Review: Crime, Drugs and Social Theory: A Phenomenological Approach Chris Allen Ashgate, 2007; pp 194; £50.00, hbk ISBN-13: 978—0—7546—4742—3
| Author | Julian Buchanan |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550508092815 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Crime, Drugs and Social
Theory: A Phenomenological
Approach
Chris Allen
Ashgate, 2007; pp 194; £50.00, hbk
ISBN-13: 978–0–7546–4742–3
Bush and Blair may be better known for their vision to make
the world a safer place by embarking on a pre-emptive
strike on Iraq and establishing the ‘war on terror’ – but
they can also take some credit for perpetuating another
war that can’t be won – the ‘war on drugs’. The UK has followed the USA and
adopted a criminal justice approach to drug treatment. Both countries now have
spiralling prison populations that are rapidly becoming silos for drug users. This
criminal justice approach embraces the unproven assumption that drugs cause
crime, that people who use drugs must be monitored by the ever burgeoning drug
testing business, that people on drugs must become drug free, and most impor-
tantly that people on drugs should be coerced by a range of court sanctions such
as Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTO), the Drug Rehabilitation Require-
ments (DRR) and Drug Abstinence Orders (DOA) and the Drug Abstinence Require-
ment. This shift in approach from health to criminal justice was embodied within
the Criminal Justice Interventions Programme (CJIP) – later renamed the Drugs
Intervention Programme (DIP) – which utilized the criminal justice system to ‘help’
drug misusing move ‘out of crime and into treatment’. The effectiveness and indeed
the evidence base for this approach have recently been brought into question by
the much respected UK Drug Policy Commission (2008).
The issue of how we understand and make sense of drug taking, and what the
relationship is between drug taking and criminal activity is a central issue that is
explored in Chris Allen’s book. This book is a much needed contribution to chal-
lenge the perceived wisdom that drug taking causes crime. The author sets about
debunking these reductionist conclusions well. Allen suggests that there has been
an unhealthy alliance between the academic research community and the policy
makers which has been pre-occupied with new research methodologies to discover
so called ‘facts’ and ‘truths’ to help prove the links and connections between drugs
303
Probation Journal
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright © 2008 NAPO Vol 55(3): 303–312
DOI: 10.1177/0264550508092815
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
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