Drugs, Crime and Culture

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Bina Bhardwa
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

This module provides you with a solid grounding in the key policy and research issues relating to illicit drug use, crime and justice.

Illicit drug use and its implications for crime and criminal justice have become central issues for criminal justice and criminology over the last 15 years. Laws and their enforcement intend to limit the damage done to drug users and others but have created harms and hazards of their own. Globally, drug trafficking is considered to be one of the most profitable sectors of transnational criminality. With it have come new forms of crime problems and new responses to these problems. While the mass use of cannabis, cocaine and dance drugs has increased the debate about the laws governing drug use and possession. The emergence of so-called legal highs has also posed significant challenges to the current system of control.

Indicative module content

• Drugs, the law and crime
• The legalisation debate
• Policing cannabis
• Drug treatment and legal coercion
• Drug trafficking, dealing and the virtual market place
• Global market and producer countries