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About
I am Professor in Criminal Justice in the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, and also Director of Public Engagement for the Faculty of Social Sciences. I am a member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (the independent body which advises ministers on the classification of illicit drugs). I am also President of the International Society of the Study of Drug Policy.
I have worked on issues of drugs, crime and health in the voluntary sector, as an academic researcher and as an adviser to the UK government.
I have published extensively on these issues, with a focus on the sociology of drugs and crime, on risk behaviours by young people, on the use of evidence in policy and on quasi-compulsory drug treatment. My published worked includes a book on Drugs, Crime and Public Health, studies of decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal, of the right to use drugs, on gangs and on the ethnography of policy making.
Career
My interest in drugs and crime dates back to my time working with UK charity Prisoners Abroad, which provides advice and information to British prisoners
held in foreign prisons, and as European project manager and coordinator of the European Network of Drug and HIV/AIDS Services in Prison for Cranstoun Drugs Services.
I also led QCT Europe, a European-funded, six-country research project on treatment for drug dependent offenders, and a project called “Early Exit” on early retention in drug treatment for the Department for Health.
Education
I have a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Kent, an MA in Socio-Legal Studies from the University of Sheffield and a BA in French (in the School of European Studies) from the University of Sussex.
Contact Information
Address
Room Gillingham G2-08
Gillingham Building
University of Kent
Chatham Maritime
Kent ME4 4AG
Publications
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Article
Stevens, A. (2018). Medical cannabis in the UK. BMJ [Online] 363:k4844. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4844.
Aldridge, J., Stevens, A. and Barratt, M. (2018). Harms, benefits and the policing of crytomarkets: a response to commentaries. Addiction [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14169.
Stevens, A. (2018). 'Being human' and the 'moral sidestep' in drug policy: explaining government inaction on opioid-related deaths in the UK. Addictive Behaviors [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.08.036.
Background: With drug-related deaths at record levels in the UK, the government faces two potential sources
of pressure to implement more effective policies. One source is the individuals and families who are most
likely to suffer from such deaths; i.e. working class people living in de-industrialised areas. The other source is
experts who argue for different policy on the basis of research evidences.
Aim: This article aims to explain why, in the face of these two potential sources of pressure, the UK
government has not implemented effective measures to reduce deaths.
Method: The article uses critical realist discourse analysis of official documents and ministerial speeches on
recent British drug policy (2016-2018). It explore this discourse through the theoretical lens of Archer's (2000)
ideas on 'being human' and by drawing on Sayer's (2005) work on the 'moral significance of class'.
Results: Members of economically 'residual' groups (including working class people who use heroin) are
excluded from articulating their interests in 'late welfare capitalism' in a project of depersonalising 'class
contempt' through which politicians cast the people most likely to die as passive, 'vulnerable' 'abjects'.
Conservative politicians dismiss 'evidence-based' ideas on the reduction of drug-related death through a
'moral sidestep'. They defend policy on the basis of its relevance to conservative moral principles, not
effectiveness. This is consistent with the broader moral and political pursuit of partial state shrinkage which
Conservative politicians and the social groups they represent have pursued since the 1970s.
Aldridge, J., Stevens, A. and Barratt, M. (2018). Harms, benefits and the policing of cryptomarkets: a response to commentaries. Addiction [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14169.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Commentary to: Will growth in cryptomarket drug buying increase the harms of illicit drugs?
Stevens, A. and Zampini, G. (2018). Drug policy constellations: A Habermasian approach for understanding English drug policy. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 57:61-71. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.03.030.
Background: It is increasingly accepted that a view of policy as a rational process of fitting evidence-based means to rationally justified ends is inadequate for understanding the actual processes of drug policy making. We aim to provide a better description and explanation of recent English drug policy decisions.
Method: We develop the policy constellation concept from the work of Habermas, in dialogue with data from two contemporary debates in English policy; on decriminalisation of drug possession and on recovery in drug treatment. We collect data on these debates through long-term participant observation, stakeholder interviews (n = 15) and documentary analysis.
Results: We show the importance of social asymmetries in power in enabling structurally advantaged groups to achieve the institutionalisation of their moral preferences as well as the reproduction of their social and economic power through the deployment of policies that reflect their material interests and normative beliefs. The most influential actors in English drug policy come together in a 'medico-penal constellation', in which the aims and practices of public health and social control overlap. Formal decriminalisation of possession has not occurred, despite the efforts of members of a challenging constellation which supports it. Recovery was put forward as the aim of drug treatment by members of a more powerfully connected constellation. It has been absorbed into the practice of 'recovery-oriented' drug treatment in a way that maintains the power of public health professionals to determine the form of treatment.
Conclusion: Actors who share interests and norms come together in policy constellations. Strategic action within and between constellations creates policies that may not take the form that was intended by any individual actor. These policies do not result from purely rational deliberation, but are produced through 'systematically distorted communication'. They enable the most structurally favoured actors to institutionalise their own normative preferences and structural positions.
Ritter, A. and Stevens, A. (2017). Improving knowledge on law enforcement in drug policy. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 41:89-90. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.02.001.
Aldridge, J., Stevens, A. and Barratt, M. (2017). Will growth in cryptomarket drug buying increase the harms of illicit drugs? Addiction [Online] 113:789-796. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.13899.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Background and aim
Cryptomarkets—on‐line, anonymous market‐places for illicit goods and services that specialize mainly in drugs—account for a small but rapidly growing share of the illicit drug market in many countries. Policy responses so far are based generally on the assumption that their rise will only increase drug harms. In this contribution for debate, we question this assumption.
Methods
We provide a narrative review of the emerging literature connected to drug cryptomarkets. We use MacCoun & Reuter's formula to understand the effect of population‐level increases in use on total harm as depending on the level of harm associated with each unit of use. We then consider the potential for cryptomarkets to increase or decrease the harms and benefits related to each unit of drug use, with specific attention to the quality of drugs sold and the non‐drug‐related harms and benefits for customers.
Results
It is likely that cryptomarkets will increase both the amount and the range of substances that are sold. However, we argue that the effects on harms will depend upon whether cryptomarkets also increase the quality and safety of products that are sold, provide harm‐reducing information to consumers and reduce transactional conflict involved in drug purchasing.
Conclusions
There is an emerging and rapidly growing evidence base connected to the macro and micro harms and benefits of cryptomarkets for drug users. Future researchers should use appropriately matched comparative designs to establish more firmly the differential harms and benefits of sourcing drugs both on‐ and off‐line. While it is unlikely that the on‐line drug trade can be eradicated completely, cryptomarkets will respond to regulation and enforcement in ways that have complex, and sometimes unanticipated, effects on both harms and benefits.
Winstock, A., Eastwood, N. and Stevens, A. (2017). A new drug strategy for the UK. BMJ [Online] 358:j3643. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3643.
Stevens, A. and Pacula, R. (2017). Advancing knowledge on cannabis policy using evidence from North America. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 42:36-38. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.02.004.
Coulton, S. et al. (2017). Pragmatic randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a multi-component intervention to reduce substance use and risk-taking behavior in adolescents involved in the criminal justice system: A trial protocol (RISKIT-CJS). BMC Public Health [Online] 17:2-10. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4170-6.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Background
Adolescence is a critical developmental stage when young people make lifestyle choices that have the potential to impact on their current and future health and social wellbeing. The relationship between substance use and criminal activity is complex but there is clear evidence that the prevalence of problematic substance use is far higher among adolescent offenders than the general adolescent population. Adolescent offenders are a marginalized and vulnerable population who are significantly more likely to experience health and social inequalities in later life than their non-offending peers.
There is a paucity of evidence on effective interventions to address substance use and risk-taking behaviours in adolescent offender populations but it is clear that preventative or abstinence orientated interventions are not effective. RISKIT-CJS is an intervention developed in collaboration with young people taking account of the current best evidence. Feasibility and pilot studies have found the intervention addresses the needs of adolescents, is acceptable and has demonstrated potential in reducing substance use and risk-taking behavior.
Methods
The study is a mixed method, two-armed, prospective, pragmatic randomized controlled trial with individual randomisation to either treatment as usual alone or the RISKIT-CJS intervention in addition to treatment as usual. Adolescents, aged 13 to 17 years inclusive, engaged with the criminal justice system who are identified as having problematic substance use are eligible to participate. The study will be conducted across three geographical areas; South and South East England, London and North East England between March 2017 and February 2019.
Discussion
The study represents an ambitious programme of work to address an area of need for a marginalized and vulnerable population.
Stevens, A. (2016). Configurations of corruption: A cross-national qualitative comparative analysis of levels of perceived corruption. International Journal of Comparative Sociology [Online] 57:183-206. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020715216665663.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
This article advances our understanding of the potential causes of national levels of corruption. It develops a new institutionalist criminological theoretical framework. It then applies fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 77 countries. The outcome is perceived corruption. Potentially causal conditions are levels of democracy, human development, income inequality and two value orientations: traditional/rational-secular and survival/self-expression. The analysis supports the new institutionalist expectation that the effects of each of these conditions are configurational and dependent upon the presence or absence of other conditions, including value orientations. This can help to explain why previous findings on the independent effect of democracy on corruption have been mixed. It may also help to explain why corruption is such an intractable phenomenon in many countries.
Stevens, A. (2016). Inequality and adolescent cannabis use: A qualitative comparative analysis of the link at national level. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy [Online]. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1136266.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Aim: This article explores the link between income inequality and adolescent cannabis use at the national level, in the context of other relevant social conditions, in developed countries. Methods and data: Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is applied to two data sets that contain information on the national prevalence of past year cannabis use among 15 and 16 year olds, taken from the ESPAD and HBSC surveys, with supplementary data from the MtF and ASSAD surveys for the USA and Australia (n = 97 for the ESPAD and n = 72 for the HBSC data set). The data sets also include data on national rates of income inequality (Gini coefficient), wealth (GDP per head), welfare support (average benefit replacement rates), urbanization and labour market conditions (youth unemployment). Findings: The combination of high inequality and high urbanization forms part of configurations that are consistent with being usually sufficient to cause high-adolescent cannabis use, alongside high GDP per head in the ESPAD data set, and low welfare support in the HBSC data set. Conclusion: Social conditions, and particularly the combination of income inequality and urbanization, should be considered when studying the causation of high levels of adolescent cannabis use at the national level in developed countries.
Rhodes, T. et al. (2016). Advancing the science, methods and practices of drug policy research. The International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 31:1-3. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.04.010.
The International Journal of Drug Policy (IJDP) has linked with the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP). The Journal and the Society have entered into a non-exclusive partnership in which ISSDP affiliates with IJDP, making IJDP its official journal. IJDP and ISSDP share a concern for advancing the science, methods and practices of drug policy research in a global context. The partnership brings together two key actors in the development and dissemination of research on global drug policies.
Stevens, A. et al. (2015). Legally flawed, scientifically problematic, potentially harmful: The UK Psychoactive Substance Bill. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 26:1167-1170. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.10.005.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
This journal has often analysed legislation in the field of drug policy. Rarely has it discussed a proposed law that has such deep problems in its legal and scientific bases. The Psychoactive Substances Bill, which is currently proceeding through the UK Parliament, will (if enacted) create a 'blanket ban' on the production, importation, exportation and supply of all psychoactive substances for human consumption, except for those that are specifically exempted. The Bill provides for a range of civil and criminal penalties, with a maximum seven-year prison sentence.
Fleetwood, J., Radcliffe, P. and Stevens, A. (2015). Shorter sentences for drug mules: The early impact of the sentencing guidelines in England and Wales. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy [Online] 22:428-436. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1011607.
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In February 2012, new sentencing guidelines for drug offences became effective in all courts in England and Wales. An explicit aim was to reduce the length of sentences for drug 'mules' and so make them more proportionate. This article examines their early impact drawing on data from the Court Proceedings Database and the Crown Court Sentencing Survey for importing/exporting a Class A drug. Overall, the guidelines have achieved their intended aim. The length of the average custodial sentence for drug trafficking fell following the introduction of the guidelines, largely due to taking defendants' roles into account. Notably: three quarters of those in 'lesser' roles received sentences less than four years, representing an important change. Nonetheless, around 10% of mules received very long sentences due to the continued use of drug weight in sentencing. The new guidelines represent an internationally important innovation in drug policy reform.
Stevens, A. et al. (2014). RisKit: The participatory development and observational evaluation of a multi-component programme for adolescent risk behaviour reduction. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy [Online] 21:24-34. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2013.787526.
Aims: to develop and observationally evaluate a multi-component programme for the reduction of risk behaviours in vulnerable adolescents. Methods: the programme was theoretically informed by Catalano and Hawkins' social development model. It was developed using a combination of participatory consultation with young people and a review of evidence reviews. The resulting programme involved screening of school pupils at ages 14-16 years to identify those at risk, inviting them to attend two generic drug and alcohol awareness sessions, and then eight targeted life skills training sessions, alongside one-to-one motivational interviews and the creation of contacts with youth services. Evaluation was carried out using qualitative methods and the quantitative analysis of timeline follow-back questionnaires on drug and alcohol use at entry, exit and six-month follow-up from 226 programme participants. Findings: qualitative data showed that the programme was feasible, acceptable and positively viewed by participants, delivery staff and school staff. The professional skills of delivery staff were important in making it feasible and acceptable. Quantitative evaluation showed significant reductions in alcohol use (as measured by percentage days abstinent and drinks per drinking day). There were also reductions in illicit drug (mostly cannabis) use, although these were not statistically significant. Conclusion: the participatory development process produced a theoretically and evidence informed programme that was highly acceptable and appreciated by its target participants. This evaluation provides evidence of potential effectiveness that is worthy of further evaluation using more rigorous scientific approaches. The RisKit programme is available for use under a Creative Commons licence. © 2014 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Densley, J. and Stevens, A. (2014). 'We'll show you gang': The subterranean structuration of gang life in London. Criminology and Criminal Justice [Online] Online. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1748895814522079.
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This article uses data from interviews with 69 self-described members and associates of street
gangs in London to explore how young people choose their actions and construct their identities
from the material and cultural resources they find in their locales. It explores 'drift' as a potential
explanation of actions of gang members and finds it wanting. It suggests that Giddens' concept
of structuration, when combined with Matza and Sykes' notion of subterranean traditions, offers
a powerful tool for the explanation of how and why some young people in socio-economically
deprived urban areas seek association with gangs through the performance of violence.
Stevens, A. and Measham, F. (2014). The 'drug policy ratchet': Why do sanctions for new psychoactive drugs typically only go up? Addiction [Online] 109:1226-1232. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/add.12406.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
It has been much more common for drugs to be subjected to tighter rather than looser control as drugs and evidence about their effects have has emerged. We argue that there is in place a drug policy ratchet which subjects new psychoactive substances (NPS) to increasing control through the continuation of historical patterns that involve the attribution to emerging drugs of guilt by three different kinds of association: guilt by deviant association; guilt by lunatic association; and guilt by molecular association. We use our contemporary ethnographic experience of drug policy-making to show how these processes continue to be applied to policy on NPS, alongside selective, narrative use of evidence and the 'silent silencing' by absorption of the concept of evidence-based policy. We show that the drug policy ratchet cannot be justified as an example of the precautionary principle in action, as this principle is itself not rationally justified. We conclude that recognition of the drug policy ratchet and its mechanisms may help researchers and policy-makers to improve regulation of NPS.
Stevens, A. and Ritter, A. (2013). How can and do empirical studies influence drug policies? Narratives and complexity in the use of evidence in policy making. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy [Online] 20:169-174. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2013.793892.
Some recent contributions to debates on drug policy and the use of evidence (e.g. Henderson, 2012; Nutt, 2012) have assumed that drug policy could be improved if politicians paid more attention to scientific evidence. While not disagreeing with the broad thrust of this argument, we would like to question some of the assumptions about how evidence can and does influence policy. This was the theme of the Sixth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), which was hosted by the University of Kent in Canterbury in May 2012. Papers from this conference comprise the main body of this special issue. This editorial develops some theoretical ideas concerning the policy impact of empirical research, before introducing the articles which illustrate the variety of ways that drug policy analysis can be relevant to policy making. We are specifically interested in narratives – both of and in drug policy making – and the complexity of the policy process. We argue that these render some recommendations for improving drug policy somewhat naïve. Much more attention needs to be paid to issues of problem construction, politics, ideology, power and the messy complexity of the policy process.
Stevens, A. (2012). The ethics and effectiveness of coerced treatment of people who use drugs. Human Rights and Drugs 2:7-16.
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In the context of international debates about ways to reduce the harms related to
the use of illicit drugs and their control, this article explores the specific issue of
coerced treatment of people who use drugs. It uses established standards of human
rights and medical ethics to judge whether it is ethical to apply either of two types
of coerced treatment (compulsory treatment and quasi-compulsory treatment,
or QCT) to any of three groups of drug users (non-problematic users, dependent
drug users and drug dependent offenders). It argues that compulsory treatment is
not ethical for any group, as it breaches the standard of informed consent. Quasicompulsory
treatment (i.e. treatment that is offered as an alternative to a punishment
that is itself ethically justified) may be ethical (under specified conditions) for drug
dependent offenders who are facing a more restrictive penal sanction, but is not
ethical for other people who use drugs. The article also briefly reviews evidence
which suggests that QCT may be as effective as voluntary treatment.
Stevens, A. and Hughes, C. (2012). A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and Alcohol Review [Online] 31:101-113. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
In this Harm Reduction Digest two observers and scholars of the 2001 Portuguese drug policy reform consider divergent accounts of the reform which viewed it as a 'resounding success' or a 'disastrous failure'. Acknowledging from their own experience the inherent difficulties in studying drug law reform, Caitlin Hughes and Alex Stevens take the central competing claims of the protagonists and consider them against the available data.They remind us of the way all sides of the drug policy debates call upon and alternatively use or misuse 'evidence' to feed into discussions of the worth, efficacy and desirability of different illicit drug policies. In doing so they provide pause for thought for those of us who operate as drug policy researchers and drug policy advocates.
Schaub, M. et al. (2011). Predictors of retention in the 'voluntary' and 'quasi-compulsory' treatment of substance dependence in Europe. European Addiction Research [Online] 17:97-105. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000322574.
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Background Policies and practices related to the quasi-compulsory treatment (QCT) of
substance-dependent offenders are currently implemented in many countries, despite the
absence of reliable knowledge about significant predictors of treatment retention. This study
aimed to identify such predictors in QCT and voluntary treatment.
Methods Participants were treated in one of 65 institutions in 5 European countries. They
were interviewed at intake on substance use, committed crimes, perceived pressure for
treatment, self-efficacy, stage of change, employment, and health-related variables. Binary
logistic regression models were computed to identify predictors of treatment retention at an
18-month follow-up. Moderator analyses were computed to investigate whether these
predictors vary by treatment condition (quasi-compulsory vs. voluntary).
Results A higher number of working days in the previous month was positively associated
with treatment retention, while use of heroin, crack, and multiple drugs, psychiatric problems
in the previous month, and lifetime depression were negatively associated with treatment
retention. Higher perceived medical pressure resulted in higher treatment retention rates only
for participants in QCT.
Conclusion Predictors of substance abuse treatment retention are quite similar across both
the quasi-compulsory and voluntary treatments. Perceived medical pressure is of higher
relevance than the often-believed legal pressure for treatment retention in QCT.
Stevens, A. (2011). Sociological approaches to the study of drug use and policy. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 22:399-403. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2011.10.003.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Sociology has contributed much to the study of drug use and dependence, as
numerous reviews can attest (e.g. Adrian, 2003; Allen, 2007; Bergeron, 2009; Faupel,
Horowitz, & Weaver, 2004; Rhodes, 2009; Weinberg, 2011). However, the study of
drug policy has often been left to economists, with assistance from operational
researchers, public policy specialists, lawyers and psychologists (e.g. Boyum &
Reuter, 2005; Caulkins, Tragler, & Wallner, 2009; Donohue, Ewing, & Peloquin,
2011; Kleiman, 2009; MacCoun & Reuter, 2001). As Peter Reuter recently stated,
while economics has provided useful contributions to the analysis of the drug trade
seen as a market, economists have too often failed to question or verify the – often
grand – assumptions that they tend to bring to the study of these markets (Reuter,
2011).
Stevens, A. (2011). Drug policy, harm and human rights: A rationalist approach. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 22:399-403. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2011.02.003.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Background: It has recently been argued that drug-related harms cannot be compared, so making it impossible
to choose rationally between various drug policy options. Attempts to apply international human
rights law to this area are valid, but have found it difficult to overcome the problems in applying codified
human rights to issues of drug policy.
Method: This article applies the rationalist ethical argument of Gewirth (1978) to this issue. It outlines his
argument to the 'principle of generic consistency' and the hierarchy of basic, nonsubtractive and additive
rights that it entails. It then applies these ideas to drug policy issues, such as whether there is a right to
use drugs, whether the rights of drug 'addicts' can be limited, and how different harms can be compared
in choosing between policies.
Result: There is an additive right to use drugs, but only insofar as this right does not conflict with the
basic and nonsubtractive rights of others. People whose freedom to choose whether to use drugs is
compromised by compulsion have a right to receive treatment. They retain enforceable duties not to
inflict harms on others. Policies which reduce harms to basic and nonsubtractive rights should be pursued,
even if they lead to harms to additive rights.
Conclusion: There exists a sound, rational, extra-legal basis for the discussion of drug policy and related
harms which enables commensurable discussion of drug policy options.
Stevens, A. (2011). Recovery through contradiction? Criminal Justice Matters [Online] 84:20-21. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09627251.2011.576024.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
With this new drug strategy, the circle has turned. It was a Conservative government
that introduced the first drug strategy, Tackling Drugs Together, in 1995. This aimed
to reduce drug related crime, protect young people and reduce health harms by
discouraging drug use. It was criticised at the time for having unrealistic, intangible
aims and for not providing the necessary funding. New Labour's strategies introduced
increasingly specific targets and massively expanded the funding of treatment. This
new Coalition strategy has no targets and provides no new funding.
Stevens, A. (2011). Telling policy stories: An ethnographic study of the use of evidence in policy-making in the UK. Journal of Social Policy [Online] 40:237-256. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279410000723.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Based on participant observation in a team of British policy making civil servants carried out in
2009, this article examines the use that is made of evidence in making policy. It shows that these
civil servants displayed a high level of commitment to the use of evidence. However, their use of
evidence was hampered by the huge volume of various kinds of evidence and by the unsuitability
of much academic research in answering policy questions. Faced with this deluge of inconclusive
information, they used evidence to create persuasive policy stories. These stories were useful
both in making acceptable policies and in advancing careers. They often involved the excision of
methodological uncertainty and the use of 'killer charts' to boost the persuasiveness of the
narrative. In telling these stories, social inequality was 'silently silenced' in favour of promoting
policies which were 'totemically' tough. The article concludes that this selective, narrative use of
evidence is ideological in that it supports systematically asymmetrical relations of power.
Schaub, M. et al. (2010). Comparing outcomes of 'voluntary' and 'quasi-compulsory' treatment of substance dependence in Europe. European Addiction Research [Online] 16:53-60. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000265938.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Aim: This study evaluates quasi-compulsory drug treatment
(QCT) arrangements for substance-dependent offenders receiving
treatment instead of imprisonment in comparison to
voluntary treatment within five European countries. Methods:
Participants were interviewed with the European Addiction
Severity Index, the ASI-crime module, questions on
perception of pressure and self-efficacy, and the Readinessto-
Change Questionnaire at treatment entry and after 6, 12,
and 18 months. Results: Reductions in substance use and
crime as well as improvements in health and social integration
were observed in QCT and voluntary treatment groups.
After controlling for various factors, subjects in the QCT and
the comparison group showed similar reductions in substance use and crime over time. Study retention was comparable
in both groups. Conclusion: QCT is as effective as voluntary
treatment provided in the same services in reducing
substance use and crime.
Stevens, A. and Hughes, C. (2010). What can we learn from the Portuguese decriminalization of illicit drugs? British Journal of Criminology [Online] 50:999-1022. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azq038.
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The issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs is hotly debated, but is rarely subject to evidence-based
analysis. This paper examines the case of Portugal, a nation that decriminalized the use and possession
of all illicit drugs on 1 July 2001. Drawing upon independent evaluations and interviews
conducted with 13 key stakeholders in 2007 and 2009, it critically analyses the criminal justice and
health impacts against trends from neighbouring Spain and Italy. It concludes that contrary to
predictions, the Portuguese decriminalization did not lead to major increases in drug use. Indeed,
evidence indicates reductions in problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice
overcrowding. The article discusses these developments in the context of drug law debates and
criminological discussions on late modern governance.
Radcliffe, P. and Stevens, A. (2008). Are drug treatment services only for 'thieving junkie scumbags'? Drug users and the management of stigmatised identities. Social Science and Medicine [Online] 67:1065-1073. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.06.004.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
This article uses qualitative interviews with 53 problematic drug users who had dropped out of treatment in England, UK to explore how they describe the stigmatisation of drug users and drug services. It discusses the construction of the category of the junkie through its association with un-controlled heroin use and criminality. It shows how some drug users carefully manage information about their discreditable identities by excluding themselves from this category, while acknowledging its validity for other drug users. The junkie
identity was generally seen as shameful and therefore to be avoided, although it holds attractions for some drug users. For many of the interviewees, entry to treatment risked exposing their own activities as shaming, as they saw treatment as being a place that was populated by junkies and where it becomes more difficult to manage discreditable information. The treatment regime, e.g. the routine of supervised consumption of methadone,was itself seen by some as stigmatising and was also seen as hindering progress to the desired 'normal' life of conventional employment. Participation in the community of users of both drugs and drug services was perceived as potentially damaging to the prospects of recovery. This emphasises the importance of social capital, including links to people and opportunities outside the drug market. It also highlights the danger that using the criminal
justice system to concentrate prolific offenders in treatment may have the perverse effects of excluding other people who have drug problems and of prolonging the performance of the junkie identity within treatment services. It is concluded that treatment agencies
should address these issues, including through the provision of more drug services in mainstream settings, in order to ensure that drug services are not seen to be suitable only for one particularly stigmatised category of drug user.
Reuter, P. and Stevens, A. (2008). Assessing UK Drug Policy from a Crime Control Perspective. Criminology and Criminal Justice [Online] 8:461-482. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1748895808096473.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Over the entire last quarter of the 20th century the British drug problem worsened, despite the implementation of a variety of approaches and commitment of substantial criminal justice and other resources. The link between chronic use of expensive drugs and property crime makes this experience important for understanding trends in crime
and justice in Britain. The worsening of the problem can be seen in the growing number of new heroin users each year over almost the entire period 1975–2000, on top of which was layered, starting in the late 1990s, the first major outbreak of chronic cocaine use. This was not the common pattern in Western Europe over that time and by
2000 the UK had Western Europe's most serious drug problem.
The response initially took the form of increasing enforcement against drug markets; in just the decade 1994–2005 the number of prison cell years handed out in annual sentences has tripled. Even with this expansion we estimate that the annual probability of incarceration for a class A drug dealer is only approximately 6 per cent.
Since 2000 there has also been a massive increase in treatment resources linked to the criminal justice system. The number of treatment assessments in recent years has been as large as 58 per cent of the number of persons estimated to be problematic users of Class A drugs. The government believes that drug policy has contributed to
the decline in crime in the UK since 2000. Using what is known about treatment outcomes, we argue that despite impressive evidence of effect on individual level offending, the effect of treatment expansion in reducing overall crime rates is likely to have been limited.
McSweeney, T. et al. (2008). Drug testing and court review hearings: uses and limitations. Probation Journal [Online] 55:39-54. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0264550507085678.
The ability of the UK criminal justice system to divert drug-dependent offenders into treatment has been enhanced during recent years. Despite the rapid expansion of such coercive measures, research findings to date are equivocal
about their impact. This article draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with professionals and those mandated to treatment by the courts to assess the
uses and limitations of two defining features of court-ordered drug treatment in Britain and elsewhere – drug testing and court review hearings – as a means of
promoting and monitoring compliance with the conditions of these disposals.
Stevens, A. et al. (2008). Early Exit: Estimating and explaining early exit from drug treatment. Harm Reduction Journal [Online] 5:1-14. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-5-13.
Background: Early exit (drop-out) from drug treatment can mean that drug users do not derive the full benefits that treatment potentially offers. Additionally, it may mean that scarce treatment resources are used inefficiently. Understanding the factors that lead to early exit from treatment should enable services to operate more effectively and better reduce drug related harm. To date,
few studies have focused on drop-out during the initial, engagement phase of treatment. This paper describes a mixed method study of early exit from English drug treatment services.
Methods: Quantitative data (n = 2,624) was derived from three English drug action team areas; two metropolitan and one provincial. Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was used to investigate predictors of early-exit while controlling for differences between agencies. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 53 ex-clients and 16 members of staff from 10 agencies in these areas to
explore their perspectives on early exit, its determinants and, how services could be improved.
Results: Almost a quarter of the quantitative sample (24.5%) dropped out between assessment and 30 days in treatment. Predictors of early exit were: being younger; being homeless; and not being a current injector. Age and injection status were both consistently associated with exit between assessment and treatment entry. Those who were not in substitution treatment were significantly more likely to leave treatment at this stage. There were substantial variations between agencies, which point to the importance of system factors. Qualitative analysis identified several potential ways to improve services. Perceived problems included: opening hours; the service
setting; under-utilisation of motivational enhancement techniques; lack of clarity about expectations; lengthy, repetitive assessment procedures; constrained treatment choices; low initial dosing of opioid substitution treatment; and the routine requirement of supervised consumption of methadone.
Conclusion: Early exit diminishes the contribution that treatment may make to the reduction of drug related harm. This paper identifies characteristics of people most likely to drop out of treatment prematurely in English drug treatment services and highlights a range of possibilities for improving services.
Stevens, A. (2008). Weighing up crime: the over estimation of drug-related crime. Contemporary Drug Problems [Online] 35:265-290. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=43225942&site=ehost-live.
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Background: It is generally accepted that harms from crime cause a very large part of the total social harm that can be attributed to drug use. For example, crime harms accounted for 70% of the weighting of the British Drug Harm Index in 2004. This paper explores the linkage of criminal harm to drug use and challenges the current overestimation of the proportion of crime that can be causally attributed to drug use. It particularly examines the use of data from arrested drug users to estimate the quantity of drug-related crime.
Method: Multivariate, secondary analysis of data from the British Offending, Crime and Justice Survey is used to test the hypothesis that drug users are over-represented in arrest data, compared to other offenders.
Results: It is found in logistic regression that the strongest predictor of arrest was not the frequency or type of offending, but whether an offender was in work or education. Offenders who have used illicit drugs were over two times as likely to be arrested as those who did not, even taking employment status and the type and frequency of offending into account.
Conclusion: Current methods for estimating drug-related crime endanger the validity of measurements of drug-related harm, with damaging consequences for the analysis of drug policy and the stigmatisation of drug users.
Stevens, A. (2007). Survival of the ideas that fit: An evolutionary analogy for the use of evidence in policy. Social Policy and Society [Online] 6:25-35. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1474746406003319.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
This paper explores bias in the use of evidence in policy. It argues that existing models
of the evidence–policy relationship neglect the tendency for attention to be paid only to
that evidence helpful to the interests of powerful social groups. An evolutionary analogy
is used to explain how this bias arises, without the need for irrationality or conspiracy
on the part of policy makers. Examples are given in the fields of drug, asylum and other
policies, and the possible responses by researchers to the biased use of research evidence
are discussed.
Stevens, A. (2007). When two dark figures collide: Evidence and discourse on drug-related crime. Critical Social Policy [Online] 27:77-99. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018307072208.
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This paper explores the socio-political construction of drug-related
crime; a concept that has dominated recent developments in UK drug
policy. It has been assumed that the perceived overlap between known
offenders and drug users is also present among the much larger groups
of unknown offenders and drug users. This assumption has led to inflated
claims of scale, precision and causality in political discussions of the
drug–crime link. The discourse coalition approach is used to analyse
how such methodologically suspect knowledge has been translated into
policy since 1997. It is argued that the concept of drug-related crime
has been influential because it is tactically and structurally useful to
powerful groups in discursive struggle.
Stevens, A. et al. (2007). The victimisation of dependent drug users: Findings from a European study, UK. European Journal of Criminology [Online] 4:385-408. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1477370807080719.
This article contributes to the literature on drug users, victimisation and offending using data on 545 dependent drug users entering treatment in four European countries. Members of the sample were exposed to high levels of criminal victimisation. Sub-groups who were particularly vulnerable to crime included women (and especially sex workers), the homeless, recent offenders and those with a history of poor mental health. Multivariate analysis indicated that frequent drug use, recent offending and histories of depression and anxiety were significantly predictive of violent victimisation, while only gender and a history of anxiety were significantly predictive of property victimisation. The article discusses how these findings relate to theoretical approaches to victimisation, in both positivist and critical frameworks.
McSweeney, T. et al. (2007). Twisting arms or a helping hand? Assessing the impact of 'coerced' and comparable 'voluntary' drug treatment options. British Journal of Criminology [Online] 47:470-490. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azl087.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Despite the rapid expansion of options to coerce drug-dependent offenders into
treatment - culminating recently in the provisions of the Drugs Act 2005 and the
government's 'Tough Choices' agenda - research findings to date are equivocal about
their impact in reducing crime. This paper presents UK findings from a pan-European
study on this issue. The results – at both national and international levels - reveal that
court-mandated clients reported significant and sustained reductions in illicit drug use
and offending behaviours, and improvements in other areas of social functioning.
Those entering the same treatment services through non-criminal justice routes also
reported similar reductions and improvements. The implications of these findings are
discussed in the context of recent policy developments.
Stevens, A. et al. (2006). The relationship between legal status, perceived pressure and motivation in treatment for drug dependence: Results from a European study of quasi-compulsory treatment. European Addiction Research [Online] 12:197-209. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000094422.
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This paper reports on intake data from QCT Europe, a study of quasi-compulsory
treatment for drug dependent offenders. It explores the link between formal legal
coercion, perceived pressure to be in treatment and motivation amongst a sample of
845 people who entered treatment for drug dependence in 5 European countries, half
of them in quasi-compulsory treatment and half 'voluntarily'. Using both quantitative
and qualitative data, it suggests that those who enter treatment under QCT do perceive
greater pressure to be in treatment, but that this does not necessarily lead to higher or
lower motivation than 'volunteers'. Many drug dependent offenders value QCT as an
opportunity to get treatment. Motivation is mutable and can be developed or
diminished by the quality of support and services offered to drug dependent offenders.
Stevens, A. et al. (2005). Quasi-Compulsory Treatment of Drug Dependent Offenders: An International Literature Review. Substance Use & Misuse 40:269-283.
Stevens, A. et al. (2005). On Coercion. International Journal of Drug Policy [Online] 16:203-206. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2005.04.004.
Coercion is controversial. The idea of using the legal system to get drug users into treatment tends to polarise debate between those who present it as a solution to drug-related crime, and others who see it as an abuse of human rights and of the relationship between client and therapist. Protagonists in this debate tend to talk past each other, with their different emphases on crime and civil liberties. In this editorial, we attempt to test these arguments, in the hope of moving the debate beyond mutual incomprehension. Our discussion builds on work we have done for the QCT Europe project, a six-country study of the use of quasi-compulsory treatment for drug-dependent offenders (see www.kent.ac.uk/eiss/projects/qct-europe/).
Hunt, N. and Stevens, A. (2004). Whose harm? Harm and the shift from health to coercion in UK drug policy. Social Policy and Society [Online] 3:333-342. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1474746404001964.
Building on Stimson's (2000) analysis, this paper examines the shift from a focus on health towards one of crime within UK drug policy. The increased use of coerced or
compulsory treatment of drug users is discussed with reference to harm reduction theory and the question of whose harm is prioritised in shaping drug services. We also identify mechanisms by which the efficacy of treatment approaches based on coercion may be lessened or reduce the efficacy of other existing services. Failure to consider these may be an important omission in any appraisal of the impact of policies that increasingly prioritise crime prevention and coercion over heath and voluntarism.
Stevens, A., Bur, A. and Young, L. (2003). People, jobs, rights and power: the role of participation in combating social exclusion in Europe. Community Development Journal [Online] 38:84-95. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cdj/38.2.84.
Interest is being revived in participation as a means of tackling social exclusion. There are differing interpretations of both participation and social exclusion, which leave it unclear as to how one is supposed to combat the other. This article reports some findings from a project that looked at existing participation efforts in four European countries, and compares observations with previous insights. We categorize the aims of these efforts, relate these aims to policy developments at European and local level and link them to differing explanations of social exclusion. We argue that greater clarity is necessary on the aims of participation and on how it is supposed to tackle social exclusion if conflicts that have hindered previous programmes are to be overcome.
Stevens, A. (1998). The development of drug services in European prisons, 1995-1998. Social Work in Europe 5:16-22.
Stevens, A. (1996). The mandatory drug testing programme in prisons. Criminal Justice Matters [Online] 24:20-21. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09627259608552778.
Talk to people who work with imprisoned drug users about the mandatory drug testing
programme, and you will hear words like'iniquitous','pointless','unethical, inefficient,
illconceived'and'a complete waste of time and money'. The policy that inspires these
comments now includes every prison in England and Wales, and is being extended to those
in Scotland as well. The publication of the test results from the eight prisons where
mandatory drug testing (MDT) was initially introduced has fuelled the debate on ...
Book
Stevens, A. (2011). Drugs, Crime and Public Health: The Political Economy of Drug Policy. [Online]. London: Routledge-Cavendish. Available at: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415491044/.
Drugs, Crime and Public Health provides an accessible but critical discussion of recent policy on illicit drugs. Using a comparative approach - centred on the UK, but with insights and complementary data gathered from the USA and other countries - it discusses theoretical perspectives and provides new empirical evidence which challenges prevalent ways of thinking about illicit drugs. It argues that problematic drug use can only be understood in the social context in which it takes place, a context which it shares with other problems of crime and public health. The book demonstrates the social and spatial overlap of these problems, examining the focus of contemporary drug policy on crime reduction. This focus, Alex Stevens contends, has made it less, rather than more, likely that long-term solutions will be produced for drugs, crime and health inequalities. And he concludes, through examining competing visions for the future of drug policy, with an argument for social solutions to these social problems.
Book section
Stevens, A. (2017). Principles, pragmatism and prohibition: explaining continuity and change in British drug policy. in: Liebling, A., Maruna, S. and McAra, L. eds. Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Stevens, A. (2015). An integrated approach to the treatment of drug dependence – The English experience. in: el-Guebaly, N., Carrà, G. and Galanter, M. eds. Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives. Milan: Springer.
Stevens, A. (2010). Treatment sentences for drug users: contexts, mechanisms and outcomes. in: Hucklesby, A. and Wincup, E. eds. Drug Interventions in Criminal Justice. Open University Press. Available at: http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335235808.html.
Stevens, A., Stöver, H. and Brentari, C. (2010). Criminal justice approaches to harm reduction in Europe (Chapter 14). in: Rhodes, T. and Hedrich, D. eds. Harm Reduction: Evidence, Impacts and Challenges. Spain: European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2810/29497.
Stevens, A. (2010). Evidence and Policy - Crime and Public Health in UK Drug Policy(Chapter 10). in: Yates, R. and Malloch, M. S. eds. Tackling Addiction: Pathways to Recovery. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp. 156-174. Available at: http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book/9781849050173.
Stevens, A. (2009). Trends in youth offending in Europe. in: Junger-Tas, J. and Dunkel, F. eds. Reforming Juvenile Justice. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 1-18.
Radcliffe, P. and Stevens, A. (2009). Early Exit: Estimating and Explaining Early Exit from Drug Treatment. in: MacGregor, S. ed. Responding to Drug Misuse. Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Conference or workshop item
Stevens, A. (2017). Effective drug policies: international experiences. in: Proceeding of the National Drug Conference, Hong Kong.
Edited book
Stevens, A. (2008). Crossing Frontiers: International Developments in the Treatment of Drug Dependence. [Online]. Stevens, A. ed. Brighton: Pavilion Publishing and Media. Available at: http://www.pavpub.com/crossing-frontiers/.
Crossing Frontiers encourages readers to think about different international approaches to the treatment of drug users to inform their own understanding (and application) of practice in the UK. The text encourages providing a range of services, including newer approaches, which respond to the needs of users as unique individuals, empowering and supporting them to 'break the barriers' created by their drug use thus improving their lives.
Monograph
Stevens, A. (2013). Modernising Drug Law Enforcement: Applying harm reduction principles to the policing of retail drug markets. International Drug Policy Consortium. Available at: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64663568/library/MDLE-report_3_applying-harm-reduction-to-policing-of-retail-markets.pdf.
Key Points:
• The level of harm is more important than the size of the market.
• Visible, open air drug markets tend to be more harmful per unit of use than hidden, closed
drug markets
• Policing tactics that are not experienced by the community as being fair, lawful and effective
will harm police legitimacy and community relations.
• Some enforcement-led approaches, including short-term crackdowns and large scale stop
and search, are unlikely to produce sustainable reductions in drug sales. They may increase
levels of violence and health harms and reduce police legitimacy.
• It is rarely possible to eliminate retail drug markets, but well designed and implemented
policing tactics can force the drug market to take less harmful forms.
• Applying harm reduction principles to drug policing may boost police legitimacy as well as
community safety.
• Focused deterrence and 'pulling levers' may reduce both harm and crime, but this depends
on the context and on careful implementation and evaluation.
Armenta, A. et al. (2010). IDPC Drug Policy Guide. International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC). Available at: http://idpc.net/policy-advocacy/idpc-drug-policy-guide-html.
The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) is a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and professional networks that specialises in issues related to the production and use of controlled drugs. We aim to promote objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at national and international level, and support evidence-based policies that are effective in reducing drug-related harms. We produce occasional briefing papers, disseminate the reports of our member organisations about particular drug-related matters, and offer expert consultancy services to policy-makers and officials worldwide. IDPC members have a wide range of experience and expertise in the analysis of drug problems and policies, and contribute to national and international policy debates.
This drug policy guide was compiled in 2009 through research and consultation with our network of experts. It aims to provide our regional and national partners with a resource that they can use to conduct reviews of the national drug policies and programmes in their areas, and engage with policy-makers to work towards policy and programme improvements. The guide will be updated annually to reflect changes in global evidence and experience.
Wilson, L. and Stevens, A. (2008). Understanding drug markets and how to influence them. Beckley Foundation. Available at: http://beckleyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/BF_Report_14.pdf.
This paper provides a review for policy makers of what is known about the economic structure of illicit drug markets and the business operations of high level dealers operating within it. It is based on interviews with imprisoned drug traffickers and dealers in UK prisons carried out by Matrix Knowledge Group, and also owes a substantial debt to the valuable work done in this field by Peter Reuter, Jonathan Caulkins and Frederick Desroches, amongst others. The paper does not review the harms caused by law enforcement, some of which have been looked at in previous reports. It assumes that the structure of drug markets influences the primary harms arising from drug use (e.g. excess mortality and disease), the violence that is related to drug markets and the opportunity costs of people spending time and money on illicit substances. Some of these harms might be reduced by introducing alternative arrangements for the international regulation of psychoactive substances. These alternative arrangements are not reviewed here. Rather, the aim is to provide policy makers with information on drug markets as a basis for focussing enforcement resources, and devising more effective policies, to reduce the damage done by the trade in illicit drugs.
Margo, J. and Stevens, A. (2008). Make me a criminal: preventing youth crime. ippr - Institute for Public Policy Research.
Hughes, C. and Stevens, A. (2007). The effects of the decriminalization of drug use in Portugal. The Beckley Foundation. Available at: http://kar.kent.ac.uk/13325/1/BFDPP_BP_14_EffectsOfDecriminalisation_EN.pdf.pdf.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
In 2004, the Beckley Foundation reported on the legal changes that took place in Portugal in 2001 (Allen, Trace & Klein 2004). This report aims to provide an updated overview of the effects of these changes, using data from the evaluations that have been carried out and from new interviews with key stakeholders in Portugal.
We reviewed the available evaluative reports (Moreira, Trigueiros & Antunes 2007; Tavares, Graça, Martins & Asensio 2005; Trigo de Roza 2007) and also carried out 11 interviews with key stakeholders in October 2007. These included representatives of the Institute for Drugs and Drug Addiction (the government body in charge of researching and responding to drug addiction and use), non-governmental organisations, political parties and national and international drug researchers. This report provides information for an international audience on the current trends and the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the major impacts, successes, and challenges in adopting decriminalization. Given the length of this report, and the availability of data, it cannot provide a definitive evaluation of all the impacts.
Dolan, K. et al. (2007). Prisons and Drugs: A global review of incarceration, drug use and drug services. Report 12. The Beckley Foundation. Available at: http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/policy/reports.html.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Prisons play an important role in drug policy. They are used to punish people who break drug laws and they also hold a large number of people who have experience of drug use and drug problems. They therefore have an important part to play in attempts to reduce the harm caused by drugs. Imprisonment itself can be seen as one type of harm, as it causes problems for prisoners and their families and creates a large financial burden for taxpayers. Theseharms and costs are difficult to calculate, but there is little evidence that large scale imprisonment of drug offenders has had the desired results in deterring drug use or reducing drug problems (Bewley-
Taylor, Trace, & Stevens, 2005). In this paper, we examine the international prevalence of drug users, drug use and related problems in prisons and we report on the problems that are related to the issue of drugs in prison. We go on
to examine the international guidelines and effective responses that have been developed in this area in the last decade. The paper is a review of the literature, based on a search of bibliographic databases, including Medline, PubMed, ISI as well as EMBASE and contacts
with researchers and practitioners in the field up to January 2007.
Reuter, P. and Stevens, A. (2007). An Analysis of UK Drug Policy. United Kingdom Drug Policy Commission. Available at: http://www.ukdpc.org.uk/docs/UKDPC%20drug%20policy%20review.pdf.
Stevens, A., Hallam, C. and Trace, M. (2006). Treatment for Dependent Drug Use: A guide for policymakers. Beckley Foundation. Available at: http://www.internationaldrugpolicy.net/reports/BeckleyReport10.pdf.
This report aims to give policymakers an accessible summary of the current evidence available on the effectiveness of treatment, and suggestions on how treatment services can be expanded and integrated into a co-ordinated system. The authors explain why treatment for dependent drug use is a good investment in any country with significant numbers of dependent drug users, in that it has been shown to achieve significant reductions in the health and social harms that are associated with drug problems.
Stevens, A., Trace, M. and Bewley-Taylor, D. (2005). The Reduction of Drug-Related Crime: an overview of the global evidence. The Beckley Foundation, Oxford.
The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme (BFDPP) is a new initiative dedicated to providing a rigorous, independent review of the effectiveness of national and international drug policies. The aim of this programme of research and analysis is to assemble and disseminate material that supports the rational consideration of complex drug policy issues, and leads to a more effective management of the widespread use of psychoactive substances in the future.
Bewley-Taylor, D., Trace, M. and Stevens, A. (2005). Incarceration of drug offenders: Costs and impacts. Briefing paper 7. Beckley Foundation. Available at: http://beckleyfoundation.org/pdf/paper_07.pdf.
Most governments make strong statements about the need to maintain, and often increase, police activity and penal sanctions for drug
users. This is based on the idea that strong enforcement, and widespread incarceration, will deter potential users and dealers from
becoming involved in the illegal drug market. In fact, very few countries actually follow through on the rhetoric – arrest and incarceration
rates for drug users are relatively low in most countries in relation to the total number of users, and the often quoted maximum sentences
are rarely, if ever, used. The one country that has consciously used large-scale incarceration as a drug prevention measure is the United
States, where approximately 500,000 drug law offenders are currently in prison. Evidence from their experience over the last 20 years shows that, while some marginal impacts on drug prices and prevalence rates can be attributed to this policy, it has failed to fundamentally alter the scale and nature of the illegal drug market. In addition, there are significant financial, social and health costs associated with high rates of incarceration, which perhaps explains why most countries have not gone down this road.
Research report (external)
Iversen, L., Stevens, A. and Dale-Perera, A. (2016). Reducing opioid-related deaths in the UK. [Online]. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/576560/ACMD-Drug-Related-Deaths-Report-161212.pdf.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
This independent report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs investigates the increase of drug-related deaths in the UK.
It looks at:
- patterns and trends in opioid-related deaths
- causes and drivers of trends in opioid-related deaths
- policy and treatment responses to prevent opioid-related deaths
Stevens, A., Kessler, I. and Steinack, K. (2006). Review of Effective Practice in Preventing the Various Types of Violence in the European Union. [Online]. European Commission. Available at: http://www.kuriteoennetus.ee/orb.aw/class=file/action=preview/id=38886/review%2Bgood%2Bpractices%2Bpreventing%2Bviolence.pdf.
Stevens, A., Kessler, I. and Gladstone, B. (2006). Review of Effective Practice in Preventing Juvenile Crime in the European Union. [Online]. European Commission. Available at: http://www.eucpn.org/pubdocs/A%20review%20of%20good%20practice%20in%20preventing%20juvenile%20ccrime%20in%20the%20EU.pdf.
Review
Stevens, A. (2008). Drug-Crime Connections. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 37:590-591.
Forthcoming
Stevens, A. (2019). Is policy 'liberalization' associated with higher odds of adolescent cannabis use? A re-analysis of data from 38 countries. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Abstract | View in KAR | View Full Text
Background: Policy makers worldwide face the choice of whether to reform cannabis
policy from the 'full prohibition' model. A paper by Shi, Lenzi and An (2015)
suggested that such 'liberalization' is significantly associated with higher odds of
adolescent cannabis use.
Aim: To test the validity and reliability of Shi et al's conclusion that the HBSC data
show an association between policy 'liberalization' and increased likelihood of
adolescent cannabis use.
Methods: Replication and re-analysis of the same pooled data from three waves of
the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey (2001/2, 2005/6 and
2009/10). This replicates – as far as possible – the coding and analytical strategy of
the Shi et al article. The re-analysis makes some improvements by: excluding a
variable ('number of siblings') for which many cases have missing data; including
available data from the theoretically relevant case of Sweden for the latter two waves
of the HBSC survey, which Shi et al omit; and including random slopes for gender
between countries as well as random intercepts for countries in the mixed effects
model, as the predictive effect of gender on cannabis use varies across countries.
Results: Shi et al's verbal summary of their findings is not supported by detailed
interpretation of their own numerical results. Without making the suggested
amendments, it is possible to find a statistically significant association between
policy 'liberalization' and higher odds of some measures of adolescent cannabis use.
But when these improvements are made, this association becomes statistically nonsignificant.
Conclusion: Using a larger and more theoretically relevant sample of the HBSC
respondents and an improved statistical model shows that the HBSC data do not
reveal a statistically significant association between policy 'liberalization' and higher
odds of adolescent cannabis use.
Research Interests
Research interests
My principal research interests focus on illicit drug policies and how they affect drug use, crime and public health. I have an on-going interest in how evidence is used in making policy and in
the effects of drug treatment interventions. I also work on youth crime and the reduction of youth risk behaviours.
Past
I led the development and evaluation of the RisKit project, which worked with vulnerable 14-16 year olds to reduce their risk-taking behaviours.
I directed the Connections project which promoted research and good practice in preventing drugs and related infections in European criminal justice systems.
I led QCT Europe, a European-funded, six-country research project on treatment for drug dependent offenders.
I also led a project called Early Exit on early retention in treatment for the Department for Health. I have also published peer-reviewed articles and policy reports on social exclusion and youth crime.
Supervision
I am interested in supervising students focusing on issues of illicit drug use, drug policy, drug treatment, drugs and crime and related policies. If you have a proposal in these areas and would
like to study at the University of Kent, please email me to discuss further.
Teaching
Current
I teach on the Criminal Justice and Criminology programme at the Medway campus. I convene the
optional modules SO654: Drugs, Crime and the Criminal Justice System and SO705: Criminal Justice Practice
I also share teaching with colleagues on the second year module SO651: Issues in Criminal Justice and the first year module SO329: Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice.
I also supervise third year and MA dissertations, as well as PhD theses.
back to topActivity
Board roles
- President of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
- Member of editorial board of Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy
- Member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Criminology
- Associate Editor of the International Journal of Drug Policy
Memberships
- Member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
- Member of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
- Member of the Society for the Study of Addiction
- Member of the British Society of Criminology
- Member of the European Society of Criminology
Media
Employability in criminal justice
Does drug policy matter?
International Drug Policy Reform Conference 2011, Reducing Drug Arrests by Shifting Law Enforcement Priorities
Projects
- The Connections project promotes research and good practice in preventing drugs and related infections in European criminal justice system.
- QCT Europe produced evidence for policy and practice on quasi-compulsory treatment of drug dependent offenders
(QCT) in Europe. EISS coordinated the QCT Europe research project, which was funded by the European Commission's Fifth Framework Research programme and concluded in 2005.
QCT Europe produced evidence for policy and practice on quasi-compulsory treatment of drug dependent offenders (QCT) in Europe. It included partners in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
- Early Exit, on early retention in treatment for the Department of Health. EISS has completed work on this project,
funded by the Department of Health, which aimed to estimate and explain the phenomenon of dependent drug users dropping out very early from treatment.
It involved quantitative and qualitative research with samples of drug treatment staff and service users in three drug action team areas. It was funded by the Department of Health and carried out in collaboration with ICPR. The project was led by Alex Stevens, with fieldwork and analysis carried out by Polly Radcliffe. Download the final report.