Reviews : Drugs, Trafficking and Criminal Policy: The Scapegoat Strategy Penny Green Waterside Press, 1998; pp208; £18.00, pbk
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Author | Chris Morris |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059904600425 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
280
Drugs,
Trafficking
and
Criminal
Policy:
The
Scapegoat
Strategy
Penny
Green
Waterside
Press,
1998;
pp208;
£18.00,
pbk
This
is
a
book
which
focuses
upon
policy
and
whilst
it
has
lots
of
information
that
is
useful
to
know
as
a
practitioner,
there
is
nothing
directly
relevant
to
practice
issues.
Maybe
for
this
reason
I
found
it
a
difficult
read.
It
was
interesting
and
informative
and
the
author
obviously
knows
her
subject.
The
chapters
I
found
most
interesting
were
those
that
focussed
on
drug
traffickers
from
Third
World
countries.
These
chapters
not
only
tell
the
stories
of
the
individuals,
but
also
give
an
idea
of
the
poverty
in
these
countries
which
drive
the
traffickers
into
such
acts
of
desperation.
However,
the
analysis
was
shot
through
with
an
idealism
that
was
sometimes
contradictory
and
avoided
confronting
difficult
questions.
The
main
argument
of
the
book
is
that
the
British
government
has
been
pursuing
a
policy
of
controlling
drugs
by
trying
to
control
the
supply.
This
policy,
argues
the
author,
apes
the
American
model,
which
is
often
referred
to
in
the
American
context
as
a
&dquo;War
on
Drugs&dquo;.
The
author
argues
that
this
approach
has
a
hidden
agenda
and
acts
as a
mechanism
via
which
government
can
introduce
&dquo;punitive
crime
control&dquo;
methods.
She
implies
that
the
state
creates
an
ideological
climate
where
foreign
nationals,
mainly
from
developing
countries
are
scapegoated
and
portrayed
as
the
enemy
from
outside
that
threaten
the
fabric
of
British
society.
She
says
this
has
led the
British
government
to
develop
a
drugs
policy
that
is
particularly
harsh
on
those
traffickers
who
are
the
most
visible
to
the
authorities
but
also
the
most
powerless.
The
author
quite
rightly
categorises
those
involved
in
the
drugs
trade
and
says
that
power,
control,
wealth
and
cognisance
are
factors
that
determine
a
person’s
position
in
the
hierarchy
of
seriousness
of
drug
trafficking.
She
points
out
that
almost
all
those
caught
and
convicted
are
low
level
players
who
lack
any
of
the
above
four
characteristics,
and
have
been
driven
into
drug
trafficking
by
virtue
of
their
abject
social
and
economic
situation.
She
also
states
that
these
low
level
players
are
often
given
high
level
sentences,
out
of
proportion
to
their
crimes.
The
author
advocates
a
criminal
policy
that
takes
into
account
domestic
demand
issues
such
as
poverty
and
unemployment
in
Britain
and
also
the
politics
of
underdevelopment,
Third
World
debt
and
poverty
in
the
developing
countries.
Unfortunately,
the
author
does
not
go
on
to
specify
what
measures
are
required
to
deal
with
these
issues.
I
felt
this
book
overemphasised
the
demand
for
drugs
at
the
expense
of
trying
to
control the
supply.
The
government’s
&dquo;War
on
Drugs&dquo;
has
not
been
a
spectacular
success,
but
I
think
it
would
be
disastrous
to
ignore
or
even
cut
back
in
this
area.
Although
I
agree
with
the
author
that
it
is
mostly
those
at
the
bottom
of
the
drugs
trade
that
get
caught
and
receive
heavy
sentences,
one
has
to
ask
the
difficult
question,
what
can
the
state
do
with
such
offenders?
Although
the
book
does
not
explicitly
state
that
low
level
drug
traffickers
should
get
shorter
sentences,
it
implies
this.
However,
this
could
pose
real
problems
for
the
state
as
short
sentences
for
such
offences
could
be
seen
as
condoning
the
smuggling
of
drugs
across
borders.
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