National Case-Control Study of Homicide Offending and Methamphetamine Use.

Previous research suggests that methamphetamine use may lead to violence of various kinds. Our own research in Colorado indicates that a significant number of homicide offenders used methamphetamines. Building upon that potential relationship we use existing data to ask the following research question: Does methamphetamine use increase the likelihood that a person will commit a criminal homicide? We address this question using quantitative methods grounded in a case-control approach which links two originally separate samples into one large sample. The cases represent inmates in state and federal prisons interviewed by the U.S. Bureau of the Census between June and October 1997 in their Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities who had committed a homicide as an adult between 1990 and 1997. The controls consist of a general sample of U.S. adults (age 18 or older) interviewed in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997. We assess the association between methamphetamine use and homicide offending through the use of multivariate logistic regression. Results indicate that a statistically significant relationship between methamphetamine use and homicide does exist. However, the methamphetamine-homicide relationship it is no different than the relationship between general drug use (e.g., use of cocaine/crack, heroin, and marijuana) and homicide offending. Thus, there appears to be nothing unique about methamphetamine use and homicide offending. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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