A PhD student from the University of Leicester is looking to recruit participants to take part in a study examining the relationship between those who take drugs and those who commit crimes. Tammy Ayres of the School of Psychology will be comparing male drug using offenders with male drug using non-offenders to see whether there are any differences between drug users who commit crime and those who do not.
She said: “This research provides drug users with an opportunity to have their say, which will not only help to engender a better understanding of the role drugs play in people’s lives, but examine the over exaggerated relationship between drug use and crime thus helping to provide a more realistic overview of the drug-crime relationship.”
She would like to recruit both drug users without a criminal record (i.e. no police cautions, have never been charged with a criminal offence or been found not guilty if charged) and drug users with a criminal record. Confidentiality and anonymity are guaranteed.
Tammy, who became a University Tutor in the Department of Criminology in 2007, said: “Drugs and crime have become inextricably linked in contemporary discourse; particularly dominant is the notion that drug use causes crime, which underpins current drug policy and treatment.
“However, although many people with a criminal record use drugs, they are not problematic users and report little to no connection between their drug use and offending.
“It is true that drugs are more prevalent in offender populations than criminality is in drug-using populations, but there is a lack of research explaining why some drug using offenders control their use whilst others do not or how this relates to criminality.
If you are a drug user with or without a criminal record and would like to take part in her PhD research please use the following links:
Drug users with a criminal record http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BQKFUCB58
Drug users without a criminal record – http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CJ53PXHUN/
You can also access the surveys via her staff webpage: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/criminology/people/tca2
Questions will be asked regarding your childhood, family and drug use. Responses will be held in confidentiality.
