Eurodrugs: Drug use, markets and trafficking in Europe
... One of the U.S.'s most successful women's gymnastics coaches, John Geddert, was charged in a Michigan state court with multiple counts of labor trafficking (Michigan Department of Attorney General, 2021). The New York-based cult NXIVM engaged in organizations are often segregated, opportunities for higher-level crimes may be similarly stratified by race or ethnicity (Ruggiero & South, 2016), although as Murji (2007) notes, the boundaries between ethnic or racial categories are often unclear. ...
... For example, to establish trust within a given drug trafficking operation, female offenders may rely on family members as co-offenders or on other individuals with whom they share close ties (Denton & O'Malley, 1999). Trust is also a key resource for their male counterparts, (Akhtar & South, 2000;Ruggiero & South, 2016), with ethnic or kin ties serving to establish trust among co-offenders (Maher, 1997). Although trust is a critical feature of drug trafficking networks regardless of participant gender, the networks still tend to be maledominated (Mallicoat, 2012;Mullins & Wright, 2003), which may block entry for some female offenders (Becker & McCorkel, 2011). ...
... These results suggest that female participation in drug trafficking may be more limited when male offenders are not present. Drug traffickers also may establish trust using social networks based on characteristics such as race (Ruggiero & Khan, 2006;Ruggiero & South, 2016), ethnicity (Naim, 2005), and nationality (Dorn et al., 2003). However, in regions where external social exclusion practices limit the legal opportunities of racial or ethnic minorities, these practices may likewise restrict their opportunities in criminal activity such as drug trafficking to low-level, riskier, and more visible positions (Murji, 2007). ...
Because it commodifies humans and their labor, human trafficking is distinct from other crimes and from other types of trafficking, including drug trafficking, the most frequently-prosecuted trafficking crime. The underlying social networks and organizational structures of these trafficking crimes may also differ, resulting in potentially significant differences among the offenders themselves. Using 21 years of data from the Federal Justice Statistics Program in a quantitative research design, we examined whether significant demographic differences exist between defendants charged with drug or human trafficking, and within human trafficking, between those charged with labor or sex trafficking. Further, because federal statutes differentiate among the severity of sex trafficking crimes, we assessed whether significant differences exist among sex trafficking defendants, depending on the severity of the crime with which the defendant is charged. Results indicate that human trafficking defendants differ in important respects from drug trafficking defendants. When separating human trafficking crimes into labor and lower- and higher-penalty sex trafficking, statistically significant differences among defendants remain. Notably, males and White/White Hispanic defendants in human trafficking cases are most likely to be charged with serious, higher-penalty sex trafficking. Female defendants are more likely to be charged with lower-penalty crimes that do not involve minor victims or the use of force. The networks and opportunity structures necessary to support severe forms of trafficking may therefore be dominated by male offenders. Although recent media attention has focused on female offenders in sex trafficking cases, researchers and policymakers should note that these cases do not reflect historical trends.
... století. V 80. letech se užívání heroinu rozšíøilo již napøíè celou Evropou (Hartnoll, 1986;Ruggiero & South, 1995). 80. léta byla charakterizována i nárùstem nakažení HIV mezi intravenózními uživateli drog západní Evropy a Polska. ...
... Epidemické šíøení HIV se v 90. letech objevilo i na území Ruska, Ukrajiny a Bìloruska v souvislosti s rozpadem Sovìtského svazu (Ruggiero & South, 1995). ...
... Mezi neopioidními drogami uvedenými v otázce na primární drogu byly pervitin, deriváty efedrinu, marihuana, alkohol a kokain (tabulka 1). (Ruggiero & South, 1995). Nejnižší vìk prvního užití byl respondenty udáván u heroinu, kde byl prùmìrný vìk 19,8 let, a u braunu (21,1 let), dále také u kodeinu a morfia, kde je ovšem prùmìrný vìk 1. užití vypoèítán pouze z malého množství odpovìdí. ...
OBJECTIVES: Problem opioid users (POU) represent about one third of circa 47 thousand problem drug users altogether. While heroin has been gradually disappearing from the drug scene, buprenorphine is currently a primary problem opioid drug. At the same time use of opioid analgesics is increasing. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among clients of two drop-in centres in Prague in order to analyse current situation among POU. The aims of the research were to find out currently used opioids and specifics of their use. A questionnaire administered face-to-face was used to collect the data. The convenience sample was made of 68 clients who had previously used an opioid drug and visited low-threshold drop-in centres Drop In and Progressive in Prague during December 2016 and February 2017. RESULTS: The most used opioids in the last month were Subutex®, Suboxone® and heroin, to the lesser extent opium and fentanyl. Czech “braun”, methadone, Vendal® retard, morphine and Addnok® were used only sporadically. Respondents had also experience with use of other opioids, such as Palladone®, Tramal®, Ravata®, and codeine. Subutex®, Suboxone® and heroin were most often bought at the black market, metadon, fentanyl and Vendal® retard were mainly gotten for free, braun and opium were mainly home-made. The most common form of application was injection. The frequency of daily applications was highest in case of Subutex® (on average 2,6times a day). The prize at the black market was found out for heroin (100 CZK for 100 mg), Subutex® (75-150 CZK for 2 mg) and Suboxone® (50-150 CZK for 2 mg). CONCLUSIONS: Proportion of injecting use among POU remains high and recently there are emerging risks related to misuse of opioid analgesics. Results also showed limits in settings of opioid substitution treatment programmes and small proportion of POU currently in the substitution treatment. Therefore, increased capacity of substitution treatment programmes in Prague is necessary as well as their accessibility for clients.
... Recent international scholarship concerning the illicit drugs trade has downplayed the involvement or dominance of organised crime groups and instead highlighted its more diffuse nature. 19 Summing up this perspective, Babor et al suggest that: ...
... Much of this activity is occurring in school. In the Family Support Network focus group it was reported that young people (aged 14 to 19) who are still in school have lots of small debts under €300. ...
A common theme that runs throughout much of the literature on drug markets, drug-related crime and also the impact of drug law enforcement is how limited our understanding of them is. In the absence of research and reliable evidence, certain ‘taken for granted’ assumptions or stereotypes have emerged to fill the gaps in knowledge. Journalistic and television exposés, present a Hobbesian spectacle of an inherently violent world populated by ‘evil drug dealers’. These representations have also influenced legislative responses, particularly since 1996. In the Republic of Ireland, following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, a plethora of new draconian laws were introduced. This led to a form of legislation by ‘moral panic’ particularly in response to drug-related crime. Prior to the mid-1990s, Northern Ireland had largely avoided the growth in heroin consumption of the type associated with Dublin since the 1980s. High levels of police and military security and the anti-drug stance of many paramilitary organisations had a suppression effect on the importation, distribution and consumption of serious drugs. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 led to the dismantling of the state security apparatus and a reduction in police numbers. This period also marks the beginning of a period of increased drug consumption and the establishment of heroin hotspots in a number of urban areas. Despite this increased policy attention, drug use in Ireland has been found to be associated with increased levels of systemic violence: fights over organisational and territorial issues; so-called ‘gangland’ murders; disputes over transactions or debt collection; and the intimidation of family members and the wider ‘host’ communities in which local drug markets tend to take hold. Much of this victimisation remains hidden as fear of reprisal from those involved with the drug trade and a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system discourages reporting. This article reviews recent research evidence in this area and examines the implications for future policy responses.
... Zøejmì z dùvodu snižování kvality dostupného heroinu zaèalo mnoho uživatelù následnì pøecházet na intravenózní užívání. V 80. letech se užívání heroinu rozšíøilo již napøíè celou Evropou (Hartnoll, 1986;Ruggiero & South, 1995). 80. léta byla však charakterizována i nárùstem nakažení HIV mezi intravenózními uživateli drog západní Evropy a také Polska, zpùsobené prudkým rùstem užívání drog, malou znalostí rizik i omezeným pøístupem ke sterilnímu injekènímu náèiní, vedoucímu k jeho masivnímu sdílení mezi uživateli. ...
... Epidemické šíøení HIV se v 90. letech objevilo i na území Ruska, Ukrajiny a Bìloruska v souvislosti s rozpadem Sovìtského svazu po otevøení hranic a neznalostí rizik intravenózního užívání na rozdíl od západních zemí, které už zkušeností s epidemií HIV prošly (Ruggiero & South, 1995). ...
This article presents a literature review of published and grey literature focused on problem opioid use (POU) on the territory of the CR. The development of POU in the CR can be divided into 4 periods, all characterised by injecting opioid use. The period before 1989 was typified by misuse of opioid analgesics and home-made drugs (braun). The first half of the 1990s was significant for the emergence of the so-called heroin epidemic as illegally transported heroin gained a dominant position on the drug scene. Subutex has been available in the CR since 2000 and its leakage on the illicit drug market has been observed since 2002, characterised by the sale and purchase of small surplus quantities of buprenorphine obtained through doctor shopping. The increase in the illicit problem use of buprenorphine is associated with consequent decrease in heroin use and the heroin market. Buprenorphine is currently the most used opioid among POU in the CR. There has been reemerging increase in the use of opioid analgesics for the past 5 years, esp. in the regions with typically high prevalence of POU. The misuse of both buprenorphine and opioid analgesics is related to the limited affordability and local availability of opiate substitution treatment (OST) in the CR. The prevalence of POU in the CR was estimated at 12,700 users in 2015, i.e. 27.1% of all the 46,900 estimated problem drug users. The development of POU went through periods of misuse of opioid analgesics and later of substitution products characterised by a great amount of self-supplying and an unorganised market, in comparison to the highly organised commercial market with heroin. POU in the CR is characteristic of a high level of injecting which represents a considerable public health issue. It is therefore necessary to scale-up specific therapeutic and harm reduction interventions for POU, esp. OST.
... New immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and the former Soviet Bloc likewise modeled for young people a diverse gang culture (Decker et al., 2009). Drug networks followed immigrant flows (Ruggiero & South, 1995). Indeed, technology and globalization changed the business model of traditional organized crime in London to incorporate youth (Pitts, 2008). ...
... As a truly "global city," however, socioeconomic and spatial polarization is perhaps greater in London than in any other U.K. jurisdiction (Sassen, 2007). The history and diversity of London, moreover, present greater organized crime influences and opportunities, from Afghani and Pakistani heroin traffickers to Turkish and Albanian heroin distributors, Columbian cocaine suppliers to Cambodian cannabis growers, and Jamaican "Yardies" to Lithuanian small arms dealers (Ruggiero, 2000;Ruggiero & South, 1995). ...
Based on fieldwork with gangs and interviews with gang members in London, United Kingdom, this article illustrates how recreation, crime, enterprise, and extralegal governance represent sequential actualization stages in the evolutionary cycle of street gangs. Gangs evolve from adolescent peer groups and the normal features of street life in their respective neighborhoods. In response to external threats and financial commitments, they grow into drug-distribution enterprises. In some cases, gangs then acquire the necessary special resources of violence, territory, secrecy, and intelligence that enable them to successfully regulate and control the production and distribution of one or more given commodities or services unlawfully. Territory is first claimed then controlled. Likewise, violence is first expressive then instrumental. With each step, gangs move further away from "crime that is organized" and closer to "organized crime."
... Nous ne faisons pas allusion ici à la mobilité sociale ascendante, mais plutôt à une sorte de mobilité latérale qui entraîne un mouvement intermittent allant d'emplois mal payés à la petite criminalité contre les biens, d'une forme d'allocation de chômage à la petite distribution de dope et d'autres marchandises, et ainsi de suite. Cette sorte de mobilité s'applique aux toxicomanes, aux petits délinquants contre les biens et à d'autres qui commettent une «délinquance à la sauvette», à temps partiel, aucun d'eux n'estimant, dans notre étude (Ruggiero, South, 1995) pouvoir être décrit comme des «scélérats à temps plein» (Mack, 1964) ou comme « délinquants de carrière ». Nous noterons les implications de ce mouvement de pendule, en quelque sorte, entre la légalité et l'illégalité, et inversement, dans notre analyse ultérieure du marché irrégulier en tant que bazar. ...
... Dans un travail récent (Ruggiero, South, 1995), nous avons soutenu que les tâches les plus risquées et les plus stigmatisées dans les marchés intérieurs et internationaux de la drogue sont abandonnés à des travailleurs criminels non qualifiés qui sont invariablement mal payés. Au niveau de la contrebande et de l'importation internationales, ce sont, à quelques exceptions, des ressortissants qui ne sont pas britanniques, dont les rôles sont limités, qui sont considérés comme des mulets extensibles et qui, souvent, ne sont pas informés des condamnations graves, exemplaires, qu'ils peuvent recevoir s'ils sont découverts (Green, 1991). ...
The authors explore the notion according to which the continuum of irregular and illegal economies in the city constitutes a bazar. They examine the repercussions of the illegal «underworld» on the legal activities conducted in the city. In the first section, the article offers snapshots of urban markets and cultures related to the illicit drug economies in England and the USA. In the second part, the authors locate these descriptions within the bazar and against the metaphor of the «barricades ». Finally, they demystify the image of illegal economies as alternative and deviant enterprises by identifying the similarities between such economies and the official legal economy.
... On the other, by accepting bribes or providing protection to producers and traffickers, corrupt law enforcement representatives allow illegal drug market actors to question law enforcement, the rule of law, and the state's quest for drug prohibition. Cases of corruption create an atmosphere where people feel injustice when judged as criminal while others, especially those in power, violate the law (Ruggiero and South, 1995). Police involvement in illegal activities in other western countries also reveals an increase in law breaking among the general population (Tyler, 2004). ...
The aim of this study is to contribute to the current literature concerning the social acceptance of illegal practices. Using legal pluralism as a general framework of analysis, this study discusses the relationship between state law and alternative perspectives concerning its legitimacy. It presents the experience of people involved in hashish harvesting in one of the regions of Kyrgyzstan, how the state defines it as an ‘illegal practice’ and how the local population subsequently invokes normative systems based on local spiritual knowledge and the local moral economy of hashish production. It argues that acceptance of hashish harvesting as a legitimate means of support is not a straightforward process. Despite the predominant legitimating narrative of hashish harvesting, it enters into a conversation with state defined notions of ‘illegality’ and is also shaped by the customary understanding of the spiritual power of cannabis plants that requires caution when making hashish.
... (2000) menar att narkotikamarknaden både påverkas av den lokala efterfrågan och den lokala arbetsmarknaden som främst består av arbetslösa och ungdomar som hoppar av skolan (jfr Deadman och Pyle, 2000). Enligt Ruggiero (1995) söker sig också många unga människor till narkotikamarknaden till följd av att de formella jobb de kan få inte anses tillräckligt statusfyllda och identitetsskapande. Den illegala marknaden har en starkare dragningskraft än den legala på dessa ungdomar. ...
Drug crime is deeply rooted within the criminal community and its informal rule systems. The focus in this book is on smuggling, distribution and the sale of drugs in the wider community. It is a multi-faceted, multi-cultural and multi-national phenomenon.
This book describes and analyses this form of crime. The book concludes
with proposals for offensive measures to combat drug crime. The study
proceeds on the basis of the international research literature on organised
crime in general, and organised drug crime in particular. In the context of
three empirical studies, we have examined the organisational patterns of
drug crime in Sweden. These studies comprise a survey of all court judgements
and pre-trial investigations published and conducted in 2002 (serious
drug smuggling offences), a charting of existing networks (network analysis)
and an extensive interview study (based on almost 50 interviews) with
inmates, customs officers, police and prosecutors.
... We will also present some observations about the permanence of the smuggling networks and organisations, their strategies to avoid detection, and the pricing tendencies in this market. This information may help to clarify the importance of networks and hierarchies in illegal enterprises (Morselli, 2001;Natarajan and Belanger, 1998;Ruggiero and South, 1995;Reuter and Haaga, 1989;Adler, 1985;Reuter, 1984), and the nature of the cannabis industry. ...
... Dieser Wandel ist auch mit Veränderungen des Rauschempfindens während einer Konsumlaufbahn und bei verschiedenen Generationen von Konsumenten gekoppelt. In den modernen Industrienationen der westlichen Welt stehen heute überdies verschiedene Wertsysteme und Konsummuster gleichwertig nebeneinander, was dazu führt, dass sich die Einstellungen und Handlungsweisen in Bezug auf bestimmte Drogen in unterschiedlichen sozialen Gruppierungen sehr verschieden darstellen (McDonald 1994;Ruggiero 1995;Mahan 1996). ...
Im internationalen - vor allem im englischsprachigen Raum - ist die sozialwissenschaftliche Suchtforschung sehr viel breiter ausgebaut als im deutschsprachigen Bereich. Hier dominieren medizinische und biologische Annäherungen an das Thema. Essentielle Forschungstraditionen im Suchtbereich sind außerhalb des engen Fachexperten-Kreises vergleichsweise unbekannt. Dieser Befund ist Ausgangspunkt der Einführung in die sozialwissenschaftliche Suchtforschung. Ziel ist es, Thematik und Stand gegenwärtiger Forschungsarbeiten einem breiten Publikum im deutschen Sprachraum zugänglich zu machen.
... Earlier work by Ruggiero and South (1995) suggested that the UK market was divided along racial lines with much of the more precarious and comparatively poorly paid work being undertaken by young black males at retail level. Pearson and Hobbs (2001) also noted the importance of kinship and ethnicity in sustaining networks at the lower end of the supply chain. ...
... In the UK therefore, we find that closed markets of lone operators or involving small numbers of closely connected individuals likely predominate (Dorn et al. 1992;Parker et al. 1998Lupton et al. 2002) as they also appear to in other parts of Europe (Paoli et al. 2001). Ruggiero and South (1995) for example looking at a range of European (East and West) countries suggest overall that there is an absence of monopoly control and that there is an absence of topdown control by organised crime -even in the North East of Italy where such structures have been almost unthinkingly assumed. Organised crime does integrate with a broader often ephemeral network of small to medium sized firms (in Turin for example) but doesn't tend to 'control the markets'. ...
Drug dealers are commonly presented as 'dealing in death', preying on the young and innocent and spreading addiction with little care or regard for those they entangle. Drug markets are commonly depicted as being hierarchically organised and riddled with unscrupulous practices and chaotic violence. While a strong case has been made in recent years that the powers of particular drugs have often led to an unreasonable demonisation of drug users, there has been little by way of understanding drug dealers as part of that same process. Who is a drug dealer? How does the dealer operate in the drug market? What if many common perceptions, both about dealers themselves and drug markets more generally, are either incorrect or unreasonably distorted? Reviewing recent research into the minutiae of drug dealing and drug market operations, Pusher Myths suggests that these overly simplistic characterizations of who the drug dealer is, what drug dealers do, and the context within which they operate serve to perpetuate unhelpful ideas of what the drug problem is and, thus ultimately, how it should be resolved. Focusing on issues such as dangerous drug adulteration, the pushing of street drugs onto the young and innocent, the provision of free drugs to hook new clients, and the legend of the Blue Star LSD Tattoo, this book goes in the direction of recasting our understanding of the drug dealer as one that has been unreasonably demonized and de-humanized. This book also provides a contemporary analysis of how the various myths (untruths) surrounding drug dealers may be understood within the broader conceptual analysis of the place of myth in modern society.
... This could suggest a more 'horizontal' structure characterised by individuals and groups in a non-hierarchical market. It could also suggest that there is a move away from the professional criminal to more unskilled drug crime (Ruggiero & South, 1995). The differentiated nature of the market also indicates cocaine trafficking is not dominated by a Mr Big and that cocaine enforcement, like any other enforcement process, is triggered selectively and not applied uniformly against all possible targets. ...
This article summarises some key findings from a United Nations exploratory research study (Savona, Dom and Ellis, 1993; Ellis 1996). The complex cocaine-distributing processes in Spain and the Netherlands are outlined, followed by a discussion of the complexities of enforcement procedures to combat them. Finally, the article draws some tentative conclusions for policy makers relating to the convergences and differences in both cocaine markets and methods of enforcement in all three countries.
... Det är en disciplinerad livsstil som knappast utmärker många kriminella (Wahlin, 1999). När brottsligheten övergår till en rörelse kan den egentligen enbart upprätthållas av en person som har många karaktärsdrag gemensamma med vilken framgångsrik affärsman som helst (Ruggiero & South, 1995;Johnson m.fl., 2000;Klockars, 1974;Steffensmeier, 1986). Till skillnad mot en legal affärsverksamhet måste emellertid den illegala hålla sig undan lagens långa arm, och det ställer särskilda krav på den illegala affärsverksamheten (Brå 2005:11). ...
... For a long time, interview-based studies in the area of organised crime meant studies drawing primarily or exclusively on expert accounts, primarily police investigators (Kerner, 1973;Mack and Kerner, 1975;Rebscher and Vahlenkamp, 1988;Sieber and Bögel, 1993). In recent years, however, a growing number of research projects has been using offender interviews as one prominent source among others (see for example Johansen, 2004;Ruggiero and South, 1995), or as the primary data source. Some studies, especially those with the largest sample sizes, involve incarcerated offenders or indi-viduals, namely informants, otherwise under the control of the criminal justice system (see for example Dorn, Otte and White, 1998;Kinzig, 2004;Pearson and Hobbs, 2001;Matrix Knowledge Group, 2007). ...
... We will also present some observations about the permanence of the smuggling networks and organisations, their strategies to avoid detection, and the pricing tendencies in this market. This information may help to clarify the importance of networks and hierarchies in illegal enterprises (Morselli, 2001;Natarajan and Belanger, 1998;Ruggiero and South, 1995;Reuter and Haaga, 1989;Adler, 1985;Reuter, 1984), and the nature of the cannabis industry. ...
This chapter examines the export-import system of cannabis resin between Morocco and the EU through Spain. First, we will review what is known about the extent, location and organisation of cultivation and manufacture in Northern Morocco. It also explores the structure of the import industry using Spanish data. The chapter considers the type of organisations and networks that participate in this trade, their structure, and the tasks their members perform in their transactions. We will also examine the profile of workers and entrepreneurs in these groups, and the changes that seem to have occurred in recent decades. Finally it also presents some observations about the permanence of the smuggling networks and organisations, their strategies to avoid detection, and the pricing tendencies in this market. This information may help to clarify the importance of networks and hierarchies in illegal enterprises (Morselli 2001, Natarajan and Belanger 1998, Ruggiero and South 1995, Reuter and Haaga 1989, Adler 1985, Reuter 1984), and the nature of the cannabis industry.
... Desde hace unos años, los análisis socioculturales en el campo de las drogas se han ido multiplicando, en un intento de superar, mediante la implementación de distintas metodologías cualitativas, las limitaciones de la epidemiología biomédica, sobre todo por lo que se refiere a su poca capacidad para captar las emergencias y las grandes variabilidades existentes en los consumos de drogas; elementos estratégicos, ambos, para posibilitar una correcta intervención sociosanitaria en los problemas relacionados con dichos consumos. A partir de relevantes aportaciones de algunos colegas, y de la propia experiencia, tanto en el terreno de investigación como en movi- (Ruggiero y South 1995); los diferentes grados de control de los usuarios sobre sus vidas en los ambientes de prostitución y crack son documentados por Feldman et al. (1993), Grund (1993) muestra que la predictibilidad de ciertos problemas de drogas no se relaciona tanto con las cantidades consumidas como con los rituales ejercidos por el grupo en el contexto donde vive; Bourgois (1995) documenta la incidencia de la economía política en la vida de los vendedores de crack y del conjunto del barrio en Harlem. ...
... Dieser Wandel ist auch mit Veränderungen des Rauschempfindens während einer Konsumlaufbahn und bei verschiedenen Generationen von Konsumenten gekoppelt. In den modernen Industrienationen der westlichen Welt stehen heute überdies verschiedene Wertsysteme und Konsummuster gleichwertig nebeneinander, was dazu führt, dass sich die Einstellungen und Handlungsweisen in Bezug auf bestimmte Drogen in unterschiedlichen sozialen Gruppierungen sehr verschieden darstellen (McDonald 1994;Ruggiero 1995;Mahan 1996). ...
Der professionelle Umgang mit Konsumenten psychoaktiver Substanzen hat sich in der Geschichte immer wieder gewandelt, wobei
diese Wandlungen in aller Regel mit veränderten politischen Rahmenbedingungen verbunden waren. Die entsprechenden Entwicklungen
waren stets auch Produkt je spezifischer Interessen unterschiedlicher Akteursgruppen. Dies verweist auf unterschiedliche Perspektiven,
die sich bei der Konzipierung von Drogengebrauch als problematisches Verhalten ergeben und die ihrerseits geprägt sind durch
vielfältige Auseinandersetzungen um Drogenbilder und Suchtverständnisse, um normative Zielrichtungen von Eingriffen in Konsumprozesse
usw. Angesichts dieser Gemengelage hat sich mittlerweile ein komplexes und diversifiziertes System der professionellen Sucht-
und Drogenhilfe etabliert. Seine Heterogenität führte in den vergangenen Jahren zu Versuchen, klare Zielregelungen, aufeinander
abgestimmte Bearbeitungsstrukturen und verbindliche Qualitätsmerkmale zu definieren — ein Prozess, der derzeit noch im Gange
ist.
... This article builds upon the relevant literature and two areas of previous research: first, on the significance of legal and illegal work in relation to drug dealing in the criminal market (Dorn et al., 1992;Ruggiero and South, 1995;Akhtar and South, 2000); second, concerning the role of work in the legal economy in holistic approaches to drug treatment (Phillips and South, 1992;South et al., 2001). As part of the latter project (Akhtar et al., 1997), colleagues and I looked at the significance of legal work commitments for regular recreational users. ...
In the context of cultural and/or differential ‘normalisation’ of certain forms of drug use, this article describes two case-studies of heavy recreational drug users. The daily lives of these users blur the line between the legal and the illegal; their drug trading is generally as a consumer and ‘friend of a friend’ small dealer in the low-level market. In the first case, problems with management of employment, time and financial budgeting are described; in the second case, such management is accomplished. Discussion refers to: differences between the two in relation to resources and vulnerability to risks, and to leisure/pleasure cultures of hedonism. The research agenda should pay more attention to users who seek to maintain a legitimate lifestyle but who develop problems managing work and their drug-related leisure. Understanding the consumer demand and dealing activity of such users is important in trying to develop a fuller understanding of drug markets.
... Role-making rather than role-taking becomes top of the agenda. Subcultures, therefore, do not disappear but rather they lose their rigidity, they are more diverse in a late-modern world and involve crossover and transposition of values one from another (see Taylor, 1999, where subcultures are seen to vanish) and they involve much change in character and membership over time (Ruggiero and South, 1995). ...
The transition from the modern world of the postwar period into late modernity involves a movement from an inclusive to an exclusive society. This is concomitant with a change in tolerance from a society which abhors difference and attempts to reform difficulty to one which celebrates difference and attempts to exclude the difficult. Two motifs of exclusion coexist uneasily in late modernity, the actuarial and the demonizing: one calculative and cool, the other essentializing and judgemental.
Social exclusion is concerned not only with the social control of deviance but with its genesis. The two deficit models, cultural and economic exclusion, are criticized. Instead, the Mertonian notion of inclusion followed by exclusion as the source of discontent is developed into the notion of a late-modern bulimia. Using the black underclass as an example, the manner in which a series of inclusions and exclusions generate disaffection is traced and the fashion in which social exclusion is facilitated and self-fulfilled by essentialist depictions both of the self and the other is analysed.
The author provides and overview of recent developments in the legislative and operative field of anti-drug criminal justice.
T. Richert: Injection drug using women and the means by which they support their drug use
Aims and Methods
The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the ways in which women who inject heroin or amphetamines procure drugs and finance their drug use. The results are based on standardised interviews conducted at the needle exchange programme in Malmö between 1 July 2005 and 30 September 2006. In total, 188 out of the 232 women who visited the programme during this period were interviewed.
Results
A vast majority of the women (93%) buy most of the drugs they use themselves. Among the women interviewed, the most common sources of income were; social benefits (45%), dealing (23%), prostitution (22%), theft (21%) and paid work (16%). A majority of the women (53%) reported use of both formal and informal incomes to finance their drug use over the last two weeks, just over a third of the women (36%) reported only formal incomes, and a small minority (12%) reported only informal incomes. A majority of the women also reported to have been provided with drugs by others. In most cases, the provider was a man (p>.01). Women with heroin as their principal drug more frequently reported multiple sources of income (p>.01), income through prostitution (p>.001), dealing (p>.01) or theft (p>.05), whereas women with amphetamines as their principal drug more frequently reported income through paid work (p>.05) or pensions (p>.01).
Conclusions
Few women correspond to the stereotypical image of the homeless and outcast street addict who supports her drug habit mainly through prostitution and illegal activities or by contacts with male addicts. The majority of the women in this study have a relatively stable housing situation, the vast majority (93%) are active actors on the drug market who buy most of the drugs they use themselves, and most of the women use incomes from both formal/legal and informal/illegal sources. For most of the women, drugs provided by others only constituted a complement to those obtained by the women themselves. A few women, however, who did not report any personal income, seem to be highly dependent on others to secure a safe supply of drugs. Some women also reported that they had had to perform sexual services in order to get access to drugs from male suppliers. For women with heroin as their principal drug, it seemed much more difficult to finance their drug use by legal incomes only.
When high-profile criminal justice phenomena came to the fore previously in the UK, the tendency for the police to engage in moral entrepreneurship was noted. Perhaps the most classic example is the ‘mugging scare’ of the 1970s, with Hall et al. (1978) masterfully documenting the role of the police in constructing this particular ‘crisis’ and how they were chiefly involved in setting, manipulating and extending the agenda surrounding the behaviours and people that became associated with it. However, police officers do not always sit in the driving seat, play an influential role in accelerating problems onto various agendas or steer the general direction of how they are constructed. As noted regarding fears of the arrival of crack cocaine to the UK in the late 1980s, the police found themselves in the awkward position of having to be seen to be responding to a social ill that had been identified and then amplified primarily by politicians and the media. Far from setting the agenda, the issue and its definition had slipped from their grasp, and they were faced with having to manage the expectations of what many expected they should be doing, despite the disparate realities of what their actual work regarding the policing of drugs continued to involve (see Dorn et al. 1991). Similarly, as the saga surrounding the first generation of ‘legal highs’ played out in the UK, officers typically learnt about them through external sources. Even after they fell under their remit, the police only began to become somewhat knowledgeable and interested in them (see Bacon 2016).
Having critically outlined the specific drug supply context of County Lines, this chapter considers theoretically the policing of illicit drug markets. An often highly contentious area of law enforcement, for the past half century, policing has remained the principle way that drug markets and the various actors involved in them are responded to officially by the state. Among other things, the role of the police as the visible representation of the ‘war on drugs’ stresses the importance of understanding and analysing how their work in this area is actually undertaken. If illegal drug markets and the way they operate can be considered as inextricably allied with the policy of prohibition, it is arguably only right that attention is trained acutely on those on the opposing side who, as Young (The drugtakers: The social meaning of drug use. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1971, p. 28) put it, “man the barricades which society sets up between itself and the deviant”.
The chapter of this article is situated in light of the illegal transaction of protected wildlife in China for consumption as a delicacy. In trusting the suppliers to deliver the protected wildlife they ordered, consumers face two types of risks: (a) the risk of enforcement (facing a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment) and/or (b) the risk of being cheated of their money. This chapter focuses on the second question. The consumption of protected wildlife occurs in designated restaurants, so how do consumers know for certain that the restaurants are serving the protected wildlife they ordered? Given the difficulties in distinguishing between the flavour of protected wildlife and legitimate sources of meat (this point will be elaborated on later in the chapter), what are the mechanisms that help consumers of protected wildlife trust that the restaurant is honouring their agreement? Based on qualitative interviews with consumers and suppliers of protected wildlife in China and open sources, this study concludes that consumers rely heavily on the reputation of the restaurant.
This chapter turns to explore the operation of seven distributing networks specialized in the illegal supply of tiger parts products. The focus of this chapter is on the network organizations of criminal networks and their mode of operation in supplying tiger parts products across three different cities in Mainland China and how they employ different mechanisms to avoid the risk of enforcement.
The chapter argues that there has been recent significant changes in the distribution methods of crack and heroin in the UK involving English Gangs. These changes in local distribution mechanisms known as “County lines” prompts questions regarding the degree of organisation and the divisions of labour involved in new distribution networks in UK crack and heroin markets. The findings from recent empirical studies appear to conflict with previous ideas of “social supply” and indicate some weaknesses in current policy responses. The chapter analyses recent developments utilising a critical realist framework and a move away from previous policy classifications which separate agency efforts via “taxonomic categories” of crime towards an analysis which understands “relational and structured groups”.
A recent development in drug markets across England and Wales garnering increased attention is the phenomenon of ‘County Lines’. This involves drug supply groups migrating from major cities to smaller towns, and has become associated with a range of harms including violence and the exploitation of vulnerable populations. Drawing on interviews with police officers of various ranks tasked with responding to County Lines, this article explores how they are interpreting this emergent phenomenon. A framework of profit maximisation was constructed by all of the participants, and was used as a way to understand and explain some of the key characteristics and activities associated with County Lines groups. Congruent with this, participants also stressed these group’s similarities to legitimate business and how they adopted conventional business strategies such as marketing. The article concludes by discussing the utility of this profit maximisation framework, how it relates to police responses and areas worthy of further research.
Why would a consumer trust that his/her supplier would honor their agreement in illegal transactions? What mechanisms do consumers rely on to enhance the credibility of their agreements? In this article, these questions are examined in the light of illegal transactions of protected wildlife in China for consumption as a delicacy. Based on interviews with actors involved in this illegal market and open sources, this article shows that consumers rely on the supplier’s reputation to access protected wildlife, along with their reputation of having the culinary skills necessary to cook the wildlife in order to enhance the credibility of their agreements.
The extent of the threat to Europe from transnational organised crime and illegal immigration is more than merely an abstract issue: it has important policy implications for all EU Member States. The fact that these problems are taken seriously has become a policy driver for many areas of communitarised and intergovernmental cooperation. These include law enforcement collaboration, judicial cooperation as well as shaping common policies towards immigration and asylum. Furthermore, JHA cooperation within the EU has become a vital ingredient in the process of building political integration.
Providing internal security for its own citizens is among the essential public goods any state has to deliver and ranks high among its primary sources of legitimacy. The fact that in recent years the EU has emerged as an actor in its own right in this area is therefore of enormous significance to the European integration process. Under the rather colourless and technical-sounding label of justice and home affairs — only recently, with the Treaty of Amsterdam, upgraded to that of an ‘area of freedom, security and justice’ — EU action in internal security-relevant areas such as immigration policy, the fight against cross-border crime and judicial cooperation is now based on an extensive range of treaty objectives, several multi-annual action plans, improved legal instruments, and specific institutional structures both at the EU and at the national level. No other EU policy-making area has, in fact, grown to any similar extent during the past decade.
Any focus on the issue of ethnicity, crime and criminal justice in Portugal has to take into account two specificities which have comparative implications — not to mention the fact that comparability may be hindered from the start at the more general level of the statistical data infrastructure itself.1 First, Portuguese official statistics register only nationalities, not ethnicity or phenotype. Direct or indirect registration by the state of data allowing for the identification of such information is prevented by law in order not to reinforce stereotyping (see Cabecinhas 2007) or the racialization of society.2 The existence of ethnic/racial minorities is therefore not formally acknowledged by the state, which recognizes only individual citizens. Portuguese citizens thus include, without any ethnic specification, ex-immigrants who have acquired the Portuguese citizenship.3
The aim of the chapter is to explore the impact of armed conflicts and their consequences on victimization and offending of women and children, and the implications on how a State, international actors and civil society respond. First, the theoretical framework and an overview of available findings about the impact of war on crime is provided, with special emphasis on victimization and offending of women and children. Then, we present a detailed review and analysis of the situation in Serbia during and after armed conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. In the analysis of the Serbian situation, particular emphasis is put on the long-term impact of war on offending and victimization of women and children through domestic violence and trafficking in persons. In conclusion, the role of the State, civil society and international actors is assessed and recommendations for more timely and appropriate responses are offered.
Chapter 13 presents and interprets numbers and statistics in relation to the British, Scottish and Shetland heroin trends and analyses these data.
In deze bijdrage worden een aantal centrale noties die in dit Cahier aan bod komen van
naderbij toegelicht en op elkaar gearticuleerd. De bijdrage wil de lezer houvast bieden bij de
lezing van het Cahier. Op de eerste plaats wordt ingegaan op de verschillen en gelijkenissen
tussen de formele en informele economie. In welke mate verschillen beide sectoren van elkaar
en gelijken ze op elkaar? In navolgende twee paragrafen wordt ingegaan op de verhouding
tussen beide sectoren enerzijds en criminaliteit anderzijds. Op de tweede plaats wordt inderdaad
ingegaan op de vraag of de formele economie al dan niet te maken heeft met illegale handelingen
en activiteiten en welke verklaringstheorieën hiervoor worden aangehaald in de literatuur. In
essentie gaat het hier om een beschrijving van datgene dat doorgaans begrepen wordt onder de
notie organisatiecriminaliteit, of de criminaliteit gepleegd in de context van het bedrijfsleven.
Op de derde plaats wordt nader beschreven in welke mate de informele economie al dan niet
geconfronteerd wordt met criminaliteit en wat we hierover kunnen leren uit de beschikbare
literatuur. In een afsluitende conclusie worden de meest pregnante kenmerken van de beschreven
concepten naast elkaar gezet en vergeleken. Het zal blijken dat ogenschijnlijk erg gelijkende
concepten tot volkomen andere gezichtshoeken kunnen leiden en essentieel andere fenomenen
kunnen viseren.
One consistent theme within public debates on the problem of drug misuse is its association with minority ethnic groups (Pearson 1995b). It is, nevertheless, a peculiar feature of the British drug scene that members of black and other minority groups have been significantly under-represented among known populations of problem drug users. This despite the fact that there has been clear evidence since the early 1980s of a concentration of the most serious drug-related problems in areas of high unemployment and social deprivation, and that ethnic minorities in Britain experience a high degree of social exclusion in terms of poverty, housing deprivation, educational disadvantage, and discrimination in the labor force (Jones 1996). It is entirely possible, of course, that drug users from Britain's black communities are more likely to remain unknown to service agencies - reflecting other aspects of disadvantage in access to health care (Awiah et al. 1992). In what continues to be a rapidly changing drug scene in Britain, this paper sets out to review this perplexing area of drugs, deprivation, and ethnic minority status, while also presenting evidence in Part II from an outreach project among Asian drug injectors in the city of Bradford in the north of England.
This paper examines the illegal networks in tiger parts trading from the demand (client’s) and the supply (criminal’s) perspective
by drawing on fieldwork interview data collected from seven tiger parts trading network across three Chinese cities—Lhasa,
Xining and Kunming, in 2011. The networks in the three cities were all centralized and independent of each other. Such structure
derives from the low risk of arrest and is best suited to deal with the limited number of tiger part products. None of the
traders involved were full time, professional tiger parts products traders and should be classified as opportunistic criminals.
This article contributes to a broader understanding of criminal networks and to the development of green criminology.
A standard typology of drug trafficking organizations would assist in interpreting the results of studies made of these organizations. Several such typologies have been proposed, and this study examines a widely cited typology that was developed in the 1990s using New York City court data. The typology has two dimensions, organizational tasks and structure. It satisfactorily encompassed the trafficking organizations identified in two new samples: 39 organizations prosecuted in New York City in 1997-2007 and 50 organizations prosecuted during the same period by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The findings supported the generalizability of the typology. They also suggest that drug trafficking organizations adopt a structure congruent with their external environment, including the market for drugs, the type of drugs, ethnicity of those involved in distribution, use of technology in communication and distribution, and levels of law enforcement. Implications of fuller knowledge about the structure and functioning of drug trafficking organizations for research and policy are discussed.
This article discusses peace accords in terms of the transition from political violence to social crime and posits one potential way this can be minimized: through civil-military cooperation. Social crime impedes the implementation of accords and is oftentimes used by actors as a mechanism to perpetuate fighting and increase bargaining potential. First, the complexity of social crime and the effects are discussed. This includes the difficulty created for both peacekeeping and non-governmental organizations in the stabilization and reconstruction process. Second, case studies from Bosnia, Tajikistan, Guatemala, and Mozambique are used to illuminate the problem. A discussion of the nonformal segments of the economy that drive social crime and the nonlegitimate actors involved follows. Last, this study outlines the actions civil and military groups can apply to address this ever-present threat to implementation in post-war transition.
There is no necessary link between drug consumption, addiction and social disintegration. Empirical evidence suggests that a considerable share of the population has consumed illegal drugs during some period of their lives. A substantial proportion of drug users have a job and home. Many `mature out' of drug consumption in their thirties. Most drug users are normal consumers responding systematically to relative prices. After the failure of a repressive drugs policy, Switzerland allows cities to pursue a `third way' between repression and liberalization. The state allows carefully screened heavy addicts to inject heroin at a nominal price, while at the same time raising the cost to potential entrants. The `experiment' has produced encouraging results. The health of heroin users has improved and crime has been reduced. A homogenized drugs policy in the European Union would probably disallow such promising programmes.
There are clear indicators that in spite of the sensitivity of internal security in terms of essential state functions and national sovereignty an EU governance framework with specific characteristics has emerged in the counter-terrorism field. Common threat assessments guide governance responses, and specific institutional structures, cooperation mechanisms, legal instruments, and forms of external action have been put into place to respond to the cross-border nature of the terrorist challenges. However, in line with the general subsidiary role only of the EU as provider of internal security in addition to the Member States, this governance framework remains based on the interaction and cooperation between national counter-terrorist systems and capabilities that remain largely under national control and still enjoy relatively wide margins of discretion in terms of priorities, legal framework, and organization. This analysis concludes that the EU's internal security governance – as evident from the counter-terrorism field – may be best characterized as an advanced institutionalized system of cooperation and coordination between national governance frameworks constructed around a core of common instruments and procedures with a cross-border reach.
This article examines research on upper level drug traffickers in the U.S., the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. Included is an analysis and critique of typologies of drug traffickers and theoretical models of organized crime as they apply to upper level drug networks. Studies of higher level drug trafficking indicate that drug markets represent informal and loosely organized associations of relatively small syndicates or crews of independent drug entrepreneurs. They compete for market share and deal primarily or exclusively with trusted associates chosen from ethnic, kinship, and friendship networks. Most dealers are highly cautious, eschew the use of violence, typically make huge profits, attempt to maintain a low profile, rationalize their conduct as business activity, and operate within geographically niche markets.
Got a Problem? We’ve got answers! www.PopCenter.org Log onto the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing website at www.popcenter.org for a wealth of information to help you deal more effectively with crime and disorder in your community, including: • Web-enhanced versions of all currently available Guides • Interactive training exercises • On-line access to research and police practices • On-line problem analysis module Designed for police and those who work with them to address community problems, www.popcenter.org is a great resource in problem-oriented policing. Supported by the Office of Community Oriented Policing
Die Wirkungen von Drogen entstehen nicht allein durch die spezielle Pharmakologie der eingenommen Substanzen, sondern durch
verschiedene weitere Faktoren und Umstände des jeweiligen Konsums (s. Abb.). Ganz offensichtlich ist dabei zunächst, dass
Dosierungen, Anwendungsarten (zum Beispiel Rauchen, Trinken, Injizieren) und Kombinationen verschiedener psychoaktiver Substanzen
die entstehende Wirkung ebenso bestimmen wie biologische Faktoren, das heißt Geschlecht, Körpergröße, Konstitution und Gewicht,
aber auch Ernährungszustand, Stoffwechsel und genetische Ausstattung. Nicht ganz so offensichtlich ist dagegen, dass auch
kulturelle, soziale und psychologische Faktoren erheblich an der Substanzwirkung beteiligt sind. Gleichwohl konnte in den
letzten Jahrzehnten eine Vielzahl von ethnologischen, soziologischen und psychologischen Untersuchungen deutlich machen, dass
gerade diese Faktoren von besonderer Bedeutung sind, nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil jeder Rausch im soziokulturellen Rahmen erlernt
und maßgeblich durch ihn geprägt wird (vgl. Völger/von Welck 1982; Goodman et al. 1995; Becker 1973; Blätter 1990; DuToit
1977; Marlatt 1978). Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich schwerpunktmäßig genau diesem soziokulturellen Faktorenkomplex, der,
wie wir sehen werden, auch die pharmakologischen und psychologischen Faktoren beeinflusst und eine zentrale, aber wissenschaftlich
oft vernachlässigte Rolle bei der Substanzwirkung innehat.
Popular media as well as law enforcement agencies throughout Europe routinely identify members of ethnic minorities, and recent migrants in particular, as responsible for selling a large proportion of the illegal drugs that are consumed in Europe. Examination of the existing and modest research literature, as well as a careful reading of the official data, does indeed indicate that certain sectors of the drug market are dominated by a small number of specific immigrant groups. Turkish and Albanian ethnic groups largely control the importation, high-level trafficking and open-air retailing of heroin; Colombian groups dominate the importation of cocaine. However, there are other major sectors of the drug market, notably those for cannabis and synthetic drugs, in which native populations seem to be more important. We offer an explanation for this configuration in terms of the advantages conferred on specific immigrant groups by tighter connections to source and transhipment countries as well as by the lesser ability of police to gain cooperation within those immigrants' communities in the consuming countries.
Organised crime networks are often characterised as being held together by bonds of trust, but the conventional wisdom regarding the relation between trust and organised crime lacks a comprehensive theoretical and empirical underpinning. The purpose of this paper is to explore where deeper research on this issue may lead and how it can potentially contribute to a better understanding of organised crime in general. Drawing on the general sociological literature, it provides a preliminary conceptualisation of trust in the context of organised crime centred around a fourfold typology along the micro-macro dimension. The authors use anecdotal evidence from their research on illegal markets for highly taxed goods in Norway and Germany to illustrate that there are different types of trust, that there are different consequences of the violation of trust, and, finally, that there are criminal relations not based on trust at all.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.