Drugs use and petty crimes: A study with prisoners of Blumenau Regional Prison

This is a exploratory and qualitative research paper. It is considered a research-action because it involved interventions with subjects that were part of the research. It could be seen from work done in Blumenau Regional prison, that a relation between drugs use and petty crimes was common among prison populations. The objective of this research was to understand the relationship between subjects responsible for petty crimes and the use of drugs. Ten male prisoners, aged between 20 and 32 were selected. All were recidivists and drug users, receiving sentences for theft, robbery, assault or drug traffic. Categories, based on Bardin’s methodology, were developed to analyze prisoners accounts. It could be seen from the accounts that, from their childhoods onwards, prisoners suffered situations of violence which began in their family environments. These violence situations expanded into the community and were repeated in corrective institutions for adolescents and later in prisons. The drug use became a palliative for the alleviation of negative feelings. It could be perceived that drug use and petty crimes were interrelated: a perfect partnership for law breaking.