| 21/05/2004 Action needed to
tackle drug related crime
PRESSRELEASE 21 May 2004
Substance misuse and violent crime: Population study. BMJ,
328, pp 1233-1234.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of all violent crimes are committed by people
who seriously misuse alcohol or drugs, finds a study from Sweden
in this week's BMJ.
Interventions to reduce the risk of violence in these patients
would help to cut the enormous costs of drug related crime, which
is estimated to be around £1bn annually in the United Kingdom.
Researchers used national psychiatric and crime registers in Sweden
from 1998 to 2000 to calculate the impact of substance misuse on
violent crime in the Swedish population.
During 1998-2000, 16% of all violent crimes in Sweden were committed
by people who were discharged from hospital with diagnoses of alcohol
misuse, and more than a tenth of all violent crimes were committed
by patients diagnosed as having misused drugs.
The overall proportion of violent crimes in the whole population
that may be attributed to patients with substance misuse was 23%.
Integrating mental health and substance misuse services leads to
improved outcomes. This integration should be extended to the criminal
justice system, say the authors.
The costs to the criminal justice system of drug related crime
are enormous. Interventions to reduce the risk of violence in patients
who misuse alcohol and drugs could be highly cost effective, they
conclude.
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