The UN and the African Union (AU) have repeatedly warned about the growing use of mercenaries and private military companies (PMCs) in conflict situations. Concerns include the involvement of mercenary groups in transnational organized crime and human rights violations, and the ‘re-routing’ of weapons intended for a state’s military to mercenary groups and PMCs. This re-routing of weapons undermines international and domestic arms control regimes, which are intended to ensure that arms are not used to undermine peace and security, or breach human rights. Since 2021, Mali’s security and political landscape has transformed. After coming to power, the military junta invited the Wagner Group into the country, cut ties with Mali’s former security partners, requested the departure of international forces (from France and the UN peacekeeping mission) and (in 2024) left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In this new landscape, the Wagner Group emerged as the junta’s new ally and was soon actively involved in combat operations against insurgents. The Wagner Group’s tenure in Mali, as widely documented by UN bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, was characterized by serious human rights abuses and war crimes, including massacres, torture and rapes of civilians, and criminal activity, from looting communities to illicit taxation of gold mining sites. For observers of the conflict, such atrocities were not unexpected, as Wagner troops were operating alongside the Malian Armed Forces (Forces Armées Maliennes, FAMa), which have been accused of human rights violations and mismanagement of weapons. However, with the deployment of Wagner troops, violence against civilians increased drastically, beyond the norms set previously by FAMa – civilian casualties per incident doubled between 2021 and 2024. The Wagner Group did not arrive in Mali fully equipped, and troops were expected to source weapons locally, which they did through seizing arms during combat and stealing official stock. This was one of the reasons for communications between Wagner and FAMa troops breaking down. From 2023, joint Wagner/FAMa missions declined, meaning that the Wagner troops operated independently using FAMa-owned equipment. Drawing from an extensive review of open-source material related to Wagner Group operations in Mali and interviews with military sources in Mali and other experts, this paper identifies instances of weapons and equipment intended for use by FAMa being re-routed to Wagner, enabling war crimes and human rights violations. They include FAMa armoured vehicles, vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns (widely known as ‘technicals’) and possibly attack drones – all of which are covered under the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Some instances of re-routing weapons from FAMa to the Wagner Group appear to be in breach of commitments under the ATT, which has been signed by Mali, as well as some of the domestic arms control commitments of several weapons-supplying countries. The Wagner Group’s operations in Mali came to an end in June 2025, and the group has been replaced with the Africa Corps, which is more closely controlled by the Russian state but continues to employ a majority of former-Wagner personnel. Therefore, the Wagner Group may have left Mali in name but has not left in practice. Furthermore, Wagner’s operations in Mali are just one example of re-routing state-to-state transfers of weapons to private military actors, which undermines the international legal frameworks that regulate the arms trade. The international community will need to deal with the phenomenon of the growing use of mercenaries and PMCs in global conflicts and their impact on arms control regimes. The paper makes recommendations for improving governance of the sector, which are summarized below: ■ Arms-exporting countries should undertake additional due diligence when considering an export to any country that has engaged with, hired or collaborated with a PMC. ■ Arms manufacturers should also undertake additional due diligence when looking to supply countries that have engaged with PMCs. ■ International forums on arms control and counter-proliferation should address the emerging role of PMCs in global conflicts, and the impact on arms control mechanisms and on reshaping illicit arms markets. ■ The AU should revise the 1977 Convention for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa to include better provisions for monitoring human rights abuses by mercenaries, including those that are backed by a third-party state. ■ International peacekeeping forces should continue to ensure that any equipment left following drawdown is withdrawn or destroyed in line with UN guidelines. After providing a background on the Wagner Group’s tenure in Mali, this paper documents evidence of weapons and equipment intended for use by FAMa being re-routed to Wagner Group operations, enabling war crimes and human rights violations. It then examines the legal implications for exporting countries, arms suppliers and Mali of arms transferred to FAMa being re-routed to Wagner. In so doing, the paper provides a case study that highlights the need for global arms control regimes to grapple with the growing reality of rogue PMCs being embedded within national militaries and the hybridization of PMCs in conflict and organized criminal activity. As the UN Working Group (UNWG) 2024 report indicates, this is a broader issue than just the Wagner Group and their recent tenure in Mali.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 2025. 36p.

By Arthur MacDonald.

The narrative in Volume 1 asks many pointed questions: What does it mean to be “abnormal”? Who decides? And how have these judgments shaped modern science, education, and criminal justice?

First published in 1893, Arthur MacDonald’s Abnormal Man is one of the earliest American attempts to systematically study human difference through the emerging tools of psychology, anthropology, and criminology. Drawing on international research—from European criminal anthropology to American child-study movements—MacDonald sought to classify the physical, mental, and moral traits considered “aberrant” in his era. His work reflects the hopes and anxieties of a society confronting rapid industrialization, immigration, social change, and new scientific approaches to crime and mental health.

To the modern reader, Abnormal Man reveals both the ambition and the pitfalls of nineteenth-century science. Its pages contain pioneering observations about child development, deviance, and social responsibility, alongside early theories—now discredited—about heredity, physiognomy, and race. What emerges is a vivid and sometimes unsettling portrait of a culture striving to understand human variation without the benefit of modern psychology or ethical safeguards.

The Read-Me.org edition Volume 1 presents Abnormal Man as both a historical artifact and a gateway to critical reflection. It illustrates how scientific thought evolves, how cultural bias can shape research, and how early debates about abnormality laid the groundwork for contemporary approaches to mental health, special education, criminology, and social policy. To make such work, much of it controversial then as it is today, minimally believable, requires extensive documentation. The voluminous Bibliography of Abnormal Man reproduced here in Volume 2, contains all that Macdnald referred to within his detailed exposition. To some, his arguments may seem unsupported, or lacking in evidence. But he left no stone untuned as this amazing bibliographical documentation of all relative contemporary research

A foundational text at the crossroads of science and society, Abnormal Man invites readers to explore the origins of modern debates about deviance, diversity, and the boundaries of the “normal.”

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 240p.

By Caroline Mary Parker

The predominant criminological view of ‘carceral citizenship’ takes citizenship as a purely juridical matter, overlooking key social dimensions of citizenship as a human practice. To understand how the carceral turn is reconfiguring citizenship in Puerto Rico, I explore how formerly incarcerated people carve out a place for themselves in Puerto Rican society under the shadow of the prison. Focusing on one couple and their efforts to operate a therapeutic community, I show how self-help supplies a subset of former prisoners with a publicly recognized form of social belonging. Though more stable and encompassing than the stigmatized exile that awaits many people returning from prison, this carceral citizenship invites formerly incarcerated people to assume critical roles in the confinement, punishment, and care of people convicted of drug offences. Overall, this article highlights how self-help and punishment have emerged as intertwined mediums through which formerly incarcerated people assert their citizenship. 

EUROPEAN REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES. No. 116 (2023): July-December, pp. 87-104

By Arthur MacDonald. Introduction by Graeme R. Newman

What does it mean to be “abnormal”? Who decides? And how have these judgments shaped modern science, education, and criminal justice?

First published in 1893, Arthur MacDonald’s Abnormal Man is one of the earliest American attempts to systematically study human difference through the emerging tools of psychology, anthropology, and criminology. Drawing on international research—from European criminal anthropology to American child-study movements—MacDonald sought to classify the physical, mental, and moral traits considered “aberrant” in his era. His work reflects the hopes and anxieties of a society confronting rapid industrialization, immigration, social change, and new scientific approaches to crime and mental health.

To the modern reader, Abnormal Man reveals both the ambition and the pitfalls of nineteenth-century science. Its pages contain pioneering observations about child development, deviance, and social responsibility, alongside early theories—now discredited—about heredity, physiognomy, and race. What emerges is a vivid and sometimes unsettling portrait of a culture striving to understand human variation without the benefit of modern psychology or ethical safeguards.

This new Read-Me.org edition presents Abnormal Man as both a historical artifact and a gateway to critical reflection. It illustrates how scientific thought evolves, how cultural bias can shape research, and how early debates about abnormality laid the groundwork for contemporary approaches to mental health, special education, criminology, and social policy.

A foundational text at the crossroads of science and society, Abnormal Man invites readers to explore the origins of modern debates about deviance, diversity, and the boundaries of the “normal.”

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. p.193.

By Brent R. Klein,  Cory Schnell,  Steven M. Chermak,  Joshua D. Freilich

This study examined firearm lethality and lethal intent on injurious fatal and nonfatal school shootings using data from The American School Shooting Study, which covers 329 school shootings in the United States from 1990 to 2016. We developed a new multidimensional construct for measuring determination to kill and examined firearm characteristics while considering confounding factors. We identified 11 distinct categories of shooters’ intent, with most showing a strong desire to kill. Both intent and weapon lethality significantly impacted school shooting homicides. Overall, we recommend that prevention and theoretical models should address both factors.

Criminology. 2025;63:673–686.

By Lonel Zamfir

Increased political polarisation has led to a proliferation of attacks against elected representatives, political candidates and party members. Verbal abuse and insults, harassment, threats and intimidation, as well as smear campaigns against politicians, occur regularly both online and offline, marking a serious degradation in the quality of political debate in the EU. During the 2024 European elections campaign, there were serious incidents in several countries. Nevertheless, acts of physical violence remain isolated and less frequent in the EU than in many other parts of the world. Violence is a risk to which politicians have always been exposed, including in democratic regimes. Organised crime and radicalised individuals or groups resort to violence to promote their political or economic agendas. EU countries have been unevenly affected; violence linked to organised crime has particularly affected certain regions, especially southern Italy, where it has proven difficult to eradicate. By contrast, violence driven by political radicalisation is a more recent phenomenon and increasingly affects all EU countries – albeit to varying degrees – and tends to flare up during periods of heightened tension, such as election campaigns and large-scale public protests. The impact on political debate, free exchange of opinions and compromise-building is profoundly negative. Violence and intimidation pressure politicians to self-censor when addressing politically sensitive issues and, in some cases, to step out of politics altogether. To counter this, several EU countries have adopted preventive and protective measures, including regular data collection. Examples include classifying offences against elected representatives as aggravated offences, simplifying reporting, and providing training, counselling and emergency assistance. Parliaments have also promoted civility and mutual respect in debates through codes of conduct and have established support services such as legal aid

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service, 20252025. 11p.

By Florence Yosne. National Criminal Justice Educational Development Project Portland State University And Center Of Criminal Justice Arizona State University.

From the Introduction: This bibliography is the result of a cooperative effort between Portland State University and Arizona State University. It was developed in response to a need for a comprehensive and detailed multi-disciplinary compilation of available books and government documents that relate to the emerging field of Criminal Justice. Professional journals and magazine sources were not included due to person power constraints and the recognition that many of the more significant articles and statements relating to Criminal Justice can be found contained in recently-published books.

The bibliography is broken down into four general substantive areas: (1) criminal justice; (2) law enforcement; (3) corrections;  and (4) courts. The majority of the works are included under the heading "Criminal Justice." In this area, titles are included from such diverse fields as anthropology, economics, education, history, law, political science, psychology, the physical sciences, public administration, and sociology. The other three areas--"Law, Enforcement, " "Corrections, " and "Courts"--while more specific in nature, also reflect the use of information and research from many related and diverse sources.

Clearly, the specific subjects appearing within these four broad rubrics are varied and numerous. In order to facilitate the use of this bibliography, the four broad areas were further broken down into specific subjects such as "civil liberties, " "victimless crimes, " etc., with bibliography entries relating to those topics being identified. The detailed classification of bibliography entries appears at the end of this "Introduction."

It will be readily apparent to the user that the bibliography is multi-disciplinary in nature. This reflects the editor's view that Criminal Justice is a multi-disciplinary, problem-oriented field of scholarship, research, and teaching, embracing those aspects of the social, behavioral, natural, and medical sciences relating to understanding crime and social deviance and entailing a critical examination of the system which has evolved for the handling of attendant problems. The selection of authors, titles, and subjects reflects the need of Criminal Justice, as an emerging field of study, to be sensitive to the ideas and philosophies of a wide range of scholar sand researchers. A bibliography with a narrow focus is of organization and functioning of an entire society.

The sources for the bibliography were legion, and they also reflect the multi-disciplinary approach. Bibliographies from the faculty at Portland State University, Florida Slate University, Michigan State University, San Jose State University, and the University of California at Berkeley, in addition to the Index of Books in Print, catalogs from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, lists from publishers, and reviews from the New York Review of Books, Psychology Today, and the Atlantic Monthly, provided the editor with the reference material necessary for so vast an undertaking.

 MEMBERS NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATIONAL CONSORTIUM. 1975. 418p.

By Kacper Rekawek, Julian Lanchès, and Maria Zotova 

In this Report, Kacper Rekawek, Julian Lanchès, and Maria Zotova document how Russia has institutionalised a “crime-terror nexus” in its hybrid warfare strategy by recruiting criminal actors with weak societal ties across Europe to carry out kinetic and non-kinetic operations in support of state policy. They argue that since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this nexus has become central to Moscow’s ability to project power and evade accountability, and they offer policy recommendations to help European states and EU institutions detect, disrupt, and contain these criminally driven hybrid threats.

This report takes stock of Russian hybrid warfare in Europe in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine. While doing so, it offers more than a catalogue of kinetic incidents attributed to Moscow; it focuses on the perpetrators and situates their actions within Russia’s longstanding reliance on hybrid warfare. This analysis highlights that many of these actors have criminal backgrounds and demonstrates how Russia has built its own state-driven “crime-terror nexus.” The phenomenon recalls earlier patterns seen in terrorist organisations such as ISIS, which recruited Europe’s criminals into violent campaigns under the guise of ideological redemption. This time, however, the state itself actively recruits and grooms socially marginalised, often Russian-speaking individuals residing in Europe to assist in state terrorism against European societies. This strategy complements the “spook-gangster” nexus that has for years underpinned Russia’s governance and operationalisation of foreign policy. Since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this nexus has become even more instrumental in mitigating the economic and geopolitical consequences of Moscow’s aggression. The report shows the extent to which criminality – whether through direct reliance on criminals to conduct attacks or through the “spook-gangster” nexus – constitutes a central pillar of Russia’s hybrid warfare. It opens with an overview of the phenomenon and traces Russia’s experience with hybrid tactics back to at least the 1920s. It then explores Moscow’s enduring use of criminality as a tool of domestic control and foreign policy, with particular emphasis on the post-2022 period. A brief comparative perspective highlights how other hostile state actors similarly integrate criminality into hybrid campaigns waged globally. All of these components build toward the report’s central focus: an assessment of Russia’s kinetic campaign as an integral part of its broader hybrid warfare, and of the actors enabling it. The final section provides practical recommendations to inform policies for both national authorities and EU institutions.

GLOBSEC and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)2025. 23p.

By Olga Smirnovaa and Thomas J. Holt

Research on cybercrime-as-service markets has increased substantially over the last decade, particularly the use of so-called booter and stresser services that enable individuals to engage in high volume denial of service attacks against websites and servers. There is far less research considering the reven-ues vendors may generate from running these services, calling to question whether the economic gains from this form of crime are greater than the potential risk of arrest or legal sanctions. This analysis attempted to estimate the revenues of 42 booter and stresser services in operation after a series of arrests and takedowns by law enforcement. The models presented were basedon the visible characteristics of vendor services, attack volume and customer detail. Three pricing tiers were developed using different potential distribu-tions for booter/stressor markets and find that their potential revenues are of such a magnitude that they may be viewed as an incentive for individuals to enter the market and persist despite the risk of formal sanctions.

DEVIANT BEHAVIOR, 2025, VOL. 46, NO. 10, 1300–1313

By Sarah Lageson and Robert Apel

Employment discrimination from a criminal record is a salient social fact, evidenced by a robust body of experimental research. In Part 1 of this study, we analyze prior criminal record hiring experiments—comprising in-person audits, online audits, and opt-in surveys—to describe patterns over time in employer receptivity to applicants of different races with criminal records. In Part 2, we use a novel experimental survey of 1080 employers to measure how differences in the signaling of a criminal record impact the criminal record–employment relationship. Our results reveal a substantial hiring penalty for an official criminal record (conveyed by a background check report), with a smaller but still significant penalty for an unofficial criminal record (an Internet search engine “hit”). The experiment also shows that the official criminal record penalty is significantly larger for White applicants than for Black applicants. Although the latter finding was counter to expectations informed by prior studies, it is less surprising considering our Part 1 findings, which reveal a closing racial gap in the criminal record penalty during the last 20 years. We discuss how broader legal, social, and technological changes, as well as changes in methodologies, impact our understanding today of criminal records, race, and employment.

Criminology, Volume 63, Issue 2 May 2025 Pages 382-410

By Stan Gilmour

This briefing paper examines the emerging framework of "violence informed approaches" as a critical development in understanding and responding to violence, particularly in the context of preventing criminalisation in the UK. Traditional approaches to violence prevention have often focused on individualised explanations, frequently obscuring the broader social, political, and economic contexts in which violence occurs. Whilst trauma-informed approaches have gained significant traction, they have been critiqued for sometimes inadvertently pathologising  individuals and focusing on psychological impacts rather than addressing structural causes. Violence-informed approaches build upon and extend these frameworks by offering a more explicitly political and contextual analysis of violence and its social determinants. This briefing draws on the foundational work of Professor Stan Gilmour (2025) on violence-informed approaches to preventing criminalisation¹⁶, integrating this with current evidence, research, policy, and practice in the UK to outline the theoretical underpinnings, key characteristics, and practical applications of this emerging framework.  

Milton Keynes, UK: Oxon Advisory, 2025. 14p.

By Makayla Burden; Ariel L. Roddy

Using General Strain Theory as a framework, this study examines the direct effects of seven categories of strain that fall under three broad domains, negative emotions, and substance use on Indigenous youths’ delinquency. Additionally, the cumulative impact of experiencing more than one domain or category is evaluated. Cultural connectedness and support systems are assessed as potential protective factors. Using a sample of Indigenous youth (N = 359) in the United States, this study employs multiple imputation, correlations, and stepwise negative binomial regressions to address the research questions. Results show that few individual strain domains and categories were significant predictors of delinquency. However, there was a cumulative effect of strain where, as the number of domains or categories experienced increases, so did the likelihood of delinquency. Negative emotions were not associated with delinquency and there was limited support for cultural connectedness and support systems’ ability to buffer against delinquent behaviors. Finally, substance use was strongly associated with delinquency. Therefore, there is merit in using the GST framework to examine Indigenous youth delinquency through a cultural lens. However, more culturally integrated research needs to be conducted to fully understand Indigenous youth’s strain and delinquency, and what should be done to provide further support.

Deviant Behavior, 1–21.2025

By Takashi Mitsuhashi, Hitoshi Mitsuhashi, Masahiko Urao

Rule-breaking, a significant workplace safety threat, is often shaped by social influences, with employees more likely to engage in violations when exposed to similar behaviors among peers. Prior research has largely treated peer rule-breaking as uniformly influential, overlooking how situational factors and the perceived motives behind violations shape contagion effects. This study examines how peer effects influence employees’ rule-breaking behaviors, particularly when employees are exposed to peers’ rule-breaking in situations where these actions can plausibly be inferred as motivated by prosocial motives. Using longitudinal task-level data on nurses’ rule-breaking during medication administration at a medical facility in Tokyo, we find that a nurse is more likely to break patient identification rules when exposed more to rule-breaking by co-shift peers, especially when exposed in situations where the nurse can infer peers’ prosocial motives. In addition, we also find that peer effects diminish when management policies reduce nurses’ exposure, particularly by transitioning from pair-checking to single-checking procedures. These insights contribute to research on workplace safety and policy interventions to manage deviant behaviors.

Deviant Behavior, 1–25. 2025.

By Kristoffer Aagesen & Jakob Deman

This study examines how Snapchat’s recommendation algorithms facilitate digital drift from legal to illegal activities. Using microsociological observations, we conducted a quasi-experiment with 40 profiles that engaged with gray markets for nicotine vapes and sex work. Within four days, 65% of these profiles were directed to illicit drug sellers, despite no prior engagement with illegal content. Our audit of Snapchat’s affordances highlights their criminogenic potential, showing how platform algorithms can actively steer users toward illicit networks. These findings underscore how social media platforms function not only as offender convergence spaces but also as facilitators of illegal activity.

Deviant Behavior, 1–14. 2025.

By Karen Holt

A dearth of research examines the perceptions of serial homicide offenders directly through qualitative interviews. The current study presents a case study analysis of serial homicide offender, Harold David Haulman. The concept of serial homicide as understood by the offender himself is explored, with the focus on what it means to be a “serial killer” and the acceptance or rejection of that label. Findings revealed that Haulman both actively resists stigma while at times leaning into the “serial killer” label, a label he constructs by drawing from the popular criminological and larger cultural narratives of serial murder.

Deviant Behavior, 1–14. 2025.

By Renata Glavak-Tkalić, Mike Vuolo, Anja Wertag

Background: Nightlife environments, including nightclubs, bars, and entertainment districts, are associated with elevated substance use and related harms. In situ nightlife studies offer an opportunity to capture real-time data on substance use from targeted populations. Despite the growing number of studies, no systematic review has yet been conducted on this topic. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to explore empirical in situ research in nightlife settings, with a focus on substance use. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across four databases (WOS, PsycInfo, PubMed, and Google Scholar) for English-language peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2014 and 2023 that involved in situ primary data collection about substance use in nightlife settings. In total, 55 articles met the inclusion criteria. Detailed data were extracted on various aspects, such as study design, recruitment methods, substances reported, and key findings. Results: Included studies represented the United States, Europe, Brazil, and Oceania. Most (93%) employed surveys; over half (56%) also collected biomarkers. Substance use was highest among males, young adults, and sexual minorities, with polydrug use and high-risk behavior particularly prevalent in Electronic Dance Music scenes. Included articles varied substantially in their focus, including prevalence, correlates, patterns, harms, and interventions. Recruitment and reporting methods varied widely, complicating cross-study comparisons. Conclusions: This review highlights both the value and challenges of in situ research. Biomarker data enhance the reliability of self-report measures, while inconsistent reporting and non-random sampling limit generalizability. Future research should adopt standardized reporting guidelines that would allow for stronger evidence, permit reproducibility, and increase transparency

Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports 8 October 2025, 100387 In Press, Journal Pre-proof

By Losefa Aguirre, Fernanda Ramírez-Espinoza, Roman Andres Zarate

This paper estimates the impact of violence perpetrated by peers and school staff on student victims. Leveraging unique administrative data from Chile that links reports of school violence to individual educational records, we address longstanding data limitations that have constrained empirical research on this issue. Using a matched difference-in-differences design, we find that exposure to school violence has persistent negative effects: absenteeism increases by 46–64%, grade retention rates double, and both grades and test scores decline significantly, with impacts lasting up to four years. In the longer term, victims are substantially less likely to graduate from high school or enroll in university, with violence perpetrated by adults having more severe consequences than peer violence. Complementary survey evidence reveals that reported incidents are associated with increased perceptions of violence and discrimination, as well as decreases in school belonging and teacher expectations. While these psychological and perceptual effects tend to fade after one year, the adverse educational consequences persist, underscoring how brief traumatic experiences can lead to long-lasting educational disadvantages.

IZA DP No. 18126 Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2025. 87p.

By Jamie O’Halloran and Sebastian Rees

Most people are aware of the health risks of drinking alcohol. Alcohol is known to cause at least seven types of cancer and to be a primary risk factor for more than 30 health conditions. The more alcohol someone drinks, the greater the risk. Despite this, alcohol consumption across the UK remains worryingly high.

The most important fact in this report is that after some years when alcohol consumption was going down in the UK, the trend is now heading in the wrong direction and the health risks are clear. Increased rates of alcohol consumption can already be detected in the rise in both alcohol-related and alcohol-specific mortality since 2019. For example, in 2023, 10,473 people died from alcohol-specific causes in the UK, the highest number on record.

Inequalities

As well as having a deleterious effect on the nation’s health as a whole, harmful levels of alcohol consumption are also a key driver of health inequalities. The health burden of alcohol harm is not spread equally across the UK – people living in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are more likely to die of alcohol-specific causes than those living in England. 

Impact on the workforce

Leaving aside, for the moment, the impact of people developing onset of chronic health conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and anxiety and depression, which often lead to people leaving the labour market, alcohol consumption also has significant effects on the productivity of those in work. It can increase both:

• absenteeism, where people take time off due to illness and

• presenteeism, where people are at work but their capacity is reduced.

Previous analysis by the Institute of Alcohol Studies estimates that alcohol consumption costs the economy £5.06 billion a year – with 44 per cent of the cost being due to presenteeism.

The current report builds on existing analysis and takes a closer look at the relationship between alcohol consumption and workforce productivity by using data from Understanding Society – a large longitudinal panel survey of UK households – and findings from a specially commissioned survey, the authors examine alcohol’s economic impact more deeply, including its varied impacts on different sectors of the economy and job roles.

Key findings

• A quarter of employees feel pressure to drink at workplace events, rising to 38 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds

• Workplace drinking culture driving absences as 31 per cent of workers call in sick in past year after work events

• IPPR calls for minimum unit pricing, reintroducing the alcohol duty escalator, and stronger action from employers

The authors say that pressure to drink at work events is contributing to widespread alcohol-related absences and reduced productivity across all sectors.  

From after-work drinks to subsidised bar tabs at company events, alcohol is often embedded in professional life. A quarter (24 per cent) of workers said they sometimes felt pressured to drink when they didn’t want to, rising to 38 per cent among younger employees (aged 18-24). Over a third said drinking at work events excluded non-drinkers or created cliques.

This culture is driving real consequences. One in three UK workers (31 per cent) have called in sick in the past year after drinking at work-related events, while 22 per cent reported working while hungover, and 29 per cent observed colleagues being tired or sluggish after drinking.

Interestingly, young workers and senior executives are among the most affected groups.

London: IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, i2025. 30p.

By James D. Diamond

As violence in the United States seems to become increasingly more commonplace, the question of how communities reset after unprecedented violence also grows in significance. After the Bloodbath examines this quandary, producing insights linking rampage shootings and communal responses in the United States. Diamond, who was a leading attorney in the community where the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy occurred, focuses on three well-known shootings and a fourth shooting that occurred on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. The book looks to the roots of Indigenous approaches to crime, identifying an institutional weakness in the Anglo judicial model, and explores adapting Indigenous practices that contribute to healing following heinous criminal behavior. Emerging from the history of Indigenous dispute resolution is a spotlight turned on to restorative justice, a subject no author has discussed to date in the context of mass shootings. Diamond ultimately leads the reader to a positive road forward focusing on insightful steps people can take after a rampage shooting to help their wounded communities heal.

East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. 2019.

By Will McMorran

What does reading fictional violence do to us as readers? To find out, this provocative and original book turns to the works of an author synonymous with sexual violence: the Marquis de Sade. Drawing on psychology, cognitive literary studies, and empirical research, it argues that reading is a fundamentally embodied act – and one that implicates us far more than we might like to think in fictional depictions of violence.

This book turns not just to Sade for answers, but to his readers. Where previous studies have focussed either on Sade’s language or his philosophy, this one places the lived experience of actual readers at the heart of its investigations. Taking particular scenes from Sade’s fiction, from a young girl posing as a statue in ‘Eugénie de Franval’ to the brutal rape of the heroine of Justine, this book explores what happens not just on the page but in the minds and bodies of readers as they bring these scenes to life.

Drawing on questionnaires completed by readers of those scenes, and on his own experience as a reader, teacher and translator of Sade, the author challenges the disembodied approach that has dominated Sade studies and literary criticism more broadly over recent decades. This is not just a book about Sade—it’s a radical exploration of what happens to us when we are confronted with scenes of violence. Urgent, accessible, and personal, it offers a new model for understanding reading as a matter of making sensations as well as making sense.

Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2025. 368p.