Toby Seddon

Coerced drug treatment in the criminal justice system Conceptual, ethical and criminological issues

A striking phenomenon in many western countries is the increasing use of the criminal justice system as a means of channelling and coercing drug users into treatment. Despite somewhat equivocal research evidence about its effectiveness, this approach has continued to expand, including in Britain. This article takes a step back and explores some of the critical background issues that have been largely overlooked to date. Some conceptual, ethical and criminological aspects of coerced treatment in the criminal justice system are considered. It is argued that coerced treatment is a central issue for both contemporary criminology and criminal justice policy.

Paying drug users to take part in research: justice, human rights and business perspectives on the use of incentive payments

Paying research subjects as an incentive to participation is a widespread practice within health and social research. Where subjects are illegal drug users, this practice is often felt to raise particular ethical issues. This paper explores this question of paying drug users to take part in research from the perspective of three models: justice; human rights; and business. Issues discussed include whether cash payments are appropriate, payment amounts, whether incentives jeopardize informed consent and whether they offer good value-for-money for research funders. Some practical implications of the discussion are set out and four key components for good practice are proposed. Finally, in conclusion it is argued that the use of incentive payments in drugs research needs to be more fully and openly debated by researchers, research funders and other stakeholders.

Drugs and freedom

The ‘right’ to use drugs is often seen as a question of freedom and debates about ‘drugs and freedom’ frequently take place on the terrain of moral and political philosophy. In this article, it is argued that there is a different, and more critically significant, link between drugs and freedom that can be made. It is suggested that the two exist in a constitutive relation, so that drugs and the drug question cannot be fully understood or grasped outside the integral ties that connect them with freedom. The argument is illustrated by two examples–the emergence of the disease model of addiction at the turn of the 20th century and the present-day ‘Tough Choices’ project a century later. Some theoretical and research implications of this argument are considered in conclusion.

What is a problem drug user

The term ‘problem drug user’ (PDU) has risen to prominence in policy and research discourse over the past 25 years or so, particularly in the UK and Europe, largely at the expense of the older ‘addiction’ and ‘dependence’ concepts. How should we understand this shift? Is it merely a change in terminological fashion or does it signify something more significant? In exploring this question, the work of the philosopher Ian Hacking is drawn on, in particular his related ideas of ‘making up people’ and ‘looping effects’. Although it first emerged in the early 1980s, it is shown how the idea of the ‘PDU’ in fact has a long and mixed genealogy which can be traced back at least as far as the 1930s, a heritage which continues to exert influence today. Following Hacking, it is argued that the invention just over 25 years ago of the ‘PDU’ constituted the creation of a new kind of person which did not exist before and which has shaped how those so labelled are governed and controlled.

Quantifying crime associated with drug use among a large cohort of sanctioned offenders in England and Wales

Highlights • Opiate use is associated with elevated (acquisitive and non-acquisitive) offending.• The association between drug use and crime is stronger for women than men.• Cocaine use is associated with offending among males but not among females.• Opiate and cocaine use is associated with 25 times the rate of prostitution (females only).

Prevention Work with Children Disaffected from School: Findings from the Evaluation of Two Innovative Community-Based Projects.

– To report on findings from the evaluation of two innovative community‐based prevention projects in the UK targeted at children disaffected from school, one involving football the other horticulture., – Qualitative inquiry focusing on three areas: “theories of change” underpinning the projects; referral and operational processes; inter‐agency partnerships. Main methods were: an interactive event for 50 practitioners; semi‐structured interviews with project staff, project participants and other stakeholders; review of project documentation; observations., – Both the projects evaluated had clear and plausible “theories of change”. Referral processes were effective. Strong variations in “dosage” and length of project involvement appeared to be linked to differences in the effectiveness of the two projects., – The principal limitation to the research was the lack of case monitoring and outcome data that prevented any quantitative assessment of the projects. Further research is needed to establish the long‐term impact of this kind of targeted prevention work., – Prevention work targeted at children disaffected from school needs to be underpinned by clear “theories of change”. Effective work requires good relationships with referring schools, the delivery of multi‐faceted interventions and interventions to be of an adequate length., – The focus on “theories of change” or mechanisms is an original contribution to the prevention literature. The paper will be valuable for those working in drug action teams and local authorities in planning prevention work for young people. The two projects were highly innovative in involving pupils in two very different activities – football and horticulture.

Drugs, the informal economy and globalization

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the connections between illegal drugs and the informal economy and consider this in the light of the increasing levels of global interconnectedness in recent decades. Design/methodology/approach - This is a review of the empirical drugs literature with a primary focus on British-based research and analysis of the impact of different aspects of globalization. Findings - Patterns of heroin and crack-cocaine use need to be understood in their social, economic and cultural context, particularly in relation to their location in the informal economy. Globalizing processes have profoundly shaped local drug problems over the last 30 years. Practical implications - The governance of the drug problem needs to be reframed to take account of its social economic nature and global character. New ways of thinking are required to advance future research and policy. Originality/value - The focus on the impact of globalizing processes is original and leads to some important new insights for future research and policy.

Youth, Heroin, Crack: A Review of Recent British Trends.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the research evidence on recent British trends in the use of heroin and/or crack‐cocaine by young people in order to appraise the scale and nature of the contemporary health problem they pose.Design/methodology/approach – The approach consists of a narrative review of the main current data sources on young peoples drug use.Findings – Use of heroin or crack‐cocaine is rare in Britain in the general population of young people and is concentrated more amongst young adults than adolescents. There is some evidence for associations between use of these drugs and socio‐economic disadvantages, although the links are complex. There may be fruitful connections to be made between drug policy and public health strategies for tackling health inequalities.Practical implications – Embedding responses to young peoples heroin/crack use within mainstream strategies to tackle health inequalities may be mutually beneficial to both policy agendas.Originality/value – Situating...

Pathways through opiate use and offending: a systematic review

Background Although evidence points to a strong link between illicit drug use and crime, robust evidence for temporal order in the relationship is scant. We carried out a systematic review to assess the evidence for pathways through opiate/crack cocaine use and offending to determine temporal order. Methods A systematic review sourced five databases, three online sources, bibliographies and citation mapping. Inclusion criteria were: focus on opiate/crack use, and offending; pre-drug use information; longitudinal design; corroborative official crime records. Rate ratios (RR) of post-drug use initiation to pre-drug use initiation were pooled using random effects meta-analysis. Results 20 studies were included; UK (9) and US (11). All were of opiate use. Mean age at (recorded) offending onset (16.7 yrs) preceded mean age at opiate-use onset (19.6 yrs). Substantial heterogeneity (over 80%: unexplained by meta-regression) meant that RRs were not pooled. The RR for total (recorded) offending ranged from 0.71 to 25.7 (10 studies; 22 subsamples: positive association, 4: equivocal, 1: negative association). Positive associations were observed in 14/15 independent samples; unlikely to be a chance finding (sign test p = 0.001). Individual offence types were examined: theft (RR 0.63–8.3, 13 subsamples: positive, 9: equivocal, 1 negative); burglary (RR 0.74–50.0, 9 subsamples: positive, 13: equivocal); violence (RR 0.39–16.0, 6 subsamples: positive, 15: equivocal); and robbery (RR 0.50–5.0, 5 subsamples: positive, 15: equivocal). Conclusions Available evidence suggests that onset-opiate use accelerates already-existing offending, particularly for theft. However, evidence is out of date, with studies characterised by heterogeneity and failure to use a matched non-opiate-user comparison group to better-establish whether onset-opiate use is associated with additional crime.

The contractual governance of drug users in treatment

One of the challenges for drug treatment services is how to engage drug users effectively. This commentary examines one particular strategy for enhancing engagement that appears to have spread quite rapidly in recent years: the use of contract-like written agreements between treatment service providers and users. The development of the contractual governance of drug users in treatment is located in the wider context of emerging social control strategies and practices. In particular, insights are drawn from the socio-legal literature which has begun to examine these new control practices in diverse domains. The commentary also reports on the findings of a national survey of all 149 local authority areas in England that was designed to provide a preliminary mapping of the extent of contractual governance in treatment settings (response rate=62%). In spite of the fact that the use of contracts between drug services and service users does not feature in the national drug policy framework, our survey strongly indicates that it is a widespread practice. Although these agreements can take on many different forms, typically they set out the responsibilities and requirements placed on users and, somewhat less frequently, what the service commits to providing for them. This novel practice of contractual governance may be viewed as having considerable potential but it also raises important issues concerning justice and rights. We conclude by arguing that this is an important area of emerging practice which raises significant theoretical and policy questions and the need for further research.