Crime and Drug‐using Behavior

The purpose of this article was to examine the ecological perspective as an explanation of criminal and drug‐using behavior and to present data from a pilot study on the areal distribution of crime and drugs. We found that individuals engaged in narcotics use, those engaged in criminal behavior, and those engaged in both resided in the same area of the community. Those who used other types of drugs were less likely to reside in the same areas as those engaged in criminal behavior. Thus, we concluded narcotics users and criminals were drawn from the same population and both behaviors may be produced by the same environmental variables, rather than have an individual causal relationship.