Methamphetamine use and violence among young adults

The current research analyzed the relationship between methamphetamine use and violence among young adults eighteen to twenty-five years old. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 106 respondents. The research was based primarily on in-depth, life-history interviews with individuals who used methamphetamine for a minimum of three months and who resided in Los Angeles County. Of the 106 respondents, 37 (34.9 percent) had committed violence while under the influence of methamphetamine. Males comprised two-thirds of the 37 respondents (N=24). Of the total sample, 38 percent of males and 30 percent of females committed methamphetamine-related violence, respectively. Overall, the 37 respondents reported fifty-four separate violent events while using methamphetamine. Of these fifty-four events, thirty-three (61.1 percent) acts of violence involved domestic relationships, nine (16.7 percent) of the violent events were drug related, seven (13 percent) were gang related, and five (9.3 percent) involved random acts of violence (e.g., road rage, stranger assault). The findings suggest that methamphetamine use is a risk factor for violence. There was, however, no evidence of a single, uniform career path that all chronic methamphetamine users follow. Violence is not an inevitable outcome of even chronic methamphetamine use. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.