By Linda Montanari, Luis Royuela, Sara Mazzilli, Liesbeth Vandam, Elena Alvarez, Noelia Llorens, Ludmila Carapinha, Katerina Grohmannova, Laura Isajeva, Lina Ignataviciute

Substance use is a global phenomenon that is particularly affecting the prison population. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of drug use among people in prison before and during incarceration in seven European countries and to compare it with the prevalence in the general population. Individual data collection was carried out between 2014 and 2018 with a model European Questionnaire on Drug Use among people in prison. A total of 12,918 people living in prison filled in the survey. People in prison report higher level of drug use when compared with the general population and the use of drug inside prison exist, although at lower levels when compared with predetention. Prisons can represent a point of access to engage individuals who use drugs in interventions that address drug use and risk factors related to both drug use and imprisonment.

Journal of Community Psychology Volume 52, Issue 8: Special Issue: Drug Use and Associated Harms Among People in Contact with the Criminal Justice SystemsNov 2024. Pages, 971-1220

By Marieke Liem and Kim Moeller

 In 1985, Goldstein developed a framework to capture the relationships between drugs and violence in the United States, laying a foundation for future research on drug-related violence. Since then, the rise of synthetic drugs, including in Europe, and the introduction of online drug transactions have drastically changed illicit drug markets and associated violence contexts. Technological innovations, increased globalization, and diversification of drug types call for an expansion of Goldstein’s framework, given the accompanying changes in violence. In this paper, we review the conceptual and empirical research on drugs and violence including contributions from Europe and propose refinements to the tripartite framework. This expanded framework specifies the context of the violence in terms of different stages of the drug route, and access- and consumption related events at the individual level. This more fine-grained classification will be able to better capture the characteristics of drug-related violence in Europe and other world regions in a globalized era.  

International Criminology https://doi.org/10.1007/s43576-025-00160-w 2025.  

By The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Substance use and mental health conditions have significant impacts on individuals, families, communities, and societies. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provides nationally representative data on the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances including illicit drugs; substance use disorders; receipt of substance use treatment; mental health conditions; and receipt of mental health treatment among the civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 12 or older in the United States. NSDUH estimates allow researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and the general public to better understand and improve the nation’s behavioral health. Historically, NSDUH collected data via in-person interviews; however, the 2021 to 2024 NSDUHs used multimode data collection, in which respondents completed the survey in person or via the web. Methodological investigations led to the conclusion that estimates based on multimode data collection in 2021 and subsequent years are not comparable with estimates from 2020 or prior years.4 This report examines changes in substance use and mental health estimates from 2021 to 2024 for those estimates that can be compared for all 4 years. Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables also show comprehensive estimates related to substance use and mental health for 2023 and 2024 and selected estimates for 2021 to 2024.5 The 2024 Companion Infographic: Results from the 2021-2024 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health shows selected estimates from 2021 to 2024.6 SAMHSA will also produce a series of reports using pooled data from the 2022 to 2024 NSDUHs to examine in greater depth the associations between characteristics of selected population subgroups and substance use and mental health indicators.  

Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2025. 132p.

By  Petrina Hargrave, PhD., Oliver Donaldson, Moana Hamana, Joanna Miller, and Anja Uhlmann 

Victim blaming, where crime victims are held responsible for their victimisation, deflects blame from perpetrators. This may discourage victims from seeking help or reporting crime, a significant issue in New Zealand where only 28% of crime is reported. It may also impede their recovery. Preventing victim blaming requires understanding victims’ experiences, especially among Māori, Rainbow, and disabled communities, who face higher crime rates. This research aims to raise awareness of victim blaming and its impact on help-seeking, crime reporting and recovery. Victim Support interviewed 31 New Zealand crime victims who had experienced victim blaming, uncovering five key themes.

New Zealand:  Manaaki Tāngata Victim Support , 2024. 40p.

BY Richard Grelling.. Translated By Alexander Gray. Introduction by Colin Heston.

Richard Grelling’s The Crime (Das Verbrechen), translated into English by Alexander Gray and published in London and New York between 1917 and 1919, is conceived as both a moral successor and completion to his earlier pacifist landmark, J’Accuse!, written between August 1915 and November 1916. In creating this extended work, Grelling sought to underscore the causes of World War I and dissect the self-justifying rhetoric that sustained the conflict long after its outbreak. Volumes I and II lay foundational groundwork, tracing the immediate antecedents of the war: imperialist tendencies within Germany and, on the part of the opposing Entente powers, ostensibly defensive motives followed by trait protectionism.

Never before in the annals of humankind has a crime of such sweeping magnitude been committed—and seldom has its perpetration been met with denial so unashamed. Within the very citadels of reason and culture, a proud civilization unleashed catastrophe under the guise of necessity—only to scramble afterward in self-exculpation. It is in this spirit of moral defiance—standing firm against voices of dissent, even from one’s own kin—that The Crime is offered to you. In the trilogy’s third volume, Grelling moves beyond the origins of war into the heart of wartime rationalization, exposing the “war-aims” that enabled aggression to persist under the cloak of purpose. May this work cast a clear light upon the structures of self-deception that allowed the world’s descent, and may it stir an unyielding clarity in us to recognize—and reject—such patterns again.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 261p.

By Clare Garvie

A report released by the Center on Privacy & Technology evaluates the reliability of face recognition as it is used by police in the United States. The report examines the myriad human and machine factors, and their interactions, that might lead to bias and error when law enforcement agencies use face recognition. As a biometric, forensic investigative tool, face recognition may be particularly prone to errors arising from subjective human judgment, cognitive bias, low-quality or manipulated evidence, and under-performing technology. These errors have real-world consequences — the investigation and arrest of an unknown number of innocent people and the deprivation of due process of many, many more. As the grassroots movement to ban police use of face recognition grows, invoking the many overarching ethical problems with this kind of surveillance technology, it is important to point out that face recognition doesn’t work well enough to reliably serve the purposes for which law enforcement agencies themselves want to use it. Relying on the vast wealth of research and knowledge already present in computer science, psychology, forensic science, and legal disciplines, its key findings are:

As currently used in criminal investigations, face recognition is likely an unreliable source of identity evidence.

The algorithm and human steps in a face recognition search each may compound the other’s mistakes.

Since faces contain inherently biasing: information such as demographics, expressions, and assumed behavioral traits, it may be impossible to remove the risk of bias and mistake.

Face recognition has been used as probable cause to make arrests despite assurances to the contrary.

Evidence derived from face recognition searches are already being used in criminal cases, and the accused have been deprived the opportunity to challenge it.

The harms of wrongful arrests and investigations are real, even if they are hard to quantify.

This report is meant to be a resource for researchers examining the potential risks of this new technology, defense attorneys whose clients were identified using face recognition, judges seeking to understand the scientific merit of face recognition-derived evidence, police departments seeking to minimize the harms its use, and advocates and organizers seeking to protect rights in an age of ever expanding police deployment of this technology.

It calls on these communities to question any and all assumptions that the current use of face recognition is adequately controlled and reliable. It warns that we have a narrow and closing window of time in which to repeat the mistakes of previous forensic disciplines and avoid judicial certification of fundamentally flawed or unreliable methods.

Washington, DC: Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, 2022. 77p.

By Andy Aydın-Aitchison

The paper reflects on the value of linking criminological research on atrocity with that on serious economic crime. The two areas of criminological research are outlined briefly, before common challenges around complexity and interdependence are set out. An example of a criminal career encompassing both atrocity and serious economic criminality is put forward to support claims that atrocity and economic crime can usefully be studied together. Three further examples of research are discussed to show the possible merits of bringing together two criminological strands. Ultimately, studying the two forms of criminality together would respect the lived experience of victims, who see firsthand how atrocity and serious economic crime go hand in hand.

International Criminal Law Review (2023) 1–17

By Triana McNeil

 Criminal organizations generate money from illicit activities such as drug and human trafficking and launder the proceeds. Federal agencies investigate illicit activity and have developed several strategies and efforts to combat these crimes. GAO was asked to review efforts to counter illicit finance activities. This report addresses, among other things, (1) selected agencies’ roles and responsibilities in investigating and prosecuting illicit finance activities and (2) the progress made with selected strategies and efforts to counter illicit finance activities. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed agency documents and data, including those related to eight selected federal strategies and efforts on countering illicit finance activities. GAO compared four of these strategies and efforts—which represent long range, multi agency undertakings—to selected key practices for evidencebased policymaking and for interagency collaboration. What GAO Recommends GAO is making four recommendations, including that Treasury collect and assess performance information on implementing the Illicit Finance Strategy, and that the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development establish goals and assess progress for implementing the Initiative. Treasury disagreed with the recommendation, State agreed with the intent of the recommendation but believes it already addressed it, and USAID agreed.

The National Security Council did not provide comments. 2025. 94p.

By Anita Lavorgna, and Anna Sergi

This paper, based on discourse analysis of policy documents, departs from a critique of the juxtaposition of the terms “serious” and “organised” in policies against organised crime in the UK. The conceptualisation of organised crime as national security threat supports our hypothesis that a similar critique can be applied to the emerging narrative of cyber-organised crime in the country. We argue that, whereby organised crime has become essentially “serious” as consequence of its characterisation as a national security threat, cyber crime is becoming “organised” in the policy narrative because of its seriousness. The seriousness and organisation of cyber crime justifies its inclusion within the national security agenda, thus accessing the procedural benefits of criminal intelligence assigned to national security threats. The implications associated to the evolution of such narratives in policy-making need to be assessed while policies are still developing.

International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 2016, 18p.