Role of Substance Misuse in Offending Behavior: Analysis of Danni's Case Study

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
Scenario chosen: Danni’s Case Study
Section 1: Case summary
injecting heroin and smoking crack cocaine daily (addiction problem with heroin and
crack cocaine) (once addicted very hard to stop) (rehabilitation of these sorts of
drugs can have devastating effects on the body and mental state of an individual)
became addicted to both substances eight years ago (long term user, addiction level
very high, a lot of damage done by these drugs to the individual)
two children aged 12 and 10 from a previous relationship (doesn’t live with her children
as previous relationship partner is living with them) (depression from not seeing own children) (10
years not in relationship) (due to domestic violence)
Danni has not had contact with her parents or her sister Kate for the past five years
(no family connection, no love, depressed feelings)
Danni has previous convictions for shoplifting and was released from HM Prison
Style six weeks ago following a three-month (criminal record, been to prison, will be
on license, re offending again may be bad idea as can go back to jail).
She received a detoxification programme whilst in prison but began taking heroin
and crack again upon release. (shows that heroin and crack cocaine are very
dangerous drugs and that the addiction rate to these drugs is very high (not easy to
give up) – has tried to give up but returned back to drugs – shows addiction,
depression, very hard struggling life.
Previously Danni had council accommodation but lost her flat whilst in prison (no
home) – (She is currently living with a male partner who she describes as
‘controlling’.) which relates to her previous relationship with two children Sam who
she says had domestic violence involved in. (new male partner is also a heroin
addict – relates to male she met and first started doing drugs with (who was also a
heroin addict)
is due in court tomorrow to be sentenced for a further offence of shoplifting (been to
prison previously for shop lifting and has committed same offence again, to the judge
it may seem that she has not learnt her lesson by committing the same offence
again), ( needs to be taken in consideration that she is a crack cocaine and heroin
addict, with no job, no family supporting her, doesn’t see children, no partner, all
these effects will make her want to rob into feeding her addiction and drug habit to
heroin and crack cocaine.
Danni has a history of anxiety, depression and self-injurious behaviour. (also the
previous history will effect this such as the numerous amount of partners giving
abuse from domestic violence to controlling, going to prison and then being
sentenced again possibly, not seeing both children plays a role, not having own
house and losing it plays a roll, not seeing her family and not speaking to her sister
for five years plays a role, taking heroin and crack cocaine plays a role.)
has several abscesses caused by injecting heroin and is approximately one stone
below the recommended weight for her height,has a Sexually Transmitted Infection
(STI). (shows that her health is not in a good state therefore her mental health can

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
not be in a good state as she has absesses caused by injecting and she is below her
weight.
Section 2: Analysis of role of substance misuse in offending behaviour
Analysis of relevant theories
In the above-explained case study, Danni is a hardcore drug addict who has been on and off prison
owing to numerous offences, the most prominent being shoplifting. As discussed above, she is going
through several crises including domestic violence, separation from children and family,
imprisonment and so on. Her behavior has to be explained using theories of addiction that could help
in clearly comprehending her substance misuse and frequent offences. Theories explaining addiction
and its consequences to one’s behavior are abound in the literature. However, the theories that could
best explain Danni’s behavior include social control theory and strain theory.
According to Eitle, Eitle and Johnson-Jennings (2013), the general strain theory refers to the negative
experiences and relationships one develops with others and with the environment that leads that
individual into addiction. In the authors’ views, “negative experiences and negative relationships
produce strain in the individual that must be managed”. The authors further identified three primary
sources of strain that include:
 Failure to accomplish optimistically valued goals
 Threat of removal (or removal) of positively valued stimuli such as death or
separation of a close one
 Exposure to negative stimuli like abuse or violence
In Danni’s case, all these above sources of strain have actively worked to make her dependent to
substance use and consequent deviant behavior. For the first source, Danni completed five GCSEs and
yet could not finish her school as she left at the age of 16 and began working at a shop. Then, at 18
she entered into an abusive relationship that further took her away from her optimistically valued
goals. Secondly, she has been living separately from her two sons and has not had any contact with
her parents and sister for a long time. Hence, her substance use has been largely motivated by the
removal of her close ones. Lastly and most importantly, Danni has been exposed to abuse and
violence from a young age of 18 when she became a victim of domestic violence from her ex
boyfriend. It can be argued that these negative experiences led Danni to substance misuse and
offending. Gao, Wong and Yu (2016) however contradict the strain theory stating that the theory is
suited only for the poor class people who lack resources to lead a fulfilling life. They further state that
the theory does not take into account the intrapersonal and interpersonal facets of crime.
The social learning theory is another theory that could help analyze the behavior of the individual. this
theory states that an individual learns specific behaviors from the society. Ivan Pavlov was one of the
earliest theorists who proposed the social learning theory. He proposed the classical conditioning
model that shows the way humans learn from their direct environment. B. F. Skinner later developed

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
this theory and introduced operant conditioning (Archives.drugabuse.gov, 2019). In Danni’s case,
both classical conditioning and operant conditioning would have come from her experience with her
ex partner with whom she also has two children. As given in the case study, she became a heroin
addict after entering into a relationship with Sam, her ex partner who was a heroin addict himself.
Pauwels and Schils (2016) argue that the social learning theory not only helps understand the
addictive and offending behavior of an individual but also assists in rehabilitating them. The authors
highlight the social learning theory and the social cognitive theory proposed by Albert Bandura. The
theorist added the cognitive factors because he realized that while the environment influence an
individual’s behavior, the individual also influence the environment (Meichenbaum, 2017). In light of
this argument, it could be stated that Danni’s substance misuse is the result of the influence of her
environment while her continuous offence is the result of Danni influencing her environment. This
could be stated because she could have avoided being imprisoned again by not repeating the offence.
In the following sections, further discussion on the role of substance misuse in offending behavior
shall be conducted.
Role of substance misuse in offending behavior
As discussed above, Danni’s increasing inclination towards substance misuse has led her to commit
repeated offence. This offending behavior is the result of the heroin and crack cocaine influence and
partly a result of the failure of the society in providing effective rehabilitation. Stompe, Ritter and
Schanda (2018) conducted a study on some offenders with schizophrenia and found that illicit drug
abuse is one on the major contributors of offence whether it is healthy offence or not. This study
indicates that substance abuse has a deep influence on the offending behavior of the victim.
Furthermore, as Wooditch, Tang and Taxman (2014) have found, substance misuse leads to offending
behavior. They found this along with the antisocial cognition, marital and family associations and
antisocial associates.
Pierce et al. (2017) found in their study on opiate-positive individuals that the rates of offending
behavior becomes higher in them as opposed to those who tested negative on any kind of substance
misuse. The authors also found that the rate of offending in females is double than that in males. This
confirms Danni’s case, as she is a female too and is suffering from substance misuse and offending
behavior. Apart from this fact, Danni’s level of substance misuse is very high as evident from her case
study and hence, it becomes almost impossible to give up. In addition to that, she has severe financial
constraints with no place of own to live, no job and no family to support her. In such a scenario,
Danni finds no other option to meet her addiction needs than to commit an offense – shoplifting in
most cases. As Baglivio, Wolff, Piquero and Epps (2015) have found, the tendency of offending
behavior detected in juveniles have shown inclination to drug abuse and other addictions. It needs
mentioning that Danni had started work quite early in life (at the age of 16) and became a parent at
around 18 years of age to a heroin addict. She did not have much opportunity to purse the things she
had the caliber to do. With influence from her partner and consistent abuse, Danni lost the credibility
to have a job, her need for money increased with the increase in her substance misuse.
The case study also reveals that Danni is underweight and has numerous abscesses in her body due to
heroin injection. This shows the level of her addiction. Another fact that the case study revealed is that
after she lost her flat while in prison, she started living with a male partner who also is a heroin addict.
Danni also described the male partner to be very dominating. In light of these facts, it is evident that
Danni had, at first, no source from where the drugs could be easily available and hence she had to
shoplift. Secondly, she had no source of motivation that could help her stop substance use and the
consequent offending behavior. Robinson, Fischer, Ahuja, Lesser and Maniates (2015), state that the
lack of support and motivation contributes greatly towards the higher rates of offending behavior
amongst substance abusers. Therefore, as it is evident from Danni’s situation, she lacks motivation to
come out of addiction and stop offending behavior. The repeated incidences of shoplifting by Danni
relate to her high level of addiction, as she could find no other way to feed her addiction. Furthermore,
as described above, she has several issues that indicate that she does not have a stable mental health
and due to this, she commits repeated offenses.