Narcotics and Criminality

ANNUAL REPORTS (n.d.).admissions in the period 1937-41, and only twenty-seven per cent of such admissions in the period 1947-51.These data appear unequivocally to evince the changing character of the narcotics addict population, which, since the early thirties, has more and more, both absolutely and proportionately, come to be comprised of adolescent and young-adult age groups.But what are the types of offenses, apart from narcotic drug law violations, for which these addicts have been arrested?Is there any substance to the common notion that a high proportion of crimes committed by addicts are crimes of violence?The organization of the Narcotic Bureau of the Chicago Police Department in i95o made possible the collection of data about the arrests of all known narcotics users which sheds some light in this area.From these data for the year i95i, it has been possible to classify these arrests and to determine the percentage distribution of the more serious types of offenses among addicts vis a' vis the population at large.These TABLE II