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Introduction
Dr. James Windle is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at University College Cork. His primary research focus has been on illicit drug markets, illicit enterprise, street gangs, organized crime and the history of prohibition.
Current institution
Publications
Publications (112)
This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang...
This article discusses some new developments in British illicit drug markets: the commuting of London-based gang members to sell drugs in other British towns, or in gang member’s parlance: ‘working the country lines’. This is concerning for several reasons, not least because children and young people may be running away from home and putting themse...
This paper presents a systematic review of organised crime data collection and analysis methods. It did this by reviewing all papers published in Trends in Organized Crime and Global Crime between 2004 and 2018 (N = 463). The review identified a number of key weaknesses. First, organised crime research is dominated by secondary data analysis of ope...
Ireland passed the world’s first blanket ban on new psychoactive substance in 2010. This article traces the historical processes culminating in the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act (2010) through a systematic review of Irish media articles published between 2000 and 2010 (N = 338). The review found that head shops were largely tolerat...
This article employs a range of sources to critically explore the role of children and young people in county lines drug dealing, the potential harms they are exposed to and the difficulties of protecting them. As county lines centre upon the movement and exploitation of vulnerable peoples, we utilise the human trafficking literature for further in...
It is often claimed that there is little to no organised extreme right-wing (ERW) presence in Ireland. The absence of the ERW is often attributed to Ireland’s ‘civil war’ political system, however, in recent years, the country has witnessed an increase in both far-right and ERW activity via online activism, street protest, and even violence. Perhap...
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the Celtic Tiger economic boom and Great Recession influenced drug and alcohol use in one Irish city.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 people, living in Cork City, who had previously used drugs and/or alcohol problematically. All participants had engaged with servi...
This article critically assesses five areas that may together make the Irish organized crime milieu distinctive. First, there is minimal research. Second, organized crime groups and illicit enterprises are often characterized as “family-gangs.” Third, some violent conflicts are framed as family feuds. Fourth, a broad range of paramilitary groups ha...
This chapter outlines the data collection and analysis processes carried out for this study. The details of participants are documented, the analysis method, Grounded Theory, is discussed and Life History Criminology, the basis for the data analysis, is reviewed. A detailed discussion around recruitment, insider-research and best practice in resear...
Early childhood, child development, interpersonal relationships and the experience of education featured prominently in the analysis of data in this study. Participants reconstructed their experience predominantly using a direct chronological process, recounting early childhood, adolescence then adulthood. The men do this storytelling in a manner t...
This final results chapter recounts the themes that explain desistance and recovery for the men who participated in this study. Key overarching themes include cycles of relapse, identity shifts, a lack of alternatives, new starts, difficult transitions (prison to community), the social nature of recovery and maintaining a new life. Throughout all o...
This chapter presents a critique and overview of the findings from the Ground Theory analysis documented earlier. This study challenges some of the dominant assumptions associated with desistance in the criminological literature. It has raised the possibility that, in the case of addiction, desistance emerges as a side effect of recovery, not as an...
This chapter provides the context to a study conducted in Cork City with city residents. It examines the geography, economic, social and educational landscape as relevant to this study and traces the impact of micro and macro-economic shocks on deprived communities across generations. The chapter outlines how housing policy, the presence and withdr...
The link between addiction and offending is well established, however, the relationship is complex, and a range of causal models exist. This chapter explores the existing models that explain the relationship between addiction and offending and considers their relevance for a population of persistent offenders with multiple convictions. This chapter...
This chapter presents some of the themes that emerged from this study of men from the Cork area who experienced addiction and involvement in criminal activity. This chapter recalls the themes that emerged from the analysis of stories the men tell of their journey into crime and addiction as teenagers and young adults. The stories are replete with a...
Left realism originated as an applied theory to support communities to tackle crime in British working-class urban areas. While there are challenges to transferring theory from one context (British urban) to another (Irish rural), this chapter argues for the value of a left realist approach to agricultural theft, using Ireland as a case study. The...
This paper explores farmer’s experiences of crime and their attitudes towards crime prevention in one rural hinterland. Farmer’s attitudes about safety and crime present a dichotomy: fear of victimisation was relatively high, yet few participants reported having been victimised, and there was a perception that agricultural crime was high in Ireland...
As there are already a number of insightful overviews of the global illicit drug trade (i.e. Purvis and Gundur, 2019; Reuter, 2014) this chapter will not re-tread a well-worn path, but rather explore recent developments and scan for future issues. EMCDDA and Europol (2019) suggest that horizon scanning can improve preparedness for future challenges...
This article presents a review of organised crime authorship for all articles published in Trends in Organized Crime and Global Crime between 2004 and 2019 (N = 528 articles and 627 individual authors). The results of this review identify a field dominated by White men based in six countries, all in the Global North. Little collaboration occurs; fe...
In 1991, a riot in Oxfords Blackbird Leys housing estate was documented in Campbell’s (1993) Goliath: Britain’s Dangerous Places. Campbell identified the rioters as belonging to an ‘underclass’ (p.29) of ‘marginal young men’ (p.34): excluded from education and work, and coming from single parent families. Similar narratives have dominated political...
The people most impacted by criminal justice policies and practices are seldom included in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Building on the ‘nothing about us without us’ social movement, this edited volume advocates an inclusive approach to criminology that gives voice to historically marginalized, silenced, and ignored group...
‘Nothing about us without us’ summarizes a burgeoning movement in criminology that is about giving voice to diverse perspectives and a way of doing research. Primarily it refers to the importance of an approach to criminology that is inclusive of those voices that have historically been hushed, marginalizsed, silenced, or ignored. It also refers to...
‘Nothing about us without us’ summarizes a burgeoning movement in criminology that is about giving voice to diverse perspectives and a way of doing research. Primarily it refers to the importance of an approach to criminology that is inclusive of those voices that have historically been hushed, marginalized, silenced, or ignored. It also refers to...
In 1991 there was a riot in Oxford's Blackbird Ley estate; one of several riots that took place that year. Journalist Beatrix Campbell (1993) wrote an influential book, Goliath: Britain's Dangerous Places, that explored the causes of these riots, based on her observations of the riots and interviews with members of the community and those who took...
This introductory chapter defines and explores the ‘nothing about us without us’ movement in order to support later chapters. The chapter traces the movement’s conceptual history, and explores conceptual debates, including the difficulties of employing ‘nothing about us without us’ in practice. The chapter concludes by presenting the basic premise...
In 1991, a riot in Oxfords Blackbird Leys housing estate was documented in Campbell’s (1993) Goliath: Britain’s Dangerous Places. Campbell identified the rioters as belonging to an ‘underclass’ (p.29) of ‘marginal young men’ (p.34): excluded from education and work, and coming from single parent families. Similar narratives have dominated political...
The people most impacted by criminal justice polices, and practices, are seldom included in the decision making processes that impact their lives. This edited volume builds on the sentiment underpinning the growing ‘nothing about us without us’ social movement, to argue for the importance of an approach to criminology that is inclusive of those voi...
Online at https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0819/1241629-afghanistan-taliban-opium-heroin-drugs-ireland/
Ireland passed the world's first blanket ban on new psychoactive substance in 2010. This article traces the historical processes culminating in the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act (2010) through a systematic review of Irish media articles published between 2000 and 2010 (N = 338). The review found that head shops were largely tolerat...
Background
People who use drugs problematically are consistently left out of consultations and deliberation on drug policy. This article explores how people who formerly used drugs problematically and service providers view Ireland's current drug policy and if alternative policies could be successful in an Irish context.
Methods
Semi-structured in...
Analysis: research shows that drug consumption and dealing have previously increased during recessions and economic downturns.
Read here: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0901/1162507-drug-dealing-consumption-ireland-recession-coronavirus/
Full review from Criminal Law and Criminal justice Books can be found here - https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/mafia-raj-the-rule-of-bosses-in-south-asia/
RTE Brainstorm article, can be found here - https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0107/1104781-how-out-of-town-drug-dealers-exploit-vulnerable-people-in-ireland/
While the Republic of Ireland is a relatively peaceful country, with a homicide rate significantly lower than the global average, it has experienced a number of violent feuds between criminal gangs. This chapter will explore the consequences and causes of these gangland feuds. While gangland feuding is often identified as a form of systematic drug...
Original review can be found here: https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/
South Asia is home to three of the world's largest sources of illicit opium: Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. Heroin is illicitly manufactured in all three countries. This chapter provides an introduction to the size and scope of opium production and heroin manufacturing in South
The objective of this paper is to conduct a critical analysis of whether there is, or could be an incremental use of cyber in the raising and transfer of terrorism finance, compared against traditional terrorism finance practices already in place. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts. They were initially...
A blog post for RUSI: The Informer, can be found here - https://shoc.rusi.org/informer/historical-research-and-limitations-repressive-countermeasures
City Security Magazine, copy can be found here http://www.citysecuritymagazine.com/
This paper provides a systematic overview of the emergence of organized crime in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It draws on two major studies of organized crime in the South (Hourigan 2011) and paramilitary activity in the North (Morrison 2014) to explore how conflict within and between organized criminal and par...
Paper can be found here - https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0404/952162-heres-what-criminologists-make-of-the-young-offenders/
In recent years, in the context of the War on Terror and globalization, there has been an increased interest in terrorism and organized crime in academia, yet historical research into such phenomena is relatively scarce. This book resets the balance and emphasizes the importance of historical research to understanding terrorism and organized crime....
The relationship between terrorism and organised crime is complex, and dependent on local context and actors, organisational structures and objectives. We argue that the study of history allows debates to be driven by more realistic and in-depth analysis rather than by the anxieties of the present. Further, historical accounts of organised crime an...
This article analyses 10 years (2004–2014) of An Garda Síochána controlled drug data to investigate the impact of economic recession and globalization on the Irish illicit drug market. The limited international literature on recessions and drug markets suggests that economic downturns can increase both drug consumption and dealing. Gardaí data may,...
This paper compares the reasons given by three South-east Asian states (Laos, Thailand and Vietnam) for choosing to suppress opium production. While external pressure, often from the US or United Nations (UN)/League of Nations, is the most commonly identified reason in the literature, and was experienced in each case, it was not by itself sufficien...
http://www.newsweek.com/us-heroin-epidemic-war-drugs-opium-557545
Full text can be accessed here: http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5850/rr
This paper draws data from a larger study investigating eight national interventions which reduced illicit production by over 90 percent to below 20 metric tons. The case studies are: China (Imperial / Republican), Iran, Peoples Republic of China, Turkey, Thailand, Pakistan, Laos and Vietnam. The current paper analyses why each state chose to crimi...
Part of the Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Workshop Series organised by RUSI and the University of Bath
This paper investigates the paradoxes inherent in Thai and Vietnamese drug policies. The two countries have much in common. Both are ultra-prohibitionist states which employ repressive policies to contain drug markets. Their policies have, however, diverged in two key areas: opium suppression and harm reduction. Thailand implemented an effective in...
Conventional analysis of the illicit opium market suggests that source country interventions have at best achieved minimal results. Yet there are countries that have eliminated, or significantly reduced, the illicit production of opium from their territory. Drawing on a wide range of academic, official and non-governmental sources, including previo...
Part of series of papers for Brookings Institutes Improving global drug policy: Comparative perspectives and UNGASS 2016: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy
The suppression of drug consumption and trade is high on the Government of Vietnam’s agenda. To accomplish this goal, Vietnam employs repressive policies that often contravene international human rights law. Among the most detrimental and problematic policies are the incarceration of drug users in compulsory treatment centers, and the stigmatizatio...
This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang...
Before 1974 controls over Turkey’s opium production were ineffective and provided opportunities for large-scale diversion, making it one of the world’s largest sources of illicit opium. The state monopoly was limited by a lack of authority over opium producing areas, laissez faire controls and poor state procurement practices. Policies administered...
Turkey was once one of the world’s largest sources of illicit opium; the majority diverted from sparsely regulated licit production. Since 1972, however, it has contributed almost no opium to the global black market. As such, Turkey is one of a small number of states to have eradicated, or severally reduced, the national supply of illicit opium. Th...
In much of the academic literature drug prohibition is often described as an American, or at least a Western, construct. This paper shows how prohibitions were enforced in Asian countries while the United States and Western Europe were routinely trading opium. The concept of prohibition being a distinctly American construct is, therefore, flawed. F...
This article provides a single case study of a British organised crime network operational from the late-1980s to 1996. The network centred around three security firms which spanned the ‘spectrum of legitimacy’ by legally providing security for licensed venues, whilst taxing and protecting drug dealers, and/or selling drugs in the nightclubs they p...
Between 1906 and 1917 China (under the Imperial and then Republican regimes) enacted a highly effective intervention to suppress the production of opium. Evidence from British Foreign Office records suggest that the intervention was centred, in many areas, upon a highly repressive incarnation of law enforcement in which rural populations had their...
