Drug use and drug trafficking are examined as etiological factors in the creation of violence. A conceptual framework is presented for examining the drugs/violence nexus. Drugs and violence are seen as being related in three possible ways: the psychopharmacological, the economically compulsive, and the systemic. Each of these models is examined in depth. The quality of data available in existing national crime data bases to explicate these relationships is assessed.

Drug use self-reports were compared with urinalysis for 248 clients in four methadone treatment programs. The validity of self-reporting based on urinalysis as a criterion depended on the type of drug examined. Opiate reporting was least valid, while benzodiazepine and cocaine reporting were moderately and highly valid, respectively. EMIT urinalysis was far more useful as a criterion of validity than TLC urinalysis. Self-reports helped identify drug users who were missed by urinalysis because of the latter's limited detection period, but urinalysis in turn detected an equal number of drug users missed by the interviews. The age of clients and the type of interviewer directly affected the rate of underreporting. Some respondents systematically denied disvalued behaviors (i.e., drug use and criminality), leading to a spurious correlation between these behaviors. This has important implications for future research.

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This article reports findings from two studies, Drug Related Crime Analysis 1 (DRCA-H1) and Drug Related Crime Analysis 2 (DRCA-H2). Both addressed the need for routine and systematic collection of data about the drug-relatedness of homicide. DRCA-H1, conducted in New York State in 1984, focused on assessing the usefulness of existing police records for researching this subject. DRCA-H2 involved data collection during ongoing police investigations in New York City between March 1 and October 31, 1988. Both studies were structured and their findings analyzed in terms of a tripartite conceptualization of the drugs/homicide nexus. Comparing the findings of the studies reveals that existing police records are generally inadequate for providing insight into the complexities of the drugs/crime/violence nexus. However, findings from DRCA-H2 show that it is possible for researchers to work effectively with police to collect critically needed information, without causing significant disruption.

Wide the relationsliip between drugs and homicide has often been documented, its full extent and complexity are not well known. Using data front a shidy of 414 liomicide events coiiiiiiitted in New Yorlc City during eight niontlis of 1988, this analysis explores that relationsliip. I I~ addition, data are analyzed for 266 perpetrators and 236 victims of those cases. By conservative estiiiiale, more than half of the homicide events were found to have been drug-related. 111 addition, it was determined that many that were not dnig-related either took place at a known dnig location, 26 Joiinial of Clime atid Justice involved perpetrators and/or victims who were ktiowtt by the police to have beeti itivolved with dtiigs atid dmg trajjcl~itig or itivolved perpetrators and/or victims with ptior ofjicial critiiitial records for dmg sales or possession. Tlie firidirigs siiggest that lethal violence or homicide to a large extent is fociised 011 conttiiunities of people directly or indirectly irivolved wit11 dnigs or dnig trafficki~ig.