Key reading:
Cannabis supply and young people
Martin Duffy, Nadine Schafer, Ross Coomber, Lauren O’Connell and Paul Turnbull, JRF, 2008.
How do young people obtain cannabis? A snapshot view from a large city and rural villages? The supply of drugs to young people is an emotive subject with discussion rarely referring to actual evidence, which is in any case scarce. What evidence exists shows that many young people gain access to drugs through older brothers and sisters, through friends and friends of friends, so-called ‘social supply’ networks. This study interviewed 182 young people aged 11–19, all of whom had used cannabis and/or been involved in cannabis transactions in recent months. This group is unlikely to be representative of young people in general, so the report presents a snapshot view.
The study looks at:
- How and where young people got hold of cannabis;
- What involvement, if any, they had in supplying cannabis to others;
- How young people paid for cannabis;
- Responses from schools and police to cannabis use among young people;
- Implications for legislation and enforcement guidelines around cannabis use, in particular the issue of ‘social supply’.
Download: Full report (PDF 0.5MB)
Evaluation of Drug Interventions Programme pilots for children and young people: arrest referral, drug testing and drug treatment (and testing) requirements
UK. Home Office, 2007.This is the final evaluation report of the 18-month evaluation of the three interventions piloted by the Drug Interventions Programme for children and young people (10-17 year olds), which began in April 2004.
Web: http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/publication-search/young-people/OLR0707?view=Standard&pubID=444603 Drug intervention programme and prolific and other priority offenders programme
Home Office, Drug interventions programme, Home Office, 2006.
This paper is a living document which aims to provide examples of good practice and lessons learned in relation to the working partnerships between CJITs and PRO teams in effectively managing PPOs
Download: Full report (PDF 316KB)
Arrestee survey 2003-2006
Boreham R., Cronberg A., Dollin A., Pudney S., Home Office, 2007.
The third of three surveys, conducted in 2003-04, 2004-5, and 2005-6. Subjects covered are: Characteristics of respondents; Substance misuse; Past contact with criminal justice system;Offending; Treatment; Availability and supply of drugs. The survey deals with drug-use and crime, and provides a measurement of self-reported drug misuse among a sample of
individuals arrested in England and in Wales. It also highlights changes across the three surveys
Web: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1207.pdf (PDF 0.9MB)
Public attitudes towards young people and youth crime in Scotland: findings from the 2004 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey
Anderson S., Bromley C., Given L. UK. Scotland. Scottish Executive. Social Research, 2005.
The main issues addressed by this research were: How much contact is there between young people and other sections of the population?; Do problems associated with young people and youth crime feature prominently in adults’ accounts of the main problems facing their communities?; What are the main themes in the way that young people are viewed by adults?; What are the main features of adult perceptions of and anxieties about youth crime and disorder?; and To what extent are such views grounded in experience?
Download: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/55971/0015628.pdf (PDF 583KB)
Juvenile reconviction: results from the 2003 cohort
UK. Home Office. Research, Development and Statistics Directorate. National Offender Management Service. Reconviction Analysis Section, 2005.
(Home Office Online Report 08/05). ISBN 1844735621 This report analyses the one-year reconviction rates for juveniles (aged 10-17) dealt with by the Criminal Justice System in 2003, and compares the rates with those recorded for 2000, 2001, 2002 and 1997. The juvenile samples include those given pre-court disposals, and these responses are also counted when assessing further offending. 3, 189 juveniles were reconvicted for drug offences in 2003, a 10.9 percent difference from the figure in 2002.
Download: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/rdsolr0805.pdf (PDF 237KB)
