DRAFT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT AS A TOOL IN DISRUPTION OF DRUG TRAFFIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000400040007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: May 15, 1972
• Content Type: PAPER

15 Ma 1972
Approved For Release 2001/03/97A: -RDP96-007 7 ~400 I-t-4
V4W
Problem
One attempt to reduce the "drug problem" is to disrupt or destroy the
drug delivery system somewhere between the point of origin and the consumer
in the United States thus making the hard drugs less available to the user.
Hopefully this intervention would assist in the alleviation of the drug problem,
although, of course, it might not lead to its elimination. The purpose of this
proposal is to offer a tool which might help in the. disruption process.
Background
Psychological assessment of individuals or groups is a technique that has
been practiced by psychologists and psychiatrists for a number of years. It
generally calls for the administration of a several of psychological tests and
face-to-face interviews. The technique is used for a variety of purposes,
ranging from the placement of people in appropriate vocational positions to
the treatment of people for a variety of neurotic symptoms..
In certain situations it is not possible for the assessors to have
direct access to the individual to be assessed. To handle these situations,
techniques have been developed to indirectly evaluate individuals or sub-
cultural groups. The indirect approach is more difficult and probably less
reliable but has been used successfully in several instances. It requires
considerable information about the individuals to be assessed such as
interviews with people who know them, observations of their behavior
under a variety of situations, their physical attributes, etc. The accuracy
of the personality picture then drawn is obviously correlated with the
quality of this material.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT AS A TOOL IN DISRUPTION OF DRUG TRAFFIC
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Indirect assessment is generally used to determine how an individual
will behave in a face-to-face situation or how he will function in a variety
of circumstances. For instance: how will he interact with his peers,
subordinates or superiors? How will. he react under different environment
either cultural or psychological? How will he behave under stress? What
are his strengths and weaknesses?
The Application of Indirect Assessment to the Hard Drug Disruption Process
One means of disrupting the channels of drug flow is to deal with the
key individuals involved in that channel. The technique of indirect assessment
will be helpful if (1) individuals in the organizations responsible for the
transporting or processing of drugs are known; and,(2) if the circumstances
in which these individuals operate is observable or has been observed.
Assessment from data on these people either on hand in the law enforce-
ment community or specifically gathered for indirect assessment purposes could
be used to better understand how key staff members of these organizations
behave in particular circumstances. Such questions could then be addressed
as "how might they be manipulated if their strengths and weaknesses are
known" and "What kinds of approaches might be made to these individuals who
are under pressure from the law enforcement community?"
The indirect assessment procedures to be utilized are based for
interpretation on a psychological assessment system tried and tested over a
25-year period. The data bank contains assessments and profiles on a wide
variety of subcultural groups both U.S. and foreign. The data bank includes
profiles of criminals, drug addicts, actors, political elites, military,
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business executives, and many other "types." The system does not depend
on specialized knowledge on such questionable concepts as the "military
mind" or the "criminal profile." Most behavioral scientists reject
stereotypes as a psychologically meaningful categorization of behavior,
rather the system recognizes the influence of.-environmental stress through
stimulus impingement, society's influence on the individual, through its
schools, neighborhoods, peer groups, etc. Thus, though there may be
clusters of similar behaviors related to a particular occupation or sub-
cultural group, this system permits flexibility in interpretation of these
groups in an ever changing psychological environment.
The assessors participating in this study have had experience ranging
over most of the subcultural profiles mentioned above and have access to
appropriate profile data banks for any statistical or comparative analyses.
All individuals do not react the same to similar stimuli nor do they
perceive a stimulus in the same way. By better understanding the needs and
motivations of various members of drug-flow organizations, more alternatives
for disrupting this traffic may become obvious. A better understanding of
the individuals and groups operating the drug traffic channels will provide
law enforcement personnel with potentially better predictions of how various
strategies might put more effective pressure on distribution procedures and
alternative routes of traffic. In addition, a study of the types of individuals
associated with these drug organizations may reveal communality of behavior
and.psychological sets, which could then be used more generally in the
interdiction of this traffic.
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Products From This Study
This study would lead to (1) assessments of key individuals in the
drug traffic organizations; (2) a better picture of the general behavior
and motivations of the drug trafficker beh-av-.or; (3) potential vulnerabilities
of the group and the key individuals for exploitation by law enforcement
personnel.
Required Assistance and Research Contribution
In order to be effective in psychological assessment of the drug
traffic culture and individuals, the law enforcement community must have
or be able to collect sufficiently good quality information about individuals
and subgroups involved. It may be a considerable amount of unanalyzed infor-
mation or data now exists that has not been appropriately exploited. Studies
of files now in existence would be helpful to the assessors. It may be that
certain information gathering would be required to fill the gaps on
individuals or groups.
The assessors should bring to the law enforcement community skills in
the assessment process, vigorous systematic. analysis of available data, and
skill in producing reports which would highlight approaches of vulnerabilities
to the system and to the key individuals. The study should thus result in
another tool to prevent the hard drugs from reaching the U.S. or allied
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