Drug addiction, recidivism, and mental health amongst community-based offenders

Abstract

Criminal offences and Drug Addiction pose as a common risk denominator in every country. While the definitions of Addiction and Mental Health may be understood on a general level and in many settings, Recidivism is a vague term with multiple definitions. In this study, Addiction was defined as a repetitive cycle of substance abuse while Recidivism was defined as reoffending or engaging constantly in criminal behaviour. Mental Health was defined as distress to the general wellbeing of the individual. While these terms can be comprehensive, this study sought to understand the causality between Drug Addiction and Recidivism and the causality between Drug Addiction and Mental Health. This study examined 100 active case files of community-based offenders within the Department of Probation and Parole. This was accomplished with the means of a variable checklist, where important details about the three variables were included to acquire comprehensive detail. This was done using a quantitative analysis to determine the possible association between the mentioned variables. The results of this study conclude that the rate of Drug Addiction, Mental health, and Recidivism was 71%, 47%, and 82% respectively. Furthermore, by analysis of these rates, there appeared to be a statistical association between Drug Addiction and Recidivism, while no association was concluded between Drug Addiction and Mental Health.