by phone (provided at the top of this syllabus; (2) by e-mail (provided at the top of the syllabus); or (3) in person. In all cases, it is the student's responsibility to be certain that the professor has received the message. If notification is by telephone, talk with the professor personally if at all possible, or at least emphasize to the secretary that it is extremely important that I get the message prior to the date and time of the class. In the case of e-mails, I will respond, acknowledging that I have received the e-mail. It is absolutely critical that you follow these steps if you are to be allowed to make up any missed work. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

It is the policy of Aauburn University ro provide accessibility to its programs and activities and reasonable accommodation for persons defined as having disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

If any student has a certifiable disability, he or she should contact the Program for Students with Disabilities located in 1234 Haley Center, (334)844-2096. All reasonable accommodations will be made for students with appropriate documentation from the Program for Students with Disabilities. This documentation must be presented prior to or within the first week of class.

EARLY WITHDRAWAL

Students may withdraw from the course without grade penalty until the mid-term date for the semester.  (Check the calendar on the university website for the specific date.)  Any withdrawal prior to this date will simply be designated on your transcript as a "W" and will not affect your grade point average.
 

POLICY ON CHEATING

Auburn University expects students to pursue their academic work with honesty and integrity. Violations of this principle may include:

• The possession, receipt, or use of any material or assistance not authorized in the preparation of any essay, laboratory report, examination, or class assignment to be submitted for credit as a part of a course or to be submitted in fulfillment of a University requirement. The possession, receipt, or use of unauthorized material while an exam or quiz is in progress, or cheating. of any other nature, will be a violation of the Code.
  

• Knowingly giving assistance to another in such preparation.
  

• Selling, giving, lending, or otherwise furnishing to any other person any material which can be shown to contain the questions or answers to any examination scheduled to be given at some subsequent date in any course of study, excluding questions and answers from tests previously administered and returned to a student by the instructor.
  

• The submission of themes, essays, term papers, tests, design projects, similar requirements or parts thereof that are not the work of the student submitting them. When direct quotations are used, they should be indicated, and when the ideas of another are incorporated into a paper, they must be appropriately acknowledged. Almost every student has heard the term "plagiarism." Nevertheless, there is a danger of failing to recognize either its full meaning or its seriousness. In starkest terms, plagiarism is stealing -- using the words or ideas of another as if they were one's own. If, for example, another person's complete sentence, syntax, key words, or the specific or unique ideas and information are used, one must give that person credit through proper documentation or recognition, as through the use of footnotes.
  

• Altering or attempting to alter an assigned grade on any official University record. This violation may also be subject to review and action by the Student Disciplinary Committee.
  

• An instructor may delineate in advance other actions he or she considers a violation of the Code. For example, the teacher may consider dishonest or unethical the submission of papers substantially the same in content for credit in more thane one course unless specific permission has been given in advance.

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