Mark Monaghan

• Loughborough University

Executive Summary which briefly outlines the contents of the three detailed reports: Identifying and Analysing Programme Theories; Testing and Refining Theories; Actionable Guidance.

This report outlines the detail relating to the Phase 2 project activities and findings, which involved testing and refining programme theories. It includes a review of effectiveness reviews undertaken using the EMMIE Framework and a realist synthesis review of the effectiveness evidence on the use of Referral Order and Intensive Supervision and Su...

This report focuses on the first of three phases across the project and it describes the methods used in the project and the activities undertaken in order to decide the project focus and scope.

This final report outlines the third phase of the project, which involved the production of actionable guidance and the basis for knowledge exchange activities.

Purpose This study aims to examine the extent to which “What Works” reviews in youth justice enable understanding of the features of effectiveness (what works, for whom, in what circumstances and why?) specified in the Effects–Mechanisms–Moderators–Implementation–Economic cost (EMMIE) framework. Design/methodology/approach The EMMIE framework exam...

This article examines the problematic reductionism and decontextualising nature of hegemonic youth justice intervention evaluation and offers a way ahead for a realistic, context-sensitive approach to intervention evaluation in the youth justice field. It opens by considering how the development of risk-based youth justice interventions in England...

Background and aims Opening up access to scheduled drugs such as cannabis in the United Kingdom rarely happens, yet on 1 November 2018 the United Kingdom changed the law to allow cannabis‐derived products to be prescribed for medicinal purposes, albeit in tightly controlled circumstances. This followed substantial media interest in the cases of two...

Purpose of Review This paper provides an update from the literature on understanding of the relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia. In particular, the paper focuses on the latest findings and remaining areas that require investigation. Recent Findings Three hypotheses have emerged as potential explanations for the association between cann...

Whenever we navigate the Web, we leave a trace through our IP address, which can in turn be used to establish our identity – for instance, by cross-checking it with a user’s Internet subscription. By using software such as VPN and Tor, however, it might be possible to avoid leaving such traces. A lively debate among policymakers, security professio...

Presentations to specialist drug treatment services in England for cannabis have been rising in recent years. As cannabis is no longer disaggregated in annual reports of drug treatment presentations published by Public Health England, we requested access to a detailed data-set to explore the treatment population in more detail. Analysis of the data...

Open-source crime data provided by the Police.uk website was introduced in 2008. This provision challenged what had been termed a ‘top down’ political culture and was introduced to help increase government transparency and accountability. We examine these concepts here and outline some of the significant developments over the last decade related to...

Debates about public scholarship have gathered momentum in several fields including sociology and criminology. There is much debate over the nature of public scholarship and the forms it can take. In criminology one of the most influential analyses of public scholarship has been developed by Loader and Sparks. For these two thinkers part of the tas...

Unsurprising but true: policy documents and treatment interventions developed to tackle illicit drug use do not acknowledge the social benefits, and indeed pleasures of, substance use.

Novel psychoactive substances (NPS; also known as new psychoactive substances or popularly, although erroneously, as ‘legal highs’) is the name given to drugs that are newly synthesised or newly available, and which do not fall under the control of United Nations Drug Conventions. These drugs exist as a result of advances in academic, industrial, a...

Cannabis is hugely popular. 182m people use cannabis across the world and, with this level of exposure, the way cannabis is regulated matters. As does the evidence of risks and benefits to health which underpins regulation.

Since 2008 political and media attention has focused on the allegedly problematic behaviour of drug users who 'choose' to pursue their 'habit' at the expense of the hardworking taxpayer. This forms part of the 'new welfare commonsense', which censures welfare dependency and stigmatises drug users as 'undeserving' claimants, entrenching the 'war on...

Cannabis continues to be the world’s favourite illicit drug with around 147m people using it annually. However, there are fears that the drug is becoming increasingly potent and that it could pose a public health risk. But how reliable is the evidence? And is it really getting stronger?

This is the first book to examine the activities of UK and international ‘role models’ through the lens of state crime and social policy. Written by experts in the field of sociology and social policy, it defines the ideal state as a single, functioning whole that ensures uniformity in the name of legitimacy. It then details the ways that states do...

Chapter four develops upon the previous chapter in two main ways: firstly via a closer examination of international drug control legislation and the way that this has been selectively enforced over time through States breaching human rights legislation or through the perpetration of international to domestic governmental crimes where criminality ta...

To allow a fuller focus on State crime throughout the book, this Chapter initially defines what is meant by the State and what constitutes an ideal State to act as a foil in an assessment of a criminal or immoral State. Thus the chapter outlines the concept of an ideal State as a single, functioning whole where resistance is managed, social upheava...

Chapter 8 looks at Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ which commenced in 1976 and the UK miners’ strike (1984 to 1985). Initially, the chapter shows how Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ represented a severe, relatively hidden example of a State terrorising its own people through violent abduction and execution. By contrast, the chapter reveals how the Thatcher governm...

This chapter introduces the invasion of Iraq by a ‘coalition of the willing’ (the US, the UK and Australia) on the 20th of March, 2003. The significance of this example is threefold. First, it demonstrates how Governments or Nation States attempt to justify their actions on the grounds of pre-empting a potential threat against their interests despi...

This final chapter pulls all of the varying strands together. The chapter acknowledges the gaps in criminological understanding of State crime but calls for a more holistic approach to be taken: an approach that synthesises the nature of the new global hegemony of neo-liberalism, profit, governmental alliances, contraventions of international law,...

This chapter depicts a case study of State crime/terrorism in the UK and Ireland by considering the issue of collusion between various paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland and the British and Irish Police (Guardai). The chapter concentrates on the collusion between State agencies in paramilitary organisations and the perpetration of episodes of...

This chapter introduces a discussion of the hidden nature of State criminality due to the occupational functions of the print media in the UK and, more specifically, publications associated with the media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The chapter also discusses the morality behind the way in which Murdoch has continuously courted political favours through...

This chapter argues that one of the main difficulties in delineating state criminality from other forms of crime is that many forms of criminality involve the collusion of State and other non-State, but powerful, actors. With this mind, the chapter starts with a discussion of the difficulties in applying a label to non-conventional criminality’ (ie...

This book examines the activities of UK and international elites through the lens of state crime and social policy. Initially it defines the ideal state as a single, functioning whole that ensures uniformity in the name of legitimacy yet the book poignantly outlines the dangers associated with the maintenance of legitimacy and state power. Anti-dem...

Alcohol policy and illicit drugs policy are typically presented as separate and different in academic discussion. This is understandable, to a degree, as the criminal law upholds a 'great regulatory divide' (Seddon, 2010: 56) separating the licit trade in alcohol from the illicit trade in substances classified as either class A, B or C under the Mi...

Aims: To conduct a pilot project exploring how treatment providers understood the increasing demand of people presenting to services with cannabis-related problems and how they responded to the demand for this type of treatment in the absence of an up to date evidence-base. Methods: A knowledge exchange event involving treatment providers (n = 30)...

Background Drugs policy is made in a politically charged atmosphere. This is often not seen to be conducive to the ideals of evidence-based policymaking. In the UK over recent years the efficacy of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) has been one of the most widely discussed and debated areas of UK drug policy. Since inception, the MDA 1971 has rema...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine recent trends in presentation to treatment where cannabis is identified as the primary drug. Design/methodology/approach – Data is drawn from the recently published Public Health England report and supplemented with Home Office and European data. Findings – The data shows a marked increase in pres...

Global institutions, although suggesting measures to deter organ trafficking, reiterate the lack of official statistics about this illegal trade. In this article, we explore the reasons why organ trafficking remains unreported. We argue that the complex factors that perpetuate invisibility facilitate trafficked organs being "laundered" in the healt...

This chapter explores two public health programmes implemented in the UK under the 2010 Coalition Government, to illustrate how individualistic behavioural ideologies are embedded in them. Discussion notes how programmes may indirectly reinforce health inequalities, and indicates the importance of social contexts when appraising policies built arou...

This paper combines the evidence-based policy making and 'policy as translation' literatures to illuminate the process by which evidence from home or overseas contexts is incorporated into policy. Drawing upon focus groups with Department for Work and Pensions officials, a conceptual model of 'evidence translation' is introduced, comprising five ke...

Background: An emphasis on welfare reform has been a shared concern of recent UK governments, with the project of transforming the provision of welfare gathering pace over the past six years. Replicating active labour market policies pursued across the globe, successive governments have used welfare-to-work programmes as mechanisms to address work...

The precautionary principle recommends, in the face of pressing but unquantifiable threats, that decision makers should not wait indefinitely for the backing of evidence. As such, it represents another potential challenge to the turbulent fortunes of evidence-based policy. Through four contrasting case studies, this paper examines this challenge an...

Politically, the idea that certain kinds of drugs and drug use are intrinsically linked to certain kinds of criminality – known as the drugs-crime nexus -enjoys continuing salience. This shows little sign of abating. Since 1995, successive strategies have embraced this theme and policies have been developed to try and increase the numbers of drug u...

This chapter provides background information to the case study through which the complex nature of evidence utilisation is explored. It charts the origins and the impact of the implementation of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA 1971) and points out that the passing of the MDA 1971 created the first UK government drugs advisory board. The chapter g...

This chapter turns to how the evidence and policy relationship in politicised areas can be explained. It considers some theoretical and methodological tools that can be used to explore the nature of evidence use in politicised policy areas. A central premise of the evidence-based movement is that it is consistent with pluralist models of the policy...

This chapter explains evidence utilisation in a politicised area via a model of evidence-based policy making. It starts with the premise that a key tenet of the politicisation is that policies are always in a constant state of flux as new data and personnel assume key positions in the decision-making process. Using the notion of conceptual flux as...

This chapter continues to closely analyse the label of evidence. It discusses a wider drug classification system and the nature of drug harm therein. Drawing on debates over UK drug classification policy, the chapter highlights various appreciations of the role of evidence in the policy process. By looking at appreciations of the role of evidence,...

This chapter details some established criticisms of the evidence-based policy-making agenda. These revolve around three main areas: the inadequacies of research and researchers; inadequacies in the context, beliefs, and actions of policy makers; and inadequacies in the link between the two groups. It provides a critical appraisal of these critiques...

This chapter provides the background to the nature of evidence-based policy making, locating it in a particularly ‘Western’ democratic tradition of policy formulation. In essence, the chapter argues that the research/policy nexus is grounded in a history of Western state (and super-state) formation and tends to be applied in these contexts. It docu...

This chapter presents an ACF-inspired analysis of the way that evidence was understood by key players in the policy process in relation to the 2004 cannabis policy change. This draws on subsequent events relating to broader interest in the UK drug classification system. The opening discussion focuses on the appreciations of evidence from the variou...

Exploring evidence utilisation in a heavily politicised policy area, this paper suggests that established models of research utilisation provide inadequate grounds to conceptualise the evidence and policy relationship in this context. This is because they operate at too high a level of abstraction and have a narrow understanding of the association....

This article explores evidence utilisation in a politicised policy area. Using recent debates in UK drug classification as a case study, it suggests that the relationship between evidence in policy in such areas is frequently conceived in linear terms, where policies are ultimately either evidence-based or evidence-free. Such perspectives, however,...

Issues relating to the efficacy of the UK drug classification system have dominated public debates in UK drug policy since the turn of the millennium. Despite this, there is actually widespread apathy towards the drug classification within the drug the policy community, many of whom see drug classification debates as at best, a nuisance, and at wor...

This thesis investigates the thorny relationship between evidence utilisation and policy making in a heavily politicised policy area. Expectations for the conflux of researcha nd policy formulation have been consolidated in the last decade under the banner of 'evidence-based policy'. In recent times, the debateo ver the nature and utility of eviden...