Abstract:
The present work assesses the extent, variation
and changes in drug trafficking, drug
possession and all drug offences in criminal
justice systems around the world between.
Across the five years of study there was a
strong international trend over time, showing
relatively small but widespread increases in
drug offenders for each stage from suspects
arrested by law enforcement, through prosecutions
and convictions, to prison admissions.
The international mean for all drug offences
as a percentage of all offences was 7%
of suspects, 7% of prosecutions, 6% of convictions,
and 11% of prison admissions in the
most recent year for which data was available.
The non-parametric sign-test is used to
show that the international trends were statistically
significant in terms of the number of
countries increasing or decreasing the proportion
of drug offenders. It seems that, in
general, criminal justice systems around the
world are characterised more by the similarities
than differences in the proportions of
drug offenders at different stages. However,
several statistically deviant countries are
identifiable at different criminal justice stages
and at different times. Some specific issues
are worthy of further examination. In particular
there is the possibility that the United
States is not particularly more punitive at
sentencing or imprisonment than other
countries when it comes to drug offenders,
but rather, that it has a relatively greater tendency
to prosecute drug offences cases. Further,
at the stage of imprisonment, drug offenders
constitute a larger proportion of all
offenders imprisoned in Belgium, Italy and
Germany, than they do in the United States.
Although people are often quick to identify
the US the world's penal sadist when it comes
to drug offenders, the present data set suggests
that for the early 1990's at least, there is
no conclusive evidence that this is the case.
The further investigation of these and other
issues may provide information of relevance
to drug policy or criminal justice policy at the
national or international level. Variations in
sentence lengths for drug offences are also
examined, although the data is more fragmented.
For those countries that responded,
the international median sentence length for
possession offences is around one year compared
to somewhere between three and five
years for trafficking. The findings and their
interpretation should be viewed with caution
due to the limitations of the data. However,
the analysis suggests that the United Nations
crime survey has been under-utilised as a
means of developing knowledge and information
of relevance to national and international
drug policy and criminal justice policy.
A range of possibilities for furthering the present
work is suggested.
