How can research and evidence based practice inform effective interventions with substance misusing offenders?

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How can research and evidence based practice inform effective interventions with substance misusing offenders?

This essay will evaluate the application of research findings to the relationship between substance misuse and offending and effective interventions. Following a detailed consideration of government policy and legislation the application of evidence-based interventions in a number of areas will be considered finishing with concluding observations.

Government policy, initiatives and legislation

The Government launched the Updated Drug Strategy 2002 builing upon, Tackling drugs to build a better Britain, launched in 1998 which briefly involves:

prevention measures targeted at young people and suppliers;

reducing drug-related crime and its impact on communities;

reducing drug use and drug-related offending through treatment and support; reducing drug-related death through harm minimisation.

Recognition is given to the input required from many different agencies including criminal justice, health, education and the development of social and economic policy. At present, however there still appears to be over-reliance upon Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in an unfortunate waste of recources to criminalise and imprison many low level cannabis users and dealers. However, there are positive signs with the proposed declassification of cannabis and moves generally to deal with offenders who would have been subject to short prison sentences effectively in the community instead (Justice for All, 2002; A consultation document on the government's strategy on restorative justice 22.7.03).

The need for effective partnership working both at National and local level to address what is demonstrated by research to be a complex problem is recognised and that no single agency has the ability or resources to cope in isolation.

Drug Action Teams co-ordinate the local response to drugs assisted by the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service who disseminate best practice from emerging evidence. The National Probation Service is a key player in delivering the National Drugs Strategy in partnership primarily, with Criminal Justice Drugs Teams to offenders who misuse substances at local level. To this end it is essential to form and maintain effective working relationships in the provision of services.

The government aims to increase the participation of problem drug users in treatment programmes by 66% by 2005 (Tackling Drugs to build a better Britain, 1998). However this seems to be at the expense of providing better facilities for alcohol misuse which has more serious ramifications in terms of health and also has a major impact on crime - (Rosie Brocklebank, Addaction, in The Times, Hawkes and Brown, August 2003):

"The Government says it will finally implement its alcohol strategy in 2004. That is six years after it was announced. Our research shows that 240,000 people will have died from alcohol misuse within that time."

This may be compared with just 382 drug related deaths in Scotland in 2002, the highest ever recorded figure (Macleod, The Times August 2003). Nevertheless the scale of the crime problem presented by substance misusing offenders cannot be underestimated. Bennett (1998); (Updated drugs strategy, Home Office, 2002) found that one third of all arrestees admitted being dependant upon at least one drug (excluding alcohol) and a hard core of 9% were carrying out approximately 20 property crimes per month to fund expensive habits representing 52% of crime committed by the study group as a whole.

In any initiative to divert such offenders from the criminal justice system and into effective programmes the contribution of the Probation Service is vital. Current thinking in terms of harm-reduction is toward a move away from custodial sentencing, instead providing treatment by means of DTTO's and this together with current proposals to use restorative justices principals as a 'core element of the work of the Prison and Probation Services' (Blunkett, 2003) may help to explain the sustained high levels of recruitment to the Probation Service.

The British Crime Survey (Ramsey & Partridge 1999) reported that 32% of the adult population have used illegal drugs, However, few people develop a pattern of drug misuse, approximately 3% (Edmunds, 1999). Of those that do they invariably present with a whole range of social problems and may in fact be using substances to mask mental disorder or blot out traumatic experiences such as childhood abuse or the death of a principle carer such as parent or grandparent. In 1999 30,000 sought treatment (DOH, 2000).
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A profile of users who have not voluntarily sought treatment is provided by Edmunds (1999) - white male, opiate/poly drug user in their late twenties to early thirties. This may help to dispel the racist myth that serious drugs misuse can primarily be associated with black people. Kaluntar-Crumpton (2003) in fact finds that white people are invariably higher up the chain of supply and low level black street users are unfairly targeted as a result of discriminatory 'street crime initiatives' (Blunkett, 2002) and legislation such as stop and search powers (e.g. CJPO 1994). It is submitted that better ...

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