Craving for Gambling Predicts Income-Generating Offenses: A Pathways Model of a Japanese Prison Population

AbstractThe links between gambling and criminal offenses have been frequently reported, but the pathways from gambling to a particular offense have not. Our study applied a pathways model to predict participants ’ income-generating, drug-related, and violent offenses stemming from their craving for gambling. The participants were 332 male inmates in a Japanese local prison. They answered questionnaires on gambling behavior, alcohol addiction, Internet addiction, impulsivity, and psychopathy. Their officia l records with information on their current offense, sentence length, number of imprisonments, and length of education were also analyzed. The results show that 38.55% (n = 128) of the participants had a probable gambling disorder, a rate of problem gambling at least four times higher than that among the general Japanese population. Furthermore, their craving for gambling predicted their income-generating offenses, but not their drug-related and violent offenses . Their craving for gambling can thus be linked to their financial issues, rather than their emotional and impulsive issues. The pathways model explained the path not only from addiction/psychopathy to gambling, but also from gambling to committing an income-generating offense.
Source: Journal of Gambling Studies - Category: Addiction Source Type: research