Drug related crime Flashcards
Bennett 3 fold definition:
- Drug offences (consumption, possession & supply)
- Drug related crime (theft to fund habit, gang warfare)
- Drug trafficking (systemic - crimes indirectly caused by drug use)
substance use has strong links to committing crime…
Blair (2001): most crime is committed by a set of persistent offenders, half of which are under 21 and 2/3 use drugs
what is the estimated annual cost of drug related offending? (mainly acquisitive crime)
£13.9 billion annually in the UK * BIG guesstimate*
how do they know that people steal to fund habits?!
CSEW 2012/13: how many adults have taken an illegal drug in their lifetime?
1 in 3 (approx. 12 million)
CSEW 2012/13: how many adults have taken an illegal substance in the last year?
8.9%
Cannabis: 2.3 million
Cocaine: 0.7 million
Ecstasy: 0.5 million
most drug users are aged…
between 16 and 18
sentences for possession and dealing vary greatly between classes, for possession:
Class A: up to 7 years in prison, unlimited fine or both
Class B: up to 5 years in prison, unlimited fine or both
Class C: up to 2 years in prison, unlimited fine or both
REALISTICALLY LOT MORE LENIENT SENTENCES
sentences for possession and dealing vary greatly between classes, for dealing:
Class A: up to life in prison, unlimited fine or both
Class B&C: up to 14 years in prison, unlimited fine or both
the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) was supposed to class…
the drugs according to the harms they cause but it didn’t! changes in line with populist beliefs & moral panics
policymakers struggle to keep abreast of the production of new ‘legal’ highs eg. mcat
this is because a slight change in the chemical composition and it is no longer illegal
the most dangerous drugs are by far…
alcohol and tobacco cause more deaths than any other drug
what percentage of crime involved alcohol consumption>
50%
Stevens (2006) argued that estimates for drug-related crime have varied from…
20-70% - difficult to ascertain if drug use or criminal behaviour came first…
despite media and politicians views, we can never say…
that drugs cause crime to happen! we can only say there is an association between them
what percentage of homeless people aged 16-25 have taken illegal drugs? (Wincup et al, 2003)
95%
what percentage of young offenders had tried multiple drugs? (Hammersley et al, 2003)
85%
what percentage of sex workers use drugs?
81% have problematic drug use
French et al (2000) measured chronic users with crime
19% of male chronic users had committed property crime
Holloway and Bennett (2004) examined 11,000 detainees
69% tested positive for 1 or more substances
36% testes positive for 2 or more substances
what are common underlying factors of drug use?
poverty, unemployment, social exclusion and ‘nothing better to do’
Do all drug users commit crime to fund their habit?
FALSE. Most people who use illegal drugs (the majority are non-problematic users) do not commit crimes to get money to pay for the drugs.
Hague Convention 1912
was the first to address the health issues associated with drug use (mainly opium and cocaine)
International Opium Convention 1925
Egyptian speaker produced exaggerated evidence that hashish caused psychosis, marijuana was illegalised
1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
100 countries involved, all drug-related activities (possession, production, supply) were criminalised
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 UK
introduced classes A, B and C (experts ‘graded’ the substances according to their potential harm)
International responses to drug offences…
**United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)
Europol/Interpol
Each country has a primary anti-drugs agency?
TRUE. UK has National Crime Agency, USA has DEA
97% of drug seizures are done by…
local police forces, but the amounts are small
2-3% of drug seizures are done by…
border patrols, who seize hundreds of kilos at a time
which is the largest drug market in the world?
CANNABIS! grown mostly in Africa (25%) and North and South America (23%) but hashish is mostly Afghanistan, Morocco, Lebanon…
In 2004, cannabis moved from class C to class B and…
huge rise in the number of seizures of plants
challenges in responding to drug offences
widespread scale of activities, law enforcement is ineffective as they do not have the resources to stop flow of drugs into the country - TRANSNATIONAL BUSINESS and diversification (silk road)
Pudney et al (2006) say that police only disrupt between…
4-25% (at best!) of supply
3 reasons there is such a dark figure with drug crime…
under-reporting (no problem, no report) methodological probs of investigating (most drug use is private) and high levels of consumption from various types of people
Dutch police estimate that …% of cannabis cultivated in Holland is destined for other countries
90
BCS 2010/11 found that cannabis is the most common drug used in the UK
estimated 2.3 million people using it
it is not a victimless crime!
people that die from dodgy drugs, families of substance abusers (domestic violence) and child workers or illegal immigrants exploited in drug farms
Interpol (2007) argued that drugs were bad because they are…
a means to finance the most violent and destructive of criminal and terrorist organisations”
