Psychoactive substance intake and gender on crime

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of psychoactive substance (alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) intake and gender on crime. Three hundred and eighty participants (380) were randomly selected from inmates as models of prisons in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The participants comprised 314 males (82.63%) and 66 females (17.37%) with the mean age of 28.3 years. The design of the study was a survey. In this study four hypotheses were predicted. The first hypothesis indicates that there was a statistically significant influence of alcohol intake on crime committed among prisoners, X2 (df=4, N = 380) = 29.51, p<0.01. The result of the second hypothesis indicates that there was also a significant influence of marijuana intake on crimes committed among prisoners, X2 (4, N = 380) = 38.1, p<0.01. Hypothesis three indicates that Cocaine intake does not significantly influence crime committed among prisoners, X2 (4, N = 380) = 12.32, ns. While the result of hypothesis four indicates there was no significant difference in crimes committed among male and female prisoners, X2 (2, N = 380) = 0.12, ns. The findings of the present study were discussed in the context of previous studies. The policy implications of the findings in this study were also discussed.