United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

This report examines the emergence of new hubs for cocaine trafficking, noting that countries in Southeastern Europe and Africa – particularly those in West and Central Africa – are increasingly being used as key transit zones for the drug. Ports on the North Sea like Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Hamburg, meanwhile, have eclipsed traditional entry points in Spain and Portugal for cocaine arriving in Western Europe. Traffickers are also diversifying their routes in Central America by sending more and more cocaine to Europe, in addition to North America.

The modalities of cocaine traffickers are also examined in this report, with findings showing that the criminal landscape is fragmenting into a myriad of trafficking networks. The demobilization of fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - who had previously controlled many of Colombia’s coca-growing regions – created an opening for others to step in, such as new, local actors; ex-FARC guerillas; or even foreign groups from Mexico and Europe. Additionally, the report reveals that so-called “service providers”, i.e., specialized groups that lend their services at all stages of the supply chain for a fee, have proliferated.

Vienna: UNODC, 2023. 184p.

By Jeffrey A. Singer

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the White House director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated the Biden administration would be “prioritizing harm-reduction practices because these are proven, cost-effective and evidence-based methods that work to save lives.”1 Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) are a successful harm-reduction strategy that has been saving lives in 16 developed countries—including the United States, where such facilities operate in defiance of the law. OPCs, also known as safe consumption sites or drug consumption rooms, began in Europe in the mid-1980s.2 Governments and harm-reduction organizations now operate OPCs in much of Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Unfortunately, a federal law that prosecutors and harm reduction opponents call the “crack house” statute (21 U.S.C. Section 856) makes them illegal in the United States.3 Some OPCs in the United States operate in the shadows. Underground OPCs have been providing services since at least 2014. More recently, state and local officials have been approving OPCs in defiance of federal law. This policy brief reviews how OPCs are an effective, mainstream harm-reduction strategy. Congress should stop standing in the way of local harm-reduction organizations that seek to reduce overdose deaths by establishing OPCs.

Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2023. 12p.

By R. Evan Ellis

In late June and early July, three separate events highlighted the growing risk that the political, health, economic, and security crisis in Venezuela could come to a head in the coming months, which would have grave consequences for its 6 neighbors in the region. First, two figures affiliated with the regime, Diosdado Cabello and Tarek El-Aissami, tested positive for Covid-19, with the prospect that Nicolás Maduro himself—with whom El-Aissami met—could be next. Second, the Maduro regime excluded three of the four political parties opposing him—Popular Will, Justice First, and Democratic Action—from National Assembly elections to be held in December; it also replaced their leaders with regime loyalists, decisively closing one of the few remaining possibilities for a democratic exit to the political crisis in the country. And finally, a report by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on illegal mining in Venezuela highlighted the degree to which the national territory is controlled not by Nicolás Maduro or Juan Guaidó, but by criminal organizations. Beyond the greater Caracas area, Venezuela has devolved into a series of criminal fiefdoms bound not by an allegiance to Maduro or Guaidó but rather by a shared interest in the continued absence of effective governance; this enables those with guns to persist in their criminal enterprises, from narcotics and illegal mining to extorting desperate Venezuelans seeking to cross the border or to send remittances to their loved ones. It is difficult to imagine a country with a more intractable array of problems. Cut off from political solutions or other mechanisms to release the mounting pressures of its economic, political, health, and security crises, and amidst increasingly shrill warnings given more rhetoric than meaningful action by the international community, the country is poised to deteriorate into violence and chaos. This is bound to unleash millions of refugees beyond the estimated five million or more who have already left—much to the detriment of Venezuela’s neighbors, as well as the United States, which lies just across the Caribbean.

Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2020. 6p.

By Melissa Bull, Ross Coomber, Leah Moyle, Lisa Durnian and Wendy O’Brien

In Australia, threshold quantities of illicit drugs act as an indicator of supply offences in distinguishing traffickers from users. This is problematic because it can be difficult for the courts to discriminate between heavy users or ‘social suppliers’ and ‘dealers proper’. Currently, there is no systematic analysis of how the judiciary in Australia navigate the relationship between different types of supply and the consistency and proportionality of the sentence applied. This analysis maps out how current sentencing practices respond to offenders involved in ‘social supply’ and ‘minimally commercial supply’ who are charged with drug trafficking. It makes recommendations that could inform future drug law reform, including that review is needed of the system of thresholds; that sentencing objectives of general and specific deterrence be reconsidered in cases of social supply and minimally commercial supply; and that consideration be given to expanding the scope of current diversion programs to accommodate the needs of the types of offenders and offending behaviour addressed in this study.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2021. 15p.

AND Sentencing for social supply of illicit drugs in Australia. Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council. 2021. 97p.

By David Borden

Dangerous Delays is the first published study on the characteristics of cannabis store robberies. The report was motivated by recurring reports of assaults on workers that follow a pattern: Robbers force workers to the back of the store, demanding they open the safe to obtain secured cash. Workers don't always know the combination, and robbers don't always believe them. Dangerous Delays was also motivated by Congress's renewed attention on the SAFE Banking Act this year, and by disagreements among legislators and advocates which delayed SAFE in the Senate last year. Those debates, while focused principally on social equity concerns, saw arguments made that had the effect of casting doubt on the role of cash in driving robberies of cannabis stores, or of the significance of cannabis store robberies as a whole. While SAFE was stalling in the Senate, Washington State's cannabis community was in the grip of an unprecedented surge in armed robberies of cannabis stores. This occurrence, which began in November 2021 and lasted 4 ½ months, saw nearly 100 reported robberies affect roughly 80 cannabis stores, and ended with three people dead. Uncle's Ike's, a Seattle-based cannabis store chain, since 2017 has compiled robbery reports, and some burglary reports, in the "Uncle Ike's i502 Robbery Tracker." This unique resource is what enabled us to carry out the research done for this report. Our analysis confirms that cash dominates as the target for cannabis store robberies. Product also plays an important role, but almost always in combination with cash; whereas cash on its own gets targeted close to 50% of the time, based on the incidents for which we could determine what was targeted. Most burglaries, by contrast, appear to only target product. In light of the pattern of assaults on workers described above, we classified robberies according to whether robbers targeted the back of the store, or limited their attention solely to the front. We also classified robberies according to four observed types of aggression that occur during armed robberies, which go beyond the minimum level of aggression inherent in robbery. Using statistical correlation measures, we found for the time period of the surge that robberies targeting the back of the store involved elevated aggression more often, and exhibited a larger average number of different aggression types, compared with robberies limited to the front of the store. Examination of individual incidents confirmed that in the great majority of cases, back of the store robberies only target the safe. We also found, however, that weapons fire during cannabis store robberies is complex. The two worst shootings during the Washington surge were driven in part by the 5 robbers' pursuit of cash, but also by physical altercations having ensued between robbers and the workers who were shot.

Washington, DC: StoptheDrugWar.org, 2022. 45p.

By Jonathan HL Rees The concept of fairness, often expressed as the requirement that athletes should be able to compete on a ‘level playing field’, is at the heart of elite professional sport. This requirement, in combination with athlete health, is cited as a rationale for the prohibition of doping, but what precisely constitutes doping is contested. The current World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA, the foundation directing global anti-doping efforts) prohibition-based system has been heavily criticised following many prominent regulatory failures, such as the Russian institutionalised doping scandal. This has left faith in antidoping at a particularly low ebb, with key stakeholders such as the athletes voicing concerns about WADA’s approach. Therefore, commentators have advanced suggestions for how the present system may be improved to make it better able to cope with the urgent demands placed upon it. This thesis builds upon such suggestions. In order to advance practical policy proposals, the thesis provides analysis of the concept of doping and how it should be defined and regulated in elite professional sport. It uses political-philosophical, bioethical, sports ethics and legal analysis to critically examine current regulatory structures and instruments. It argues that the existing policies are grounded in a contested ideological position – WADA’s ‘spirit of sport’ – which fails to account for the realities of elite professional sport, and furthermore that the regulations are inconsistent and incoherent on their own terms, leading to arbitrary policy determinations. Therefore, to advance a more appropriate ‘spirit of sport’ which can inform a system of morality and ethics for anti-doping regulation, this thesis draws upon the work of philosopher John Rawls to derive principles for sports governance. These principles are then used to inform practical policy proposals for more ethically and legally defensible anti-doping regulation which is appropriate for the demands of elite professional sport in the twenty-first century.

Bristol, UK: University of Bristol, 2021. 357p.

By Steven Dudley; Parker Asmann; Victoria Dittmar, Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, Michael Lettieri and Marcos Vizcarra 3

Marijuana legalization has expanded greatly across the United States, the primary destination for illicit drugs produced in Mexico. Today, two-thirds of the US population now has legal access to medicinal or recreational marijuana and the DEA says the majority of the marijuana its anti-drug officials seize is produced domestically. This has major implications for Mexico’s organized crime groups, who just 10 years ago were the main suppliers of marijuana to the United States. In the mountains of Sinaloa, long one of the country’s epicenters for marijuana production, a transformation is taking place. As prices have plummeted, small farmers are looking to other crops or leaving farming behind altogether and migrating to major urban centers. But the powerful organized crime groups operating in this region, most notably the Sinaloa Cartel, have adapted and turned to the mass production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl. Not only that, but they’ve turned inward in an attempt to capitalize on Mexico’s growing -- and almost legal -- domestic market for marijuana.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime, 2022. 30p.

By Public Safety Canada

In the context of cannabis legalization, the Government of Canada introduced legislation to create new offences and provide additional tools to law enforcement to detect and deter drug-impaired driving (DID). Furthermore, to support the implementation of this new legislative framework, the Government invested $161M over five years initially to enhance training of frontline law enforcement officers in how to recognize the signs and symptoms of drug-impaired driving, build law enforcement capacity across the country, provide access to approved drug screening equipment (ADSE), develop policy, bolster research, and raise public awareness about the dangers of drug-impaired driving. An important part of this initiative is to inform Canadians on activities undertaken to address DID and their results. It is the purpose of this annual report. This is the third annual report on trends and patterns in DID. It is produced in cooperation with the provinces and territories, the RCMP, CBSA, and other partner agencies and stakeholders. Whenever possible, it updates data from the 2021 report. However, as in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant reduction in planned activities, in particular the training of law enforcement officers. Nevertheless, the report’s findings show that the federal initiative has continued to enhance law enforcement capacity to detect and deter DID. It has also continued to change Canadians’ attitudes towards driving after cannabis use. Furthermore, data from police and border-reported incidents as well as toxicological analyses among injured and fatally injured drivers indicates that the number of incidents involving drivers with drugs in their system, including cannabis, has been constantly increasing since 2008 as a proportion of all impaired driving incidents. Work to improve the completeness and comparability of data has continued in 2021. As a result, more data is now collected on the use and results of standardized field sobriety testing, more data on injured drivers is now available, and data from the use of approved drug screening equipment as well as coroners and medical examiners is also gradually improving.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2023. 59p.

By the Global Drug Policy Index

For decades, tracking how well - or badly - governments are doing in drug policy has been an elusive endeavour. In no small part, this is because data collection efforts by both governments and the UN have been driven by the outdated and harmful goal of achieving a ‘drug-free society’. The success of drug policies has not been measured against health, development and human rights outcomes, but instead has tended to prioritise indicators such as the numbers of people arrested or imprisoned for drug offences, the amount of drugs seized, or the number of hectares of drug crops eradicated. This wrong-headed focus of drug policy and, as a result, data collection has prevented a genuine analysis of whether drug policies have contributed to overarching policy goals such as achieving gender equality, reducing stigma and discrimination, protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples, or alleviating poverty. Marginalised communities who are disproportionately targeted by drug policies have remained largely invisible, while in many countries punitive drug control measures continue to operate unabated. The net result is that there is a severe dearth of accountability when it comes to the repressive approaches to drug control that most governments continue to employ. In this context, it is my absolute pleasure to welcome the first edition of the Global Drug Policy Index, a new tool which offers the first-ever data-driven global analysis of drug policies and their implementation in a systematic, comprehensive and transparent manner. The Index has been developed by civil society and community organisations, in partnership with academia. The 2 voice and experience of civil society and affected communities is critical for ensuring that policies respond to the needs and realities of people on the ground. In the worrying current context of shrinking civil society space, this civil societyled initiative is to be applauded. The power of the Global Drug Policy Index lies in its key objective: to score and rank how countries are faring in different areas of drug policy as identified in the UN report ‘What we have learned over the last ten years: A summary of knowledge acquired and produced by the UN system on drug-related matters’, 1 and derived from the landmark UN System Common Position on Drugs. 2 Using 75 indicators, the Index covers five dimensions ranging from criminal justice and extreme responses, to health and harm reduction, access to medicines, and development. Importantly, the Index seeks to capture drug policies in their implementation, rather than looking only at what is on paper. Throughout this report, you will hear stories from communities who have been directly affected by drug policies, often with serious and long-lasting effects on their lives and the lives of their loved ones. These powerful testimonies provide the Index with the nuance and real-life experiences that are generally lacking in exclusively data-driven research.

Global Drug Policy Index , 2022. 876p.

By Vera M. Kachnowski, Christine Kitchens, and Cassandra Syckes

The report entitled Weighing the Impact of Simple Possession of Marijuana: Trends and Sentencing in the Federal System updates a 2016 Commission study and examines sentences for simple possession of marijuana offenses in two respects. Part One of the report assesses trends in federal sentencings for simple possession of marijuana since fiscal year 2014. The report then describes the demographic characteristics, criminal history, and sentencing outcomes of federal offenders sentenced for marijuana possession in the last five fiscal years and compares them to federal offenders sentenced for possession of other drug types.

Part Two of the report examines how prior sentences for simple possession of marijuana (under both federal and state law) affect criminal history calculations under the federal sentencing guidelines for new federal offenses. The report identifies how many federal offenders sentenced in fiscal year 2021 — for any crime type — received criminal history points under Chapter Four of the Guidelines Manual for prior marijuana possession sentences. The report then assesses the impact of such points on those offenders’ criminal history category, one of the two components used to establish the sentencing guideline range.

Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), 2023. 46p.

By Pitcavage, Mark

From the document: "[1] Every year, individuals with ties to different extreme causes and movements kill people in the United States; the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] Center on Extremism (COE) tracks these murders. Extremists regularly commit murders in the service of their ideology, in the service of a group or gang they may belong to, or even while engaging in traditional, non-ideological criminal activities. [2] In 2022, domestic extremists killed at least 25 people in the U.S., in 12 separate incidents. […] [3] The 2022 murder totals would have been much lower if not for two high-casualty extremist-related shooting sprees. Only 10 of the 25 deaths occurred outside of those sprees--and one of those 10 deaths occurred in a less lethal mass shooting attempt. [4] The issue of extremist-related mass killings is of growing concern and is the subject of a special section of this report. […] The Center on Extremism has identified 62 extremist-connected mass killing incidents since 1970, with 46 of them being ideologically motivated. […] [5] In 2022, 18 of the 25 extremist-related murders appear to have been committed in whole or part for ideological motives, while the remaining seven murders either have no clear motive or were committed for a non-ideological motive. [6] All the extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, who typically commit most such killings each year but only occasionally are responsible for all (the last time this occurred was 2012). […] [7] White supremacists commit the greatest number of domestic extremist-related murders in most years, but in 2022 the percentage was unusually high: 21 of the 25 murders were linked to white supremacists." This document includes charts, tables, and graphs to illustrate the text.

Anti-Defamation League. 2022

By William Perry and Others

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.

We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

London. J. Bumpus et al. 1819. 259p.

By Gohar Petrossian

Humans are deeply dependent on fishing―globally, fish comprise 15 percent of the protein intake for approximately 3 billion people, and 8 percent of the global population depends on the fishing industry as their livelihood. The global fishing industry is plagued by illegal fishing, however, and many highly commercial species, such as cod, tuna, orange roughy, and swordfish, are extremely vulnerable.

Through criminological analysis, The Last Fish Swimming emphasizes the importance of looking at specific environmental factors that make illegal fishing possible. It examines such factors as proximity to known ports where illegally caught fish can be landed without inspection (i.e., ports of convenience), fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance efforts, formal surveillance, and resource attractiveness in 53 countries that altogether represent 96 percent of the world's fish catch. The book calls upon the global community to address the illegal depletion of the world's fish stock and other similar threats to the world's food supply and natural environment in order to ensure the sustainability of the planet's fish and continuation of the legal fishing industry for generations to come.

Santa Barbara. Praeger. 2019. 191p.

Edited by Graeme R. Newman

The assembled papers identify many serious shortcomings and failings of past comparative research on deviance and crime. In addition, they point to some crime correlates that appear to be found throughout the world, including broken homes, unemployment, urbanization, and industrialization. Individual papers examine the possibility of using international categories in international crime statistics, study cross-cultural perceptions of deviance, and note special problems that may arise for researchers studying crime in Marxist countries with particular emphasis on Cuba. Two approaches to comparative criminology are reviewed: the first consists of confirming universal data and constructs in different juridical, economical, and cultural systems; the second consists of using different cultures in a natural experimental design, or as quasi-clinical cases, in order to test general theories. Other papers explore the historical perspective concerning the role of subcultures in criminology, the informal social control of deviance, and some correlates of social deviance and their relationship to a recent theory of personality. In addition, aspects of comparative criminology involving such relatively recent phenomena as transnational terrorism and large-scale multinational economic crimes are considered. Tabular data, footnotes, and references are provided.

California. Sage. 1980. 385p.

By Norman O. Brown

Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History (1959; second edition 1985) is a book by the American classicist Norman O. Brown, in which the author offers a radical analysis and critique of the work of Sigmund Freud, tries to provide a theoretical rationale for a nonrepressive civilization, explores parallels between psychoanalysis and Martin Luther's theology, and draws on revolutionary themes in western religious thought, especially the body mysticism of Jakob Böhme and William Blake. It was the result of an interest in psychoanalysis that began when the philosopher Herbert Marcuse suggested to Brown that he should read Freud.

Connecticut. Wesleyan University Press. 1959. 364p.

By Jacoueline .L Schneider

The illegal trade in endangered species is a worldwide problem that involves not only animals but also plants, and it contributes to troubling factors such as organized crime as well as the further decline of the earth's natural climate. This book explores the extensive endangered species illegal market, spotlighting the worldwide nature and extent of the problem, and presents revealing case studies of terrestrial, marine, plant, and avian species.

Sold into Extinction: The Global Trade in Endangered Species focuses attention on the plight of endangered wild flora and fauna as well as the specific illegal acts committed against them that have long and largely been ignored by criminology. The author provides a fresh look at the topic by presenting it within a crime reduction framework, an approach rarely taken by those with traditional criminological or conservation backgrounds, demonstrating how an innovative strategy to reduce illegal market activities can simultaneously further the conservation of these endangered species. International treaties, national and domestic laws, and international policing efforts pertaining to crimes involving endangered species are also examined.

Santa Barbara. California . ABC-CLIO. LLC. 2012.

Edited by Carol Block and Richard Block

Papers examining recent and long-term trends in homicide in the United States discuss the relationships among youth violence, guns, and drug law offenses; age patterns in homicide; arrest trends and the impact of demographic changes; and the use of econometric forecasting to correct for missing data. Papers on international and regional violence patterns discuss trends in violence and homicide in the Netherlands and the southern subculture of violence. Nine papers on high-risk groups focus on violence and homicide against women and youth and in different types of workplaces, particularly convenience stores. Five papers focus on intervention strategies based on data analysis; topics include criminal justice sanctions for domestic assault, gun-related violence, violence in public schools in Atlanta, the impacts of exposure to violence on the behavior of inner-city youths and the impact of guidance and employment for adolescents. Further papers consider the use of the National Incident-Based Reporting System and the violence surveillance activities of the Centers for Disease Control. Figures, tables, sample data collection instruments and forms, footnotes, reference lists, and appended conference agenda and lists of participants and working group members

Washington D.C. US Department of Justice. Atlanta, Georgia. 1995. 349p.

By Julia Davidson, Mary Aiken, Kirsty Phillips and Ruby Far

Researching cybercriminality to design new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate cybercriminal behaviour. This is one of the largest studies to date exploring youth cybercriminality. The survey is informed by 5 key disciplines: cyberpsychology, criminology, psychology, neuroscience, and digital anthropology Results confirm that cybercrime and cyberdeviance is prevalent-survey finds that two thirds (69%) of European youth self-report to 4 have committed at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking, and just under half 47.76% (N=3808) report to have engaged in criminal behaviour online, from summer of 2020 to the summer of 2021 Survey finds that males are more likely (74%) than females (65%) to selfreport having been involved in at least one form of cybercrime or online harm or risk taking in the last year and results confirm that the majority of cybercrime and cyberdeviant behaviours are gendered. Survey analysis demonstrates that cybercriminal and online harm or risk taking behaviours form a cluster of 11 behaviours that are highly interrelated (CcCd-Cluster) and that cybercrime and online harm or risk taking behaviours represent a spectrum (CcCd-Spectrum) A significant shift from a siloed, categorical approach is needed in terms of how cybercrimes are conceptualised, investigated, and legislated.

London, United Kingdom Institute for Connected Communities, University of East London. 2022. 10p.

By Michele Battisti, Ilpo Kauppinen, Britta Rude

This paper asks whether social movements taking place on Twitter affect gender-based violence (GBV). Using Twitter data and machine learning methods, we construct a novel data set on the prevalence of Twitter conversations about GBV. We then link this data to weekly crime reports at the federal state level from the United States. We exploit the high-frequency nature of our data and an event study design to establish a causal impact of Twitter social movements on GBV. Our results point out that Twitter tweets related to GBV lead to a decrease in reported crime rates. The evidence shows that perpetrators commit these crimes less due to increased social pressure and perceived social costs. The results indicate that social media could significantly decrease reported GBV and might facilitate the signaling of social norms.

Munich: ifo Institute, - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, 2022. 67p.

By Sarah Mason; Brent Allen Miller; Kiera Dressler

As more schools become involved in social media monitoring and response, a variety of logistical, technological, and ethical challenges appear. This resource highlights example 3 practices, concerns, and methods for social media monitoring in a school setting. The main topics discussed are 1) Reasons for considering social media monitoring; 2) What social media monitoring programs do; 3) Evidence base for social media monitoring; 4) Considerations for schools thinking about monitoring social media; and 5) Ethical framework for Introducing social media monitoring. In addition, although there is no consensus regarding the legality of a school partnering with an outside organization to monitor student behavior, this issue is discussed with reference to records developed through a third-party social media monitoring program.

Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for School Safety, 2022. 10p.