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Data…
As we draw closer to the end of semester 2, Criminology students across the 3 cohorts will have recently submitted, or be in the process of submitting, assessments which contain research data. Glorious criminological research data. CRI1011 have their research report looking at an interview transcript. CRI2013 have their research project looking at observations whilst on a research placement. And the third years submitted their dissertations back in April: lots and lots of different data. But as most research methods students will know, there are strengths and weaknesses to all data, and the data is intrinsically linked to the research question, aims and objectives. But data exists outside of our research bubble as well. Think about how many websites have asked for/taken/stolen/used/stored/sold our data!
Data serves different purposes and has different impacts. Back in September 2025, the Department for Transport published their ‘Reported road casualties Great Britain: motorcycle factsheet’. Some key findings: from 2004-2024 motorcycle traffic decreased by 6%, from 2020-2024 92% of motorcycle killed or serious injured casualties were male and in 2024 340 motorcyclists were killed in Great Britain (Department of Transport, 2025). Some data: but what does it mean? Quantitative data holds an important part in our daily lives as it tends to provide us with the ‘how’s’ and ‘what’s’. So, we can see only 8% of motorcyclists killed or serious injured casualties were female but the factsheet does not tell us how many motorcyclists in Great Britain identify as female? We could think about how many hold a licence but this does not necessarily mean they are active riders. It doesn’t explain why there is such a difference across gender, and there is no data about race. So I guess whilst there is data there is also lots of missing data. And I think this is an important point to remember: quantitative data can be perceived as providing the bigger picture, the quantity, but even then it is often only part of the picture.
The data from the Department of Transport (2025) also doesn’t tell us anything about who these people are: it has reduced them to a percentage. There is no story about who they were, why they ride, where they were going or what their hopes and dreams were. But it does give us an overview: it gives is the what. But I guess the question is do we need the why, the story, the narrative? We are fortunate (although it might not always feel like it) to live in a world full of different types of data! It is a data saturated society in which we live. Often at tip of our fingers, with a tip tap of the keyboard (across devices). But sometimes it can be difficult to manage, to understand and to recognise what’s missing. Data can be overwhelming. It can also be challenging to know you, or someone you know, is part of the data but at the same time be completely absent from it. The riders who have lost their lives in motorcycle accidents are reduced to numbers: they are in the data but who they are is unknown.
As the second years begin to think about their dissertation proposals, it’s a good time to reflect and think about the data we are exposed to, the data we want to collect and the data which already exists. In a society so saturated with data it might not always be relevant to keep adding to it, and instead might be more relevant to think about making sense of some of the data which already exists…
References:
Department of Transport (2025) Reported road casualties Great Britain: motorcycle factsheet [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-motorcyclist-factsheet-2024/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-motorcyclist-factsheet-2024 [Accessed 14th May 2026].
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An academic reflection – from BA to book!
When I reflect on my journey into academia it does feel surreal at times. From starting a BA in History and Criminology, to a Masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice to my PhD in criminology. It has been quite the journey, and each qualification came one after the next. I often wonder if the quick movement from one to the next allowed for full reflection into the achievement, the journey and how I viewed myself as I became closer to the world of academia. I started my journey into academia in 2020 towards the end of my PhD, and just after the first Covid-19 lockdown. Technically I was in the world of academia on paper but still learning from others in the field and relying on their expertise and guidance. However, I think being in this position was positive and I continue to still seek guidance and expertise from others that have experience and knowledge within the field.
After completing the PhD and minor corrections, there was time for reflection, alongside another opportunity of turning the PhD into a book. The process of creating the book was one of pride and doubt. Suddenly, having full creative license so to speak without the guidance of supervisors felt like unchartered territory, particularly as I had been doing the PhD part time from October 2016 to January 2023. Moreover, I had to think about how the book would be different from the PhD, what it needed to convey and how to improve its accessibility. I like to think the book offers the most important parts of the PhD in a format that is more accessible, condensed and engaging.
Each chapter plays an important role, with the first few chapters laying the foundations for the themes in the remainder of the chapters. To avoid turning this into a book review, instead I highlight the chapter that holds a special place in my heart, Chapter 4 – Monologues and Table Reads: Identity Trees and Lived Experiences. This chapter introduces the identity tree task I completed with a number of Black women in prison. The task itself represents vulnerability, from both me and the participants, difficulty (as the process of explaining and supporting the women through the task was not always easy), and change. It marked a change as it was a clear move away from a traditional method of capturing data and a different way of engaging with participants. I learnt from the participants as much as they learned from me. Furthermore, power dynamics were reduced; it just felt like a group of Black women sharing stories and encouraging resilience and support, even though the latter was not always explicit. In this chapter you get to see and hear about the experiences of these Black women and the events that shaped their lives prior to imprisonment. Their stories reveal the importance of intersectionality and the complexity of our identities.
So as I embark on making the contents of the book more known to a variety of audiences, please be part of the process. You can do this by asking questions about the book, sharing it on your platforms, attending events regarding the book and getting the voices of the Black women in this book out there. My book launch, at the University of Northampton, offers an opportunity to hear about some of the themes in the book, the process of conducting the research and further hopes of what can be done to support Black women in prison. All who attend will be entered into a raffle to win a free copy of the book. Please see the link below for further information about the event.
Black Women in Prison Book Launch
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A reflective continuous journey
Over the last few weeks I have been in deep thought and contemplation. This has stemmed from a number of activities I have been involved in. The first of those was the Centre for the Advancement of Racial Equality (CARE) Conference, held on the 1st July. The theme this year was “Illustrating Futures – Reclaiming Race and Identity Through Creative Expressions.” It was a topic I have become both passionate and interested in over the last few years. It was really important to be part of an event that placed racial equality at the heart of its message. There were a number of speakers there, all with important messages. Assoc. Prof. Dr Sheine Peart and Dr Richard Race talked about the experiences of racialised women in higher education. They focused on the micro-aggressions they face, alongside the obstacles they encounter trying to gain promotions, or even to be taken seriously in their roles. Another key speaker during the conference was Dr Martin Glynn, unapologetically himself in his approach to teaching and his journey to getting his professor status. It was a reminder to be authentically yourself and not attempt to fit in an academic box that has been prescribed by others. As I write my first academic book, his authenticity reminded me to write my contribution to criminology in the way I see fit, with less worry and comparison to others. It was also another reminder not to doubt yourself and your abilities because of your background or your academic journey being different to others. Dr Glynn has and continues to break down barriers in and outside of the classroom and reminds us to think outside the box a little when we engage with our young students.
Another key event was the All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting on women in the criminal justice system. The question being addressed at the meeting was ‘What can the Women’s Justice Board do to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system?’. It was an opportunity for important organisations and stakeholders to stress what they believed were the key areas that needed to be addressed. Some of the charities and Non-governmental organisations were Hibiscus, Traveller Movement, The Zahid Mubarek Trust. There were also individuals from Head of Anti-slavery and Human Trafficking at HMPPS and the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in London. Each representative had a unique standpoint and different calls for recommendations, ranging from:
• Hearing the voices of women affected in the CJS;
• Having culturally competent and trauma informed CJS staff;
• Ringfenced funding for specialist services and organisations like the ones that were in attendance;
• Knowing who you are serving and their needs;
• Making it a requirement to capture data on race and gender at all stages of the CJS.
It was truly great to be in a room full of individuals so ready to put the hard work in to advocate and push for change. I hope it will be one of many discussions I attend in the future.
Lastly, as I enter the final throes of writing my book on the experiences of Black women in prison I have been reflecting on what I want my book to get across, and who will be able to access it. The book represents the final outcomes of my PhD so to speak:
• To be able to disseminate the words and voices of the women that shared their stories;
• To be able to provide a visual into their lives and highlight the importance of visual research methods;
• To highlight some recommendations for change to reduce some of the pains of imprisonment faced by Black women;
• To call for more research on this group that has been rendered invisible.
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The future of criminology
If you have an alert on your phone then a new story may come with a bing! the headline news a combination of arid politics and crime stories. Sometimes some spicy celebrity news and maybe why not a scandal or two. We are alerted to stories that bing in our phone to keep ourselves informed. Only these are not stories, they are just headlines! We read a series of headlines and form a quick opinion of anything from foreign affairs, transnational crime, war, financial affairs to death. We are informed and move on.
There is a distinction, that we tend not to make whenever we are getting our headline alerts; we get fragments of information, in a sea of constant news, that lose their significance once the new headline appears. We get some information, but never the knowledge of what really happened. We hear of war but we hardly know the reasons for the war. We read on financial crisis but never capture the reason for the crisis. We hear about death, usually in crime stories, and take notice of the headcount as if that matters. If life matters then a single loss of life should have an impact that it deserves irrespective of origin.
After a year that forced me to reflect deeply about the past and the future, I often questioned if the way we consume information will alter the way we register social phenomena and more importantly we understand society and ourselves in it. After all crime stories tend to be featured heavily in the headlines. Last time I was imagining the “criminology of the future” it was terrorism and the use of any object to cause harm. That was then and now some years later we still see cars being used as weapons, fear of crime is growing according to the headlines that even the official stats have paused surveying since 2017! Maybe because in the other side of the Atlantic the measurement of fear was revealed to be so great that 70% of those surveyed admitted being afraid of crime, some of whom to the extent that changes their everyday life.
We are afraid of crime, because we read the headlines. If knowledge is power, then the fragmented information is the source of ambiguity. The emergence of information, the reproduction of news, in some cases aided by AI have not provided any great insight or understanding of what is happening around us. A difference between information and knowledge is the way we establish them but more importantly how we support them. In a world of 24/7 news updates, we have no ideological appreciation of what is happening. Violence is presented as a phenomenon that emerges under the layers of the dark human nature. That makes is unpredictable and scary. Understandably so…
This a representation of violence devoid of ideology and theory. What is violence in our society does not simply happens but it is produced and managed through the way it is consumed and promoted. We sell violence, package it for patriotic fervour. We make defence contracts, selling weapons, promoting war. In society different social groups are separated and pitted against each other. Territory becomes important and it can be protected only through violence. These mechanisms that support and manage violence in our society are usually omitted. A dear colleague quite recently reminded me that the role of criminology is to remind people that the origins of crime are well rooted in our society in the volume of harm it inflicts.
There is no singular way that criminology can develop. So far it appears like this resilient discipline that manages to incorporates into its own body areas of work that fiercely criticised it. It is quite ironic for the typical criminology student to read Foucault, when he considered criminology “a utilitarian discipline”! Criminology had the last laugh as his work on discipline and punishment became an essential read. The discipline seems to have staying power but will it survive the era of information? Most likely; crime data originally criticised by most, if not all criminologists are now becoming a staple of criminological research methods. Maybe criminology manages to achieve what sociology was doing in the late 20th century or maybe not! Whatever direction the future of criminology takes it will be because we have taken it there! We are those who ought to take the discipline further so it would be relevant in years to come. After all when people in the future asked you what did you do…you better have a good answer!
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25 Years of Criminology at UON: Looking Back
This year Criminology at UON is celebrating its 25th Anniversary! Exciting times! In line with the celebrations, the Criminology Team have organised a number of events as part of these celebrations. Ranging from the ‘Changing the Narrative’ VAWG event, organised by Dr @paulaabowles and the Deputy Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC), to a school’s event in June offering out miniature taster sessions to interested, local year12 students (more details T.B.C). As well all the exciting events, we have also had reflections from the Team around what it means to them and their journey with Criminology at UON. It is my journey which I would like to share with you now.
My journey begins in 2012 as a bright eyed and bushy tailed first year student moving away from home to Northampton to study Criminology. Having never done any Criminology, Psychology, Sociology, or Law before I was feeling very much out of my depth. However, little did I realise that my A-levels in Philosophy, Ethics and English Language would hold me steady. The first year was quite overwhelming: there were lots of tears and uncertainties. I remember it taking the entire summer between year 1 and year 2 to get my head around Harvard Referencing. But I survived! It was not until the end of year 2 and beginning of year 3 where I would say I began to ‘thrive’ in the discipline. As a student, one of my highlights was doing a research placement in year 2. Academically, I gained skills which prepared me for the dissertation in the final year, but it also brought me out of my shell much more. Pretty sure there were tears here as well- this has been a common feature of my journey with Criminology (as student and staff)!
In 2015 I graduated from UON with a BA in Criminology and in the September of that year began in the role as an Associate Lecturer in Criminology. This was incredibly scary but also incredibly rewarding. It was very interesting to be on ‘the other side’ of academia having so recently graduated and it took a fair amount of time to transition from student to staff (as academics we are also students so the transition is never fully complete)! I was involved on modules I had not had the privilege of studying and was able to work closely with esteemed colleagues I’d looked up to for so long and who had had a large impact in moulding the criminologist I was (and am today). In the September of 2020, after achieving my MSc in Criminology, I became a full-time lecturer and remain so five years later. The course and University has changed a lot in those 5 years, with some fabulous new modules in the BA and BA Criminology with Psychology courses, new colleagues offering a range of expertise and passion for areas within the discipline and some epic trips with a number of the student cohorts we have been blessed to have.
There have been challenges too, and lots of tears (especially from me), but the progress and evolution of Criminology at UON in the 13 years I have been a part of it have been monumental! Hopefully there will be even more positivity to come in the future. I feel incredibly grateful and blessed to have been involved with Criminology at UON for so long, and always look back on my student days with fondness. I’ve enjoyed my role as a member of staff and enjoyed being a part of the events the Team have organised and the new course which we have designed. A huge ‘Thank you’ must be written to the ‘founding father of Criminology at UON’ @manosdaskalou, without whom my, and many others, journey with Criminology at UON might be non-existent! So cheers to 25 years of Criminology at UON, the ‘founding father’, and to many more wonderful years (and hopefully less tears)!
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An annual reflection and a glance to the year ahead!
As we complete the last day before the Christmas break, I encourage you to sit back and reflect on what you have achieved this academic term. Some of you will have started university for the first time and will be getting to grips with the processes, the assessments, the staff and the learning styles of the university. Some of you will be navigating second year and the new expectations of you at this level, learning to move beyond discussion to instead evaluation and being critical, honing your research skills in preparation for your dissertations in the next academic year. For some of you this may have been a hard journey and one that will progress into the second semester, but please know that this will build up your skills and your confidence, turning you into the academic you need to be in order to succeed.
For some of you, you will have moved into your third and final year. With this comes more independence, and some of this may feel uncertain, confusing, and a bit unknown. Please know that again this does not last and you will find your feet. Whether that is a lightbulb moment with your dissertation, or finally finding the right article that helps you to write your essay. For those of you that have exams coming up in January, make sure you can enjoy the festivities and take a well earned break. But when you find those moments where you’re bored and have nothing to do, and you start to think about your criminology course, I think that will be a good indication to pick up a book, to read through your notes, or to practice some exam questions.
On a personal note as I reflect on this year there are things I am definitely proud to have achieved, and things I would like to work on in the future. One of my biggest achievements this year was completing my PhD. It has been a long, difficult journey, spanning over eight years, but the feeling of successfully completing my viva, making those final changes, and the recognition I feel when discussing my research to various people reminds me of its importance. The special moment of my graduation. At my graduation my research title was read aloud, I was applauded, and then welcomed into the academic community onstage to be seated with fellow academics such as my supervisors. This was a special moment I will cherish and having family there was all the more memorable and precious. Whilst the PhD journey has come to an end, new opportunities arise, so keep an eye out in 2025 for further publications!
In addition, this year, I navigated my new job at the University of Northampton. In the 12 months I’ve been here I have learnt a lot from colleagues, from the faculty, and from other departments. Looking ahead, the road is one of change and adjustment, but I am optimistic and ready for whatever changes may come.
I wish everyone a wonderful and restful Christmas. Like myself, I hope you return in the New Year with renewed energy ready to tackle any new adventures with poise and determination. Remember to push yourselves to get to the best version of you!
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Homelessness: Outsiders and Surviving on the Street: A snapshot of my undergraduate dissertation.
As the wait until graduation dissipates, I thought I may outline my dissertation and share some of the interesting notions I discovered and the events I experienced throughout the process of creating potentially the most extensive research project each of us has conquered so far.
What was my research about?
As we all know, the issue of homelessness is rife throughout the streets of Northampton and across the UK. I wanted to explore two main areas of homelessness that I understood to be important: the Victimisation of the homeless and the Criminalisation of the homeless. Prior research suggested that the homeless were victimised more frequently than the general public; they are more invisible victims, ignored and abused. There is a lack of reporting of the victimisation they face, partially explained by the lack of trust and lack of embracing victim identity, therefore, a lack of understanding of the victimisation this group faces. They are treated as outsiders, so they act as outsiders, the out-group whose behaviour is deemed ‘deviant,’ resulting in exclusionary tactics such as Hostile Architecture and legislation to hinder their ability to survive. Statistics do suggest that a large number of the homeless population have previously engaged in criminal activity, but the reasonings behind the criminality are distinct. There is an understanding that the criminal behaviour engaged in by the homeless population is survival in nature and only conducted to sustain themselves on the street. The crimes they commit may be due to the ‘criminogenic’ situation they find themselves in where they have to conduct these behaviours due to the environment, society and the economy.
What did I do?
My research was conducted in The Hope Centre, a homeless and hardship charity located in Northampton. Within the centre, I conversed with 7 service users about their experiences living on the street, engagement with criminal activity and the events they have faced. I based my research around an interpretivist lens to capture their experiences and ensure they are subjective and connected to that individual.
What did I find?
The conversations produced a multitude of different reoccurring themes, but the three I believe to be the most stand-out and important are Survival, Cynicism and Labelling, and Outsiders.
Within the survival theme, numerous individuals spoke of the criminality that they have engaged in whilst being on the street, from shoplifting to drug dealing. Still, there was a variety of different justifications used to rationalise their behaviour. Some individuals explained that the crime was to be able to sustain themselves, eat, sleep, etc. For some, the criminality was rationalised by softening the victim’s stance by suggesting they were faceless or victimless if they targeted large corporations. For some, the rationale was to purchase drugs, which, although deemed a commodity and a luxury by some, is also a necessity by others, needing a particular substance to be able to live through the night.
Within the Cyclicism theme, a common topic was that of the society that these individuals reside in; the homeless that have sometimes been released from prison are let out into a society with a lack of job opportunities (due to criminal records) and a drug culture that forces them into other money-making ventures such as criminality, resulting in a total loop back into the prison system. Some participants were under the assumption that the prison system was designed this way to create money by pushing them back into it.
One final theme was that of labelling and outsiders, this is the situation whereby individuals the participants were perceived negatively regardless of what they did and how they acted. They suggested that they were seen as ‘dirty’ even if they had showered. Due to this, they were excluded from society for being an outlier and seen as different to the ‘in-group’ with no control over changing that. This led to some participants attempting to change their behaviour and look to fit in with societal norms. There is also a perception from the homeless about other homeless individuals, specifically the divide between those who beg and those who do not. Some believe that those who beg, harass people and give the entire community a ‘bad rep.’
My dissertation did not aim to drive a specific conclusion due to the individual nature of the conversations. However, it is my hope and aim to potentially change the perceptions and actions of each individual who has read my dissertation regarding this neglected group in society.
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Meet the Team: Liam Miles, Lecturer in Criminology
Hello!
I am Liam Miles, a lecturer in criminology and I am delighted to be joining the teaching team here at Northampton. I am nearing the end of my PhD journey that I completed at Birmingham City University that explored how young people who live in Birmingham are affected by the Cost-of-Living Crisis. I conducted an ethnographic study and spent extensive time at two Birmingham based youth centres. As such, my research interests are diverse and broad. I hold research experience and aspirations in areas of youth and youth crime, cost of living and wider political economy. This is infused with criminological and social theory and qualitative research methods. I am always happy to have a coffee and a chat with any student and colleague who wishes to discuss such topics.
Alongside my PhD, I have completed two solo publications. The first is a journal article in the Sage Journal of Consumer Culture that explored how violent crime that occurs on British University Campuses can be explained through the lens of the Deviant Leisure perspective. An emerging theoretical framework, the Deviant Leisure perspective explores how social harms are perpetuated under the logics and entrenchment of free-market globalised capitalism and neoliberalism. As such, a fundamental source of culpability towards crime, violence and social harm more broadly is located within the logics of neoliberal capitalism under which a consumer culture has arisen and re-cultivated human subjectivity towards what is commonly discussed in the literature as a narcissistic and competitive individualism. My second publication was in an edited book titled Action on Poverty in the UK: Towards Sustainable Development. My chapter is titled ‘Communities of Rupture, Insecurity, and Risk: Inevitable and Necessary for Meaningful Political Change?’. My chapter explored how socio-political and economic moments of rupture to the status quo are necessary for the summoning of political activism; lobbying and subsequent change.
It is my intention to maintain a presence in the publishing field and to work collaboratively with colleagues to address issues of criminal and social justice as they present themselves. Through this, my focus is on a lens of political economy and historical materialism through which to make sense of local and global events as they unfold. I welcome conversation and collaboration with colleagues who are interested in these areas.
Equally, I am committed to expanding my knowledge basis and learning about the vital work undertaken by colleagues across a breadth of subject areas, where it is hoped we can learn from one another.
I am thoroughly looking forward to meeting everyone and getting to learn more!
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Meet the Team: Angela Charles, Senior Lecturer in Criminology
I would like to take this opportunity to say a warm hello to my colleagues and to the students at the University of Northampton.
I am Angela Charles, a senior lecturer in criminology. I have a passion and deep interest in this discipline for a number of reasons. Firstly, criminology is such a fascinating and thought-provoking subject that is constantly evolving and expanding. Secondly, criminology is a subject where I believe social justice can be fought for and in many cases achieved, through researching and gaining evidence to push for change, and through perseverance. Thirdly, criminology requires us to discuss, debate, analyse and build on what has been previously argued and discussed; thereby strengthening, tweaking or dismantling and rebuilding previous theoretical knowledge and criminological concepts.
My research interests are within prisons and penology, and race and gender. My most recent research explored and analysed the experiences of Black women in English prisons, paying particular attention to the intersections of race, class and gender. Black women are at the margins of society and face multiple intersecting oppressions. The prison is arguably a microcosm of society and perpetuates the same oppressive structural inequalities. It is often these racialised and gendered pains of imprisonment that are rarely discussed or mentioned both within scholarly literature and the public realm more widely. I hope to disseminate my research in the coming years and amplify some of the voices of Black women in UK prisons.
I’m also keen to explore research methods that arguably move away from traditional research methods and instead aim to decolonise research methods. Criminologists need to adapt the methods they use to suit the differing backgrounds and cultures of the participants that we research, and we need to incorporate different cultural aspects into the research process. I believe this not only will create richer data, but will also increase participant engagement as they become co-producers of knowledge.
Lastly, I look forward to working closely with my colleagues to learn about their research interests, passions and to collaborate on ensuring that studying criminology is enjoyable, rewarding and insightful at the University of Northampton!
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A Snapshot of My Dissertation: Portuguese Drug Decriminalisation and Some Other Things
I submitted my dissertation back in April, and now the dust has settled I thought it would be good to share the most interesting parts of my research, think of this blog post as an abridged version of my dissertation. Towards the end I’ve also included some tips for completing a dissertation, along with some reading you might like to do if you found this interesting.
What Was my Research About?
My research was about two main areas; Firstly, I wanted to assess the effects of Portugal’s 2001 drug policy whereby all illicit drugs were decriminalised, meaning drug offences relating to personal possession result in a civil punishment rather than a criminal punishment. I assessed key indicators within Portuguese society, gathering data from international, European and national databases which measured public health trends, criminal justice trends and economic trends. Some fields of data I looked at included prices of drugs at market level, drug seizure data, HIV/ AIDS rates among people who inject drugs and the Portuguese prison population.
The second part of my research involved understanding whether a drug decriminalisation policy similar to Portugal’s could currently happen in the UK. I researched this by performing a discourse analysis on drug related House of Commons debate occurring between the years 1970- 2023, selecting roughly one debate every two years. By doing this, I was able to analysis common themes across the years, understanding the political barriers which may mean drug decriminalisation is not a feasible policy idea at the moment given the political attitude and climate within the House of Commons when it comes to illicit drug policy.
What Did I Find Out?
Look through the slideshow below to view summaries of my findings.
Some Final Comments and Conclusions:
Generally, my research found that Portuguese drug decriminalisation correlated with effects that can be seen as positives. Of course, my research needs to be looked at critically, I don’t claim that all of the societal indicators are directly attributable to the drug decriminalisation policy, however, the correlations that were found are promising. Policy is always a really complex, multi-faceted topic and it would be simplistic to suggest otherwise.
So is a drug decriminalisation policy likely to happen in the UK? The short answer is probably not very likely at all. My discourse analysis pointed towards five decades of debate which was hyper focused on a law and order approach to drug use, a fixation on low level cannabis use and an insistence on the idea that deterrence measures and the war on drugs is actually working. The debates felt stagnant, with new and progressive approaches being hindered by penal populism and ‘tough on crime’ stances.
During my research I found some really interesting reads and different points of view that I hadn’t considered before. I’ve listed some of my favourite pieces below if you’d like to have a read further into this subject.
- Cebral T.S. (2017) “The 15th anniversary of the Portuguese Drug Policy: Its history, its success and its future,” Drug Science, Policy and Law, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050324516683640
- Eastwood, N., Fox, E. and Rosmarin, A. (2016) “Portugal,” in A quiet revolution: Drug decriminalisation across the Globe. London, UK: Release drugs the law and human rights. https://www.release.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/A%20Quiet%20Revolution%20-%20Decriminalisation%20Across%20the%20Globe.pdf
- Goldstein, P.J. (1985) “The drugs/violence nexus: A Tripartite Conceptual Framework,” Journal of Drug Issues, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/002204268501500406
- Jacques, S. and Allen, A. (2015) “Drug market violence: Virtual anarchy, police pressure, predation, and retaliation,” Criminal Justice Review, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0734016814553266
All of the data used is available from The Hansard Archives, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and The World Prison Brief. Also, I used Taguette to analyse my qualitative data, it’s totally free and it was so useful.
Thoughts from the criminology team 