By United Nations EMLER
In the present report, the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement examines how racism is embedded in drug control systems and shapes their impacts on Africans and people of African descent. It begins by exploring the root causes of racial discrimination in drug policy, including the legacies of colonialism, the racialization of drugs, the influence of militarized approaches and the “war on drugs”. The Mechanism then analyses manifestations of racial discrimination across the criminal justice system. Building on this analysis, it examines the intersection of drug policy with other grounds of discrimination, such as gender, highlighting how intersecting forms of discrimination can increase the risk of human rights violations. The Mechanism also identifies factors that exacerbate these harms and concludes by highlighting promising practices and policy approaches aimed at
addressing racial discrimination and advancing more equitable and rights-based drug policies. The present report also includes information on the activities of the Mechanism since its previous report.
By Katheryn Russell-Brow
This article is based on Katheryn Russell-Brown's 2025 presidential address at the 85th annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, held in Washington, D.C. The article begins with an overview of the Author's approach to research and the highlights of her scholarly contributions. Following this, the article presents a research question—whether contemporary race and crime scholars and their scholarship have been stigmatized by the creation of a moral panic designed to marginalize and criminalize their work. This moral panic specifically targets Black history and other race-related scholarship. A criminological and sociological lens is used to analyze the breadth of the panic. Using moral panic as a base for the discussion, the next section examines the broad contours of stigma, and stigmatization and how race-related stigmas operate. Following this is a look at how negative stigmas assigned to race scholars and race scholarship harms the discipline of criminology. For instance, studies indicate that fewer scholars will embrace race and crime scholarship if its value is diminished. Migration studies and imagined futures are included in the assessment of how racial stigmas impact race scholarship. Academic disciplines benefit from rigorous engagement regarding their core principles and perspectives. The absence or diminishment of critical research creates a void in the criminology literature. This raises questions about the representativeness, integrity, and comprehensiveness of criminological scholarship. The article concludes with a charge to the discipline to ensure that race and crime scholarship remain a robust part of the criminological canon.
By Robert O. Motley Jr , Eric Williamson , Melissa McTernan , Sara Beeler c, Christopher P. Salas-Wright
Purpose
Racism-based police violence (RPV) is an emerging public health concern. However, limited research has examined the relationship between RPV exposure and substance use, particularly among Black or African American and Hispanic emerging adults aged 18–29 years. This study assessed associations between lifetime RPV exposure across three domains (direct victimization, witnessing in person, and media-based exposure) and past 30-day and 12-month alcohol and cannabis use in this population.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted from August to October 2023 using a national nonprobability internet sample recruited via Qualtrics. The analytic sample included 936 Black or African American (48 %) and Hispanic (52 %) emerging adults. Negative binomial and logistic regression models were used to examine associations.
Results
Higher levels of RPV exposure were significantly associated with increased alcohol and cannabis use. RPV–Victim exposure was the strongest predictor of alcohol use, including past 30-day (IRR = 1.02, 95 % CI: 1.00–1.05) and 12-month (OR = 1.04, 95 % CI: 1.01–1.07) use. RPV–Witness exposure was most strongly associated with cannabis use, including past 30-day (IRR = 1.02, 95 % CI: 1.00–1.03) and 12-month (OR = 1.03, 95 % CI: 1.01–1.06) use. A dose-response pattern was observed across increasing levels of RPV exposure.
Conclusions
RPV exposure is a significant correlate of alcohol and cannabis use among Black or African American and Hispanic emerging adults. Findings suggest that perceived racialized policing is a significant risk factor for substance use and warrants further investigation as a potential structural determinant, highlighting it as an important target for public health interventions.