Drug law enforcement policy: The deterrent effects of Australian policing strategies
February 2015
Staff:
NDARC: Dr Caitlin Hughes, Professor Alison Ritter
Other investigators:
Prof Robert MacCoun - University of California, Berkeley
Dr Don Weatherburn - NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Project description:
Since the banning of psychoactive substances Australian and international drug policy has been underpinned by the assumption that police can deter, discourage or prevent drug offending. It is argued that drug laws and enforcement of those laws will reduce involvement in drug use and trafficking. Yet deterrent effects have gone unexamined or measured using narrow parameters. This project seeks to provide the first comprehensive assessment of the deterrent effects of Australian drug law enforcement policy.
The project will:
- measure the deterrent effects of four Australian policing strategies on current and would-be offenders' decisions to use, possess, purchase or traffick illicit drugs;
- track deterrent effects of drug law enforcement under real world policing conditions in Sydney, NSW and the facilitators and barriers to police deterrence; and
- generate a new conceptual framework of drug law enforcement deterrence.
In this issue
This project will provide the first comprehensive test of the extent to which police can be expected to deter drug crime, as well as specific insight into the specific utilities of four drug law enforcement strategies that are currently employed in Australia.
