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

This analysis focuses on the role of substance misuse in offending behavior using Danni's case study. It includes relevant theories such as social control theory and strain theory, analysis of Danni's behavior, and recommendations for recovery and desistance. The recommended treatments include behavioral counseling, medication, and evaluation for co-occurring mental health issues and fear of domestic violence. The analysis emphasizes the need for care and love in treating Danni's addiction and mental instability.

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.

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
Therefore, as it is clear from the above analysis, Danni’s substance misuse has a big role to play in her
offending behavior. In a situation where she would have a reason to stop substance abuse, like being
allowed to meet her children and have a job then her offending behavior would reduce.
Section 3: Planning recovery and desistance (recommendations)
The substance abuse programs provides a personalized, integrative, inclusive and collaborative
approaches for talking regarding the addressing of the substance use and some of the other connected
issues. In this particular context of the case of Danni, some of the effective treatment program
includes the following.
The behavioral counseling forms the basic and the fundamental part of the substance misuse program
that needs to be provided to Danni for her nature of anxiety, depression and self-injurious behavior.
Furthermore medications are important for her combining with the behavioral therapies(Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment, 2019). Some of the other substance misuse programs includes the
medically assisted detoxification process for her drug addiction, evaluation and the procedure of the
treatment for the co-occurring of the issues related to her mental health and her fear from the instances
of domestic violence and dominance from partner. For the treatment of Danni, methadone, naltrexone
and buprenorphine in the substance misuse medication program. Furthermore nicotine replacement
program including the use of varenicline and bupropion are some of the recommended actions that is
ought to be provided to Danni.
Figure- The factors or the components of the treatments for Dannie
Source – (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2019)
The figure above highlights the factors that is included in the types or the categories of the substance
miscue programs that is needed to be provided to Dannie for her wellbeing. In the context of the

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
requirement of the sentence that has been passed against her due to her habit of shoplifting, these
factors or the programs for her treatment should be considered. The above stated factors are not the
requirements for the sentence that has been passed for her imprisonment or any sort of coercive
treatment(Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2019). This is because Dannie should be
treated with care and love and not coercive nature since this might worsen her mental stage and
condition.Coercive punishments within the prison or the confinement tends to worsen the mental state
of the patient making them more aggressive and inclined towards harming themselves.It is to be
understood that Dannie needs these treatments and the medication programs to be well since is a crack
heroin and cocaine addict and the lack of support from her partner, family and her children has been
making things worse for her since she is submerging in addiction more and more. Imprisonment and
coercive treatments and actions would not help her to recover from the mental instability and
addictions.
Towards the justification of the above stated recommendation the two most essential factors that can
be illustrated are the strain theory and the social learning theory ( Ali, Seitz-Brown & Daughters,
2015). In the current scenario, the strain theory is justified since the theory emphasizes the role of
emotions in the addiction. As per the theory, Dannie has been suffering from anxiety, fear from the
domestic violence she faced from her previous relations. Furthermore the loss of the contact with her
parents and sisters together with her children has led her in depression and adapt towards a self
injurious behavior which has influenced her towards engaging in addiction and criminal activity of
shoplifting.
The social learning theory furthermore justifies the scenario of Dannie who adopted the habit of
taking heroin and smoking crack cocainefrom the person she was in relation previously, Sam. She
furthermore has two children with him. Thus the theory of social learning justifies this case
illustrating the nature or behavior of Dannie by observing Dannie engaging in addictive behavior
which has developed the addiction within her.
There lies certain effectiveness towards the types of substance misuse programs that has been
explained in the above. The behavioral therapies and programs for Dannie will be effective for the
treatment of the addiction by modification of her attitudes, behavioral issues, help her to increase her
healthy life skills and persist her to take help with some of the other form of treatments like
medications, which is essential for her to get rid of her addiction and depression (Zweig et al., 2015).
The counselling and the behavioral therapies are furthermore effective for Dannie to improve her
nature shoplifting. The cognitive behavioral therapy, multidimensional family therapy and
motivational incentives are some of the effective contemporary approaches that would be beneficial
for Dannie to encourage her abstinence from cocaine and heroin.
The above section illustrates the factors or the programs that are beneficial for Dannie towards her
improvement of her nature and addiction that has been harmful for her health and personal
life(Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2019). Though Dannie has been convicted of
shoplifting, these settings should be provided in community basis. She should be taken to health care
rehabilitation centre for her treatment since custodial treatments would not be effective and beneficial
for her. This is because she might end up taking heroin and crack again after her release. Dannie
needs a community based rehabilitation and improvement program for herself which will not only
help her with the addiction but also from depression and substance abuses.
One of the most recommended method or treatment is the counselling and the outpatient behavioral
program that includes the cognitive behavioral therapy which will help Dannie to avoid, recognize
and cope up with certain situations of drug addiction. The multidimensional family therapy is also
beneficial for Dannie since she has been living without contacting her family members including her
sons from the last five years which has led her to go in clinical depression. This therapy will help in
addressing the range of the influences regarding the patter of the cocaine and heroin abuse and
improve in the family bonding of Dannie. Dannie furthermore needs treatment within any
rehabilitation centre which is free from custody. The therapeutic communities, which are basically
some of the highly structure substance abuse programs will be beneficial for her treatments,
influencing of her attitudes, improvement of her understanding and her behavior that are associated
with drugs (Grant et al., 2015). Some of the evidences related to the recommended practice are the
following. The medications and the devices are the tool for suppressing the withdrawal symptoms
during the detoxification. According to the reports by the food and drug administration (FDA), one of

HHD1003 – Assignment Two (Analysis)
the new and innovative indication of the electronic stimulation device has been beneficial for the
reduction of the symptoms of the opioid withdrawals (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,
2019). Besides these, relapse preventions can be helpful for the establishment of the normal brain
functions and the decrease of the cravings for cocaine and heroine. Approved by FDA,
Acamprosate is one of the effective medication treatment that will be beneficial for Dannie since it
helps in the reduction of insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, depression which are some of the major
factors causing Dannie severe addiction (Hasan et al., 2015).
In the consideration of the substance misuse of this individual in discussion, the period of intervention
should be long. This is because Dannie has been a chronic addict from several of years. Together with
the habit of regular smoking of cocaine and the injection of heroine, Dannie became addicted to both
the substances while being in a relation with a heroin addict. Furthermore being a victim of domestic
violence Dannie has adopted the traits of anxiety self injuries and depression. These has furthermore
been influence by the lack of family support and the drift from her children. The intervention plan
needs to be long since Dannie needs to get cured both physically and mentally. Her physical
challenges and issues includes self harm, recently adopted sexually transmitted disease, pains from
domestic and incest violence and abscesses caused due to the improper and harmful injection of
heroin in her body. Her mental challenges that needs to be treated contributing to the long intervention
includes the anxiety, depression, fear, lack of mental support from parents, sisters, partners and drift
from her children. Furthermore the impacts of the long intervention sentence will help her to deal with
her criminal mindset of shoplifting for which she got sentenced for imprisonment in the past.
Towards providing the justification for the impact of the long term intervention sentence which would
be effective and beneficial for Danni in the long run, the social learning theory can be justified
(Martínez-Vispo et al., 2018). This is because since the theory projects on the notion of an
individual’s adoption by the means of regular observation of an activity, Dannie will adopt to the
changes and the alteration of the activities of living a drug free life while taking the process of the
recovery actions in the rehabilitation centre by observing the other improving patients and the
counsellors (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2019). Furthermore with regular evaluation and the
counselling sessions, therapy sessions backed up by the process of the medications, Dannie will
definitely have changes in her emotions if she gets the proper support of her family and her children
and also her current partner which will impact on her traits of addiction; thus fulfilling and justifying
the strain theory.
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