Alex Stevens
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 3686248 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Alex Stevens |
| PRENOMES | Alex |
| SOBRENOME | Stevens |
| ASSINATURA | STEVENS A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Kent |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4878-3871 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 43 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 249 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 43 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2003 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Analyzing the Role of Needs Assessments in Police Drug Diversion Schemes
Police-led drug diversion (PDD) schemes can divert individuals caught in possession of controlled substances away from the harms associated with criminal justice pathways and toward treatment, education, or welfare support. As an alternative to prosecution, it has been established that the use of well-implemented diversion schemes may lead to reductions in reoffending, efficiencies in police time, and reductions in costs for the wider criminal ju…
Implementation fidelity matters
Evaluations in the field of police studies do not adequately address implementation fidelity, which impacts understanding of outcomes, how and why an intervention works in practice, what can be done to achieve improvements, and how to implement effective innovations in different contexts. Responding to calls for greater use of implementation science to improve innovations in policing, this article draws on the qualitative phase of a realist, quas…
Cascading Constraint and Subsidiary Discretion
This article explores how discretion is managed and exercised across senior, middle, and street levels of policing. It uses qualitative data from two studies in England. The first, a study across three police force areas, involved interviews and focus groups with 221 people who were designers, deliverers, and recipients of police-led drug diversion. The second study used 354 hours of ethnographic observation and 21 interviews to examine stop-and-…
A realist review on the police use of stop and search powers
Proponents of police use of stop and search powers argue that they are essential to prevent crime and improve public safety. However, there is increasing evidence that stop and search generates a range of adverse effects, including poor mental health outcomes. Missing from these debates is an understanding of the mechanisms that drive the practice and why and in what circumstances it can lead to negative outcomes. To fill this gap, a realist revi…
Triggering motivations for change
Background The harm reduction effects of police drug diversion (PDD) are influenced by how people engage with diversion, which is moderated by their motivation to change. Underlying influences can be revealed by examining the contexts and mechanisms which trigger and support participants’ motivation for engagement and change.Methods The qualitative phase of a realist evaluation of three PDD programs in England used semi-structured interviews with…
How and why consensus fractured at the 2024 session of the UN Commission on narcotic drugs
Background Consensus in international drug policy has fractured. It would be useful to explain how and why this occurred.Aim This exploratory study develops and tests theory and methods for describing and explaining constellations of policy actors and positions in international drug policy.Methods This article applies the policy constellations approach. It uses social network analysis (SNA) of the statements made by countries at the 2024 Commissi…
Exploring the need for overdose prevention centers in England
There is an urgent need for OPC implementation, given current risks from rushed injection practices, the lack of safe spaces, and the increasing presence of nitazenes and other unexpected contaminants in the UK drug supply. The assertion from local people who drugs that an OPC would be an appropriate and effective intervention requires prioritisation by policymakers
Interventionitis in the Criminal Justice System
This article highlights the problem it names as ‘interventionitis’; the tendency of policymakers to treat enduring, systemically generated problems with limited interventions that are insufficient or inappropriate for the intended improvement. We outline three typical features of interventionitis; overconfidence in these quick fixes, the iatrogenic effect of unintended harms caused by such interventions, and the focus on surface-level rather than…
Overdose prevention centres as spaces of safety, trust and inclusion
Evaluating police drug diversion in England
There is increasing international interest in the use of police drug diversion schemes that offer people suspected of minor drug-related offences an educative or therapeutic intervention as an alternative to criminalisation. While there have been randomised trials of some such schemes for their effects on reducing offending, with generally positive results, less is known about the health outcomes, and what works, for whom, in what circumstances a…
New prospects for harm reduction in the UK? A commentary on the new UK drug strategy
The details of decriminalization
The United Kingdom's first unsanctioned overdose prevention site; A proof-of-concept evaluation
It is feasible for an overdose prevention service to operate successfully in the UK without being shut down by the police or with negative consequences for the community. Future sites in the UK must tailor to the substances used by their potential clients, international trends (e.g. for fentanyl use) did not apply here. There is an urgent need and demand for these services in the UK to reduce harm, prevent and intervene during overdose, and provi…
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France, an article from American Journal of Public Health, Vol 112 Issue S2
Scapegoating and othering in drug policy
Critical realism and the ‘ontological politics of drug policy’
Governments cannot just 'follow the science' on Covid-19
Is policy ‘liberalization’ associated with higher odds of adolescent cannabis use? A re-analysis of data from 38 countries
Sexual and reproductive health capacity building for foster care organizations
Drug policy constellations
Drug policy is like the Loch Ness Monster
Pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a multi-component intervention to reduce substance use and risk-taking behaviour in adolescents involved i…
ISRCTN77037777 registered 15/09/2016
Improving knowledge on law enforcement in drug policy
Advancing knowledge on cannabis policy using evidence from North America
Advancing the science, methods and practices of drug policy research
Telling Policy Stories
Based on participant observation in a team of British policy-making civil servants carried out in 2009, this article examines the use that is made of evidence in making policy. It shows that these civil servants displayed a high level of commitment to the use of evidence. However, their use of evidence was hampered by the huge volume of various kinds of evidence and by the unsuitability of much academic research in answering policy questions. Fac…
Are drug treatment services only for 'thieving junkie scumbags'? Drug users and the management of stigmatised identities
What Can We Learn From The Portuguese Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs
The issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs is hotly debated, but is rarely subject to evidence-based analysis. This paper examines the case of Portugal, a nation that decriminalized the use and possession of all illicit drugs on 1 July 2001. Drawing upon independent evaluations and interviews conducted with 13 key stakeholders in 2007 and 2009, it critically analyses the criminal justice and health impacts against trends from neighbouring Spain a…
Survival of the Ideas that Fit
This paper explores bias in the use of evidence in policy. It argues that existing models of the evidence–policy relationship neglect the tendency for attention to be paid only to that evidence helpful to the interests of powerful social groups. An evolutionary analogy is used to explain how this bias arises, without the need for irrationality or conspiracy on the part of policy makers. Examples are given in the fields of drug, asylum and other p…
Whose Harm? Harm Reduction and the Shift to Coercion in UK Drug Policy
Building on Stimson's (2000) analysis, this paper examines the shift from a focus on health towards one of crime within UK drug policy. The increased use of coerced or compulsory treatment of drug users is discussed with reference to harm reduction theory and the question of whose harm is prioritised in shaping drug services. We also identify mechanisms by which the efficacy of treatment approaches based on coercion may be lessened or reduce the …
When two dark figures collide
This paper explores the socio-political construction of drug-related crime; a concept that has dominated recent developments in UK drug policy. It has been assumed that the perceived overlap between known offenders and drug users is also present among the much larger groups of unknown offenders and drug users. This assumption has led to inflated claims of scale, precision and causality in political discussions of the drug-crime link. The discours…
We’ll show you gang’
This article uses data from interviews with 69 self-described members and associates of street gangs in London to explore how young people choose their actions and construct their identities from the material and cultural resources they find in their locales. It explores ‘drift’ as a potential explanation of actions of gang members and finds it wanting. It suggests that Giddens’ concept of structuration, when combined with Matza and Sykes’ notion…
Twisting Arms Or a Helping Hand
Despite the rapid expansion of options to coerce drug-dependent offenders into treatment—culminating recently in the provisions of the 2005 Drugs Act and the government's ‘Tough Choices’ agenda—research findings to date are equivocal about their impact in reducing crime. This paper presents UK findings from a pan-European study on this issue. The results—at both national and international levels—reveal that court-mandated clients reported signifi…
Configurations of corruption
This article advances our understanding of the potential causes of national levels of corruption. It develops a new institutionalist criminological theoretical framework. It then applies fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 77 countries. The outcome is perceived corruption. Potentially causal conditions are levels of democracy, human development, income inequality, and two value orientations: traditional/rational-secu…
Assessing UK drug policy from a crime control perspective
Over the entire last quarter of the 20th century the British drug problem worsened, despite the implementation of a variety of approaches and commitment of substantial criminal justice and other resources. The link between chronic use of expensive drugs and property crime makes this experience important for understanding trends in crime and justice in Britain. The worsening of the problem can be seen in the growing number of new heroin users each…
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France, an article from American Journal of Public Health, Vol 112 Issue S2
Governments cannot just 'follow the science' on Covid-19
People, jobs, rights and power
Interest is being revived in participation as a means of tackling social exclusion. There are differing interpretations of both participation and social exclusion, which leave it unclear as to how one is supposed to combat the other. This article reports some findings from a project that looked at existing participation efforts in four European countries, and compares observations with previous insights. We categorize the aims of these efforts, r…
Whose Harm? Harm Reduction and the Shift to Coercion in UK Drug Policy
Building on Stimson's (2000) analysis, this paper examines the shift from a focus on health towards one of crime within UK drug policy. The increased use of coerced or compulsory treatment of drug users is discussed with reference to harm reduction theory and the question of whose harm is prioritised in shaping drug services. We also identify mechanisms by which the efficacy of treatment approaches based on coercion may be lessened or reduce the …
On coercion
Twisting Arms Or a Helping Hand
Despite the rapid expansion of options to coerce drug-dependent offenders into treatment—culminating recently in the provisions of the 2005 Drugs Act and the government's ‘Tough Choices’ agenda—research findings to date are equivocal about their impact in reducing crime. This paper presents UK findings from a pan-European study on this issue. The results—at both national and international levels—reveal that court-mandated clients reported signifi…
Survival of the Ideas that Fit
This paper explores bias in the use of evidence in policy. It argues that existing models of the evidence–policy relationship neglect the tendency for attention to be paid only to that evidence helpful to the interests of powerful social groups. An evolutionary analogy is used to explain how this bias arises, without the need for irrationality or conspiracy on the part of policy makers. Examples are given in the fields of drug, asylum and other p…
When two dark figures collide
This paper explores the socio-political construction of drug-related crime; a concept that has dominated recent developments in UK drug policy. It has been assumed that the perceived overlap between known offenders and drug users is also present among the much larger groups of unknown offenders and drug users. This assumption has led to inflated claims of scale, precision and causality in political discussions of the drug-crime link. The discours…
Assessing UK drug policy from a crime control perspective
Over the entire last quarter of the 20th century the British drug problem worsened, despite the implementation of a variety of approaches and commitment of substantial criminal justice and other resources. The link between chronic use of expensive drugs and property crime makes this experience important for understanding trends in crime and justice in Britain. The worsening of the problem can be seen in the growing number of new heroin users each…
Weighing up Crime
This article explores the linkage of criminal harm to drug use and challenges prevalent overestimations of the proportion of crime that can be causally attributed to drug use. These estimates often use data from surveyed arrestees. This article uses data from the British Offending, Crime and Justice Survey to test the hypothesis that drug users are over-represented in arrestee samples, compared to other offenders. Self-reported, surveyed offender…
Are drug treatment services only for 'thieving junkie scumbags'? Drug users and the management of stigmatised identities
Drug-Crime Connections
What Can We Learn From The Portuguese Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs
The issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs is hotly debated, but is rarely subject to evidence-based analysis. This paper examines the case of Portugal, a nation that decriminalized the use and possession of all illicit drugs on 1 July 2001. Drawing upon independent evaluations and interviews conducted with 13 key stakeholders in 2007 and 2009, it critically analyses the criminal justice and health impacts against trends from neighbouring Spain a…
Sociological approaches to the study of drug use and drug policy
Drug policy, harm and human rights
Telling Policy Stories
Based on participant observation in a team of British policy-making civil servants carried out in 2009, this article examines the use that is made of evidence in making policy. It shows that these civil servants displayed a high level of commitment to the use of evidence. However, their use of evidence was hampered by the huge volume of various kinds of evidence and by the unsuitability of much academic research in answering policy questions. Fac…
We’ll show you gang’
This article uses data from interviews with 69 self-described members and associates of street gangs in London to explore how young people choose their actions and construct their identities from the material and cultural resources they find in their locales. It explores ‘drift’ as a potential explanation of actions of gang members and finds it wanting. It suggests that Giddens’ concept of structuration, when combined with Matza and Sykes’ notion…
Legally flawed, scientifically problematic, potentially harmful
This journal has often analysed legislation in the field of drug policy. Rarely has it discussed a proposed law that has such deep problems in its legal and scientific bases. The Psychoactive Substances Bill, which is currently proceeding through the UK Parliament, will (if enacted) create a ‘blanket ban’ on the production, importation, exportation and supply of all psychoactive substances for human consumption, except for those that are specific…
Advancing the science, methods and practices of drug policy research
Configurations of corruption
This article advances our understanding of the potential causes of national levels of corruption. It develops a new institutionalist criminological theoretical framework. It then applies fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 77 countries. The outcome is perceived corruption. Potentially causal conditions are levels of democracy, human development, income inequality, and two value orientations: traditional/rational-secu…
Dépénalisation et santé publique
Le Portugal s'est résolument engagé dans la voie de la dépénalisation depuis 2001. Si les résultats de cette politique, qui associe une réorientation de l'action policière à un développement des structures de soin, sont parfois difficiles à établir, il reste que le bilan d'ensemble de cette nouvelle stratégie apparaît suffisamment positif pour qu'elle serve de modèle
Pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a multi-component intervention to reduce substance use and risk-taking behaviour in adolescents involved i…
ISRCTN77037777 registered 15/09/2016
Improving knowledge on law enforcement in drug policy
Advancing knowledge on cannabis policy using evidence from North America
Drug policy constellations
Drug policy is like the Loch Ness Monster
Is policy ‘liberalization’ associated with higher odds of adolescent cannabis use? A re-analysis of data from 38 countries
Political science (29 obras) · Law (23 obras) · Sociology (19 obras) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (18 obras) · Medicine (18 obras) · Psychology (18 obras) · Criminology (17 obras) · Psychiatry (16 obras) · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes (13 obras) · Law (12 obras)