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"Dope Fiend" Mythology

1940; Northwestern University Press; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1136356

2160-0015

Alfred R. Lindesmith,

Crime Patterns and Interventions

During the last fifty or so years there has grown up in the United States a body of stereotyped misinformation about drug addicts.2 Sensational articles and newspaper accounts have harped upon the theme of the 'dope-crazed killer' or the 'dope fiend rapist' until the public has learned to depend upon this sort of literature as it depends upon the output of fanciful detective mysteries. The fact that the monstrous persons depicted exist mainly as figments of the imagination does not alter the fact that this mythology plays an important role in determining the way in which drug addicts are handled. Among serious students of the problem and among others who have some actual first hand contact