By Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

References: This section lists numerous studies and reports related to adolescent substance use, risk factors, and protective measures. It includes works by Jessor, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and others.

Focus Areas: The references cover various topics such as community psychiatry, correctional boot camps, life skills approaches, and traditional therapies.

Research and Guidelines: Many references are linked to guidelines and evaluations from international organizations like WHO and the United Nations, focusing on treatment and prevention strategies for substance use disorders.

United Nations, 2003, 57

By Reyes Ramos, Ph.D

Study Objectives: The study aimed to identify specific inhalants abused, describe user characteristics and behaviors, and develop recommendations for prevention and treatment strategie..

User Characteristics: The sample included 80 Mexican American inhalant abusers in San Antonio, Texas. Most were polydrug users, with common substances including paint, marijuana, and beer.

Adverse Consequences: Inhalant abuse led to severe physical and mental health issues, including memory loss, speech problems, paranoia, violence, and suicidal tendencies.

Gang Involvement: Many teenage respondents were involved in gangs, which increased their risk of violent death due to their unpredictable behavior and disregard for safety.

Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, 1995, 52 pages

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By Ralph R. Acampora

Interspecies Ethics: The book explores the ethical relationships between humans and animals, emphasizing the importance of understanding and compassion across species boundaries.

Philosophical Synthesis: It aims to bridge Anglo-American animal ethics with European traditions like phenomenology and existentialism,creating a dialogue between these philosophical approaches.

Somatic Experience: The author highlights the significance of bodily experiences in forming ethical relationships with animals, suggesting that our physical interactions with animals shape our moral understanding.

Transhuman Morality: The book proposes that it is possible to incorporate animals into a broader, transhuman form of morality, moving beyond anthropocentric views.

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019, 201 pages

Edited by Marian Stamp Dawkins & Morris Gosling

Introduction: The document discusses the ethical considerations in animal behavior research, emphasizing the responsibility of scientists to minimize animal suffering and support conservation efforts.

Guidelines: It includes updated guidelines for the use of animals in research, focusing on reducing the number of animals used, assessingpain, and ensuring proper care and housing.

Ethical Issues: Specific ethical issues are addressed, such as the use ofanimals in studies of predation, aggression, and infanticide, and theimportance of minimizing suffering in field experiments.

References: The document contains numerous references to other works and guidelines related to animal welfare and research ethics.

Academic Press, 1992, 64 pages

By Christian Nellemann, Rune Henriksen, Arnold Kreilhuber, Davyth Stewart , Maria Kotsovou, Patricia Raxter, Elizabeth Mrema & Sam Barrat

Environmental Crime Growth: Environmental crimes are expanding rapidly, with an estimated annual value of $91-258 billion, growing 2-3 times faster than the global economy.

Impact on Ecosystems: These crimes endanger entire ecosystems,wildlife populations, and sustainable livelihoods, causing significant environmental and economic damage.

Transnational Organized Crime: Criminal networks are increasingly involved in environmental crimes,shifting focus from traditional crime to illegal activities like hazardous waste trafficking and illegal logging.

Need for Coordinated Response: Effective combat against environmental crimes requires coordinated international efforts,significant donor support, and cross-agency collaboration.

United Nations Environment Programme, 2016, 104 pages

By W. H. Hammond & Edna Chayen

Study Focus: The document examines persistent offenders liable to preventive detention in 1956, analyzing their criminal characteristics and the effectiveness of preventive detention.

Preventive Detention: It highlights the ineffectiveness of preventive detention in reducing crime among persistent offenders, noting that only a small proportion are diverted from crime.

Comparison: The study compares these offenders with those from a previous study byProfessor Norval Morris, finding similar characteristics over a 20-year period.

Recommendations: Suggestions are made for improving the selection and treatment of offenders to better protect society and rehabilitate criminals.

London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1963, 237 pages

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By Donald Powell Wilson

Psychologist's Experience: The author, a psychologist, spent three years at Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, significantly changing his perspective and approach to his profession.

Research Focus: The book is a personal account of the author's research on drug addiction and criminality, highlighting the human stories of his six convict assistants.

Prison Environment: The narrative provides a vivid description of the penitentiary's environment, including the strict security measures and the daily routines of the inmates.

Challenges and Adaptation: The author faced numerous challenges,including gaining the trust of the inmates and navigating the prison complex social dynamics.

Pocket Books, 1953, 369 pages

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Edited by Peter Becker & Richard F. Wetzell

Historical Scope: The book covers the history of criminology from the late 18th to mid-20th centuries across various countries, includingWestern Europe, the United States, Argentina, Australia, andJapan.

Criminological Discourse: It examines criminology as a discourse and practice, involving police, courts, parliamentary debates, media reports,and writings of statisticians, jurists, and medical doctors..

Cesare Lombroso's Influence: The book provides a comparative study of the worldwide reception of Lombroso's criminal-anthropological ideas and their impact on criminological discourse.

Interdisciplinary Approach: The chapters highlight the relationship between criminological discourse and politics, society, and culture,integrating perspectives from history, sociology, and medical science.

Cambridge University Press, 2006, 492 pages

By Nicholas Barnes

How Do Organized criminal groups (OCGs) respond to military interventions intended to weaken and subdue them? In many cases, such crackdowns have proven counterproductive as OCGs militarize, engage in violence, and confront state forces directly. Existing studies have pointed to several explanations: inter-criminal competition, unconditional militarized approaches, and existing criminal governance arrangements. Much of this work, however, has focused on national, regional, or even municipal level variation and explanations. This article takes a micro-comparative approach based on 18 months of ethnographic research in a group of Rio de Janeiro favelas (impoverished and informal neighborhoods) divided between three drug trafficking gangs and occupied by the Brazilian military from 2014 to 2015. It argues that an active territorial threat from a rival is the primary mechanism leading OCGs to respond violently to military intervention. It also demonstrates that geographic patterns of recruitment play an important role in where OCG rivalries turn violent during intervention.

Comparative Political Studies 2022, Vol. 55(5) 789–831

By Jamie Bergin

People with disabilities having to pay carers to carry them within health facilities. + Local leaders selecting undeserving service users for social protection support, at the expense of poor families who need it. + Officials colluding to put non-existent “ghost teachers” on the books of rural schools, to siphon off already scarce resources. + Women students being coerced into giving sexual favours to pass the next class, with no repercussions for the perpetrator. marginalised communities, Transparency International’s national chapters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda and Zimbabwe conducted corruption risk assessments in these sectors as part of the Inclusive Service Delivery for Africa project. Each chapter selected and studied different functions within the two sectors, largely with an eye to services and operational areas that most impact women, girls and groups at risk of discrimination. What do all these examples have in common? The answer is an abuse of power for private gain, that is exclusionary of marginalised groups and deprives them of education and health care they are entitled to. Corruption undermines the equal access to quality education and health services. The result is the failure of states to uphold fundamental rights and meet basic needs – with women, girls and groups at risk of discrimination shouldering the impacts most severely. Corrupt practices and associated abuses of power deprive millions of people of the opportunities that well-functioning education and health institutions can provide. While this is clearly a human rights issue at the individual level, the aggregate impact on socio-economic development can be ruinous for societies straining to escape the traps of poverty. At the same time, corruption widens the equality gap faced by marginalised groups, and aggravates social exclusion. To better understand how in practice corruption obstructs access to health care and education for These national-level findings revealed stark common trends, pointing to a multitude of corruption risks occurring across the entire service delivery cycle.   

Berlin: Transparency International, 2024. 62p

By Liam Michaud a b, Gillian Kolla c d, Katherine Rudzinski e, Adrian Guta 

The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a “new opioid epidemic”, reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate.

International Journal of Drug Policy Volume 127, May 2024, 104423

By: KARL DODD, PAUL M. SALMON, and COLIN SOLOMON

Background: Sporting organisations and governing bodies are facing increased pressure to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) in sport. This has led to an increase in investigative reports into CSA that include recommendations on how sporting organisations could improve child safeguarding. Current peer reviewed literature on the prevention of CSA in sport, indicates that the majority of research has been on interventions at the levels of the victim and perpetrator, rather than on broader components of the sports system. However, it is not clear whether this is the case in investigative reports. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse investigative reports into CSA in five Australian sports (Swimming, Cricket, Gymnastics, Football, and Tennis), to evaluate the extent to which a systems thinking approach was adopted to understand the broader systemic factors enabling CSA in sport. Method: Factors enabling CSA detailed in the reports, as well as their accompanying recommendations, were mapped to a systems thinking-based framework. The identified enabling factors and recommendations were then evaluated to determine the extent to which a whole of systems focus had been adopted in the investigative reports. Results: In total, 30 enabling factors to CSA were identified, with the majority focused at the higher levels of the sports system (e.g., Governance, Policy, Reporting/Handling issues etc.). This contrasts with the peer reviewed literature. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the identified enabling factors to CSA align with a systems thinking approach, whereas the recommendations to safeguarding partially adhere to the tenets of system thinking.

CJRN Correlates of Crime eJournal, Vol. 7 No. 50, 09/11/2024

By Ana M. Contreras-Merino, Naima Z. Farhane-Medina, and Rosario Castillo-Mayén,

Street harassment is a widespread problem that affects women from all backgrounds, often leading to negative psychological consequences such as anxiety, depression, and reduced self-worth. Despite the pioneering development of laws protecting women’s rights, Spanish culture often normalizes this type of violence against women, and research on this context remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted a cross-sectional study with 245 women in Spain to investigate the occurrence and impact of street harassment on psychological well-being. We used the Street Harassment Assessment Scale, a self-report measure designed to evaluate the prevalence and frequency of street harassment, and explored its asso ciation with anxiety, fear of rape, avoidance behavior, self-esteem, and adherence to sexist beliefs. The results showed that 98% of women experienced street harassment, with 80% reporting monthly occurrences. The frequency of street harass ment was correlated with increased anxiety, fear of rape and avoidance behavior, and lower self-esteem. Additionally, the results supported the link between the endorsement of sexist ideology and lower identification of events. Collectively, the results underscore the negative impact of street harassment on women’s well-being and freedom, highlighting its role as a patriarchal tool that perpetuates female objectification and subordination. An integrative feminist perspective involving various fields, including psychology, public policy, and education, among others, is necessary to create safer environments for women

Sex Roles (2024) 90:1136–1153

By Romi Sigsworth 

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers innovative solutions for addressing a range of illegal activities that impact Africa’s environment. This report explores how AI is being used in Africa to provide intelligence on organised environmental crime, craft tools to assess its impact, and develop methods to detect and prevent environmental criminal activities. It discusses the challenges and opportunities AI poses for policing environmental crime in Africa, and proposes recommendations that would allow AI-powered policing to make a real difference on the continent. Recommendations • African governments and organisations should invest in gathering large, local data sets to allow AI models to produce appropriate and relevant solutions. • Investments in digital and communication infrastructure need to be made across Africa to improve and expand access to and affordability of AI solutions. • Police forces across Africa should include technology and AI skills capacity building into their basic and professional development training curricula. • Guardrails should be established through legislation to protect data, ensure privacy where necessary, and regulate the use of AI. • Public-private partnerships must be strengthened for law enforcement agencies across Africa to receive the technology and training they need to effectively embed AI tools into their methodologies to combat environmental (and other) organised crime

Enact Africa 2024. 28p.

By Arjun Punaji

India has risen as a global attraction, captivating audiences with its vibrant cinematic innovations, rich artistic heritage, and profound literary works. These very expressions, however, sometimes clash with the state's desire to follow expected moral codes. The government, wary of "immoral activities" within these creative mediums, prescribes certain norms and imposes penalties for non-compliance. One such contested area is "obscenity," a concept with criminal law repercussions. This paper delves into Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the concept of obscenity. I will analyse the current legal tests and thresholds for obscenity in light of a rapidly changing world that demands more liberal legislation. Since "obscenity" often aligns with "socially immoral codes," I will examine obscene material through the lens of legal moralism. This paper's main focus is to examine the sanctity and clarity of ‘contemporary community standard’ and also examine that does morality and decency have static meanings or changes over time. Though the ‘Contemporary Community Standard’ is a good law at present, and invoked this standard repeatedly, courts were unable to define and clarify what the contemporary community standard constitutes. My argument is that this standard is problematic and unconvincing since the ‘Contemporary community standard’ itself is highly subjective because within the same community, both conservative and liberal ideas meet and one’s ugliness may become another’s creativity and freedom of expression. Also, morality does not uniformly apply in the same society. What I ‘like’ and approve of material or content may be ‘disgusting’ to others and the ‘contemporary community’ belongs to all sections of society such as rich and poor, readers and illiterates, old and adult, conservatives, and liberals. Therefore, I examine this standard through a ‘legal moralism’ perspective. This includes exploring the famous arguments of Lord Devlin in his "The Enforcement of Morals" lecture, along with the counter-arguments presented by H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Furthermore, we will investigate some of India's landmark (or controversial) obscenity cases. These cases often rely heavily on Western legal interpretations like the Hicklin Test, Miller Test, and the Contemporary Community Standard Test, without providing clear explanations for their application in the Indian context. This analysis aims to demonstrate why India needs to reevaluate its current legal tests in light of societal changes. Then I will propose the "harm principle" as a framework for regulating obscenity, advocating for a higher threshold for punishment. By taking a critical look at existing legal frameworks and advocating for a harm based approach, we can ensure that India's vibrant artistic expressions can flourish while upholding a sense of community decency.

National Law School of Indian University

By Thomas Greminger and Nayef Al-Rodhan

Pirates have existed in different guises since ancient times, from Cilician pirates seizing olive oil cargoes from Roman ships to corsairs seeking spoils along North Africa’s Barbary Coast and buccaneers attacking Spanish treasure ships in the Caribbean. Currently the Gulf of Guinea is the world’s hotspot for maritime piracy. Over the last 15 years container ships, fishing vessels, and oil tankers in the region have been the targets of numerous armed attacks and kidnappings.

The past year has seen some positive developments regarding global maritime security. According to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau (IMB), global piracy and armed robbery incidents are at their lowest recorded figure in three decades. The IMB’s last annual report showed a 32% drop in overall attacks in 2021 compared to 2020. These promising trends are also evident in the Gulf of Guinea. Of the 90 global piracy and armed robbery incidents reported between January and September 2022, 13 have been reported in the Gulf of Guinea region, compared to 27 over the same period in 2021. The decline in the number of reported incidents in West African waters should be welcomed, but this progress is likely to be short-lived unless the international community increases its focus on the region.

The threat level in the Gulf of Guinea region remains high, as highlighted by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2634 on Piracy and Armed Robbery in the Gulf of Guinea, which was unanimously adopted in May 2022. Spearheaded by Ghana and Norway, the resolution expressed the UNSC’s deep concern about the “grave and persistent threat” posed by piracy and transnational organised crime in the Gulf of Guinea. The resolution correctly stressed that unless tackled head-on, piracy will continue to impede international security and navigation, and the sustainable development of states in the region. These challenges are particularly important given the Gulf of Guinea’s geopolitical significance.

Bordering 20 countries and with 6,000 kilometres of coastline, the Gulf of Guinea is a key shipping route for a region that relies heavily on imports. This is why the costs of piracy weigh so heavily on the region’s economic and trade potential, with direct and indirect costs estimated at US$1.925 billion annually for 12 Gulf of Guinea countries. Tackling piracy in the Gulf of Guinea will require both sustained political will at the national and regional levels and deeper and more effective cooperation among members of the international community. All sea-faring nations have a stake in improving the security of the region – including Switzerland, which assumes its seat on the UNSC at the start of 2023, with the aim of promoting global peace and security.

Geneva Centre for Security Policy, 2022. 12p.

By Pia Hüsch, Gareth Mott and Jamie MacColl, with Jason R C Nurse, James Sullivan, Sarah Turner and Nandita Pattnaik

More individuals and organisations in the UK and globally are becoming victims of ransomware. However, little is known about their experiences. This paper sheds light on the victim experience and identifies several key factors that typically shape such experiences. These factors are context-specific and can either improve or worsen the victim experience. They include the following: • Timing of an incident, which may happen after a victim has increased their cyber security measures or at an already stressful time for an organisation, such as the beginning of a school year. • Level of preparation in the form of strong cyber security measures and contingency plans explicitly tailored to respond to a cyber incident. • Human factors, such as the workplace environment and pre-existing dynamics which are often reinforced during an incident. Good levels of unity can bring staff together during a moment of crisis, but a lack of leadership or a blame culture are likely to aggravate the harm experienced during the incident. • Engagement with third-party service providers, such as those providing technical incident response or legal services, can alleviate the negative aspects of the victim experience by providing critical legal, technical or other help. However, they may aggravate the harm by providing poor services or losing valuable time in responding to the incident. • A successful communications campaign is highly context and victim specific. It must include external and internal communications with staff members not part of the immediate response to ensure a good workplace culture. For support, many victims turn to public sector institutions such as law enforcement. Expectations for technical support and expertise from law enforcement are generally low, but victims feel especially unsupported where phone calls are not returned and there is no engagement or feedback loop. The National Cyber Security Centre enjoys a better reputation. However, there is widespread uncertainty about its role and the thresholds that must be met for it to provide support. This poses a reputational risk. Understanding how ransomware attacks are personally felt by victims and what factors aggravate or alleviaBy te the harm they experience is key for policyma  

London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies RUSI, 2024. 70p. 

By John K. Roman,  Anthony Washburn,  Sofia Rodriguez; Caterina G. Roman, .; Elena I. Navarro; Jesse T. Brey; Benjamin M. Reist

The HAVEN Project (Harms After Victimization: Experience and Needs) was launched in 2020 by researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and Temple University with support from the National Institute of Justice1 to address three gaps in the violence literature. First, the project was designed to update the pioneering 1996 NIJ study, Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look using data, measurement and analytic tools that were not available thirty years ago, and that is the subject of this report2. In the same spirit, the project developed an expanded taxonomy of harms from victimization and develops a survey instrument and methodology to facilitate the collection of self-reported data on the harms from violent victimization across multiple dimensions that are commonly excluded from violent crime harms measurement. Finally, advances in criminology have included a growing reliance on causal models to estimate the effectiveness of crime and justice interventions and reforms: the HAVEN project introduced a regression-based cost-benefit model that can be integrated into causal models3  

Chicago: NORC, 2023. 37p.

By Tasnim Abderrahim

Morocco is a key departure point for both local and foreign migrants embarking on irregular sea crossings to Europe. The country is strategically linked to Spain in particular through three main migratory pathways. These include the land passages into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, a maritime route to mainland Spain and a maritime route to the Canary Islands. Furthermore, substantial numbers of migrants cross in and out of Morocco over the border with Algeria.

In 2023, human smuggling trends in Morocco were broadly stable, although the dynamics differed by route. There was a significant rebound in movements from northern Morocco to Spain across the Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar. According to Frontex data, Moroccan arrivals in mainland Spain jumped from 4 307 in 2022 to 7 910 in 2023.1 Moroccan nationals dominated this route, as security measures restricted foreign migrants’ access to the north of the country.

This rise is especially notable given this heightened enforcement, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic and increased further following Spain’s endorsement of Morocco’s position on the Western Sahara conflict in 2022. Border controls along the northern coast remained tight in 2023 and security forces continued to crack down on smuggling networks. In addition, the government persisted in the forced transfer of undocumented migrants from the northern coastal areas to cities in the interior.

The other main northern Moroccan route to Spain, involving land crossings to Ceuta and Melilla, saw a dramatic drop in 2023. Only 467 arrivals were recorded from 1 January to 31 December, a 75% reduction compared to the same period in 2022.2 Despite this, persistent efforts to reach the enclaves continued, including attempts to climb over fences or swim around barriers, underscoring that the decline was largely due to heightened security operations by Spanish and Moroccan forces. To the south, in the Canary Islands, arrivals from Morocco rebounded slightly in 2023, after falling by almost a third between 2021 and 2022. This moderate increase appears to have been driven primarily by foreign migrants, as Moroccan arrivals decreased. Specifically, only 5 817 Moroccan migrants, the most easily identifiable of those departing from Morocco, arrived in the Canaries in 2023, down from 6 411 in 2022. This was likely due to heightened security and the perception among Moroccan migrants that the route was dangerous and costly, with an uncertain chance of success.

Finally, cross-border movement into Morocco from Algeria also continued. Although reliable estimates were limited, there were indications of a slight increase in arrivals through this route, particularly Algerians planning to attempt the sea crossing to the Spanish enclaves. Movement in the opposite direction, from Morocco to Algeria, also appeared to rise. This mainly involved Moroccans heading to Algeria’s north-west coast, from where smuggling to Spain is prevalent.

Over the course of 2023, irregular migration from and through Morocco was influenced by a combination of factors, with intensified enforcement playing a significant role. Morocco had moved to stem migratory flows in 2022, with the government orchestrating a structured crackdown on irregular migrants across the country. Throughout 2023, authorities continued to implement counter-migration measures, including restrictions on migrants’ mobility and the forced relocation of undocumented people.

Despite these efforts, poor economic prospects for both Moroccans and foreign migrants drove departures higher. In 2023, Morocco began to bounce back from the overlapping shocks the economy had experienced in the previous year, including a severe drought, rising commodity prices and the global economic slowdown, all of which derailed growth. However, despite the nascent recovery, many Moroccans continued to grapple with the effects of the successive economic blows that have been occurring since 2020, chiefly price hikes, which have strained the purchasing power of citizens and residents alike, especially low-income populations.

This is the latest Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) monitoring report on human smuggling in Morocco. It builds on the series of annual reports that has been issued since 2021, tracking the evolution of human smuggling in Morocco, as well as the political, security and economic dynamics that influence it.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2024. 28p.

By The International Crisis Group

What’s new? Farmer-herder conflict in Chad has reached unprecedented levels during the political transition following the former president’s death in 2021, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. This violence is exacerbating the country’s perceived north-south divide.

Why does it matter? A growing number of cattle owners are from the north. The sedentary populations of the south and centre see the northerners as protected by the central authorities, fuelling resentment. The farmers’ grievances, sharpened by May’s disputed presidential election, could lead them to take the law into their own hands.

What should be done? President Mahamat Déby should make resolution of farmer-herder conflict a priority during his term. His government should provide security and impartial justice in the affected areas, involving residents in mediation efforts to help restore their confidence in the authorities.

New York: International Crisis Group, 2024. 24p.