Drug offences
Contents
Drug offences
Drug offenses are the crime of the illegal manufacture, possession, use of or trade in (in particular recreational) drugs.
Description
Drug offences, although illegal, are in itself often not a major problem for society. Its spin-off effects (as mentioned under impacts) in contract, are. As the problem of drug use is not within the control of the urban planner, in this Securipedia we will regard this security issue as a source of other security issues cat can be addressed and not as an issue in itself. This approach does not mean that offences stemming from drug use should not be be dealt with at the source, i.e the drug use, but only that this is beyond the capabilities of the urban planner.
This is why we will only discuss this security issue in a most general sense and why we will not be able to give effective measures against it.
Attributing circumstances
Impacts
Spin-off problems associated with drugs include[1]:
- traffic congestion (due to roadside trading),
- noise (from traffic and people),
- disorderly conduct,
- begging,
- loitering,
- vandalism,
- littering (discarded drug paraphernalia),
- criminal damage to property,
- prostitution,[2]
- robbery,
- residential and commercial burglary,
- theft from motor vehicles,
- fencing stolen goods,
- weapons offences, and
- assault and homicide.
Social impacts
Known social impacts of drug offences include changing citzens perception of (in)security and fear of crime. This usually happens in a way that has an effect on the gap between "felt" and "factual" secuirty, since individuals tend to make - correct or incorret - reasoning on societal security as a whole based on immediate environmentla clues. This is known as the "broken glass phenomenon".
Economic impact
In contrast to property crimes, vandalism, etc., the cost of drug offences are limited to the response to the crime, such as detection and prevention, persecution, trial, enforcement, support (and do not include the costs incurred through prevention and in consequence of the drug offences). However, drug offences also lead to secondary effects such as costs incurred by unemployment, health problems and social services. According to a research study by The English Home Office, for example, the cost of damage to damage to health and social functioning of heroin and/or crack users arising from use, is £ 5 bn[3]. Moreover, a large percentage of crime is drug-motivated[4].
Measures
No measures that are available to the urban planner and are effective to mitigate drug offences, are known. The measures that are at the disposal of the urban planner work on the spin-off problems. These can be found there.
Indirectly...? The Dublin City Business Improvement District's Strategic Response Group[5] recommends:
- Exploring the potential use of audio technology, complimenting CCTV with a public address function
- Increasing public perceptions of safety through enhanced public lighting and 'predictive planning' to determine potential use of public spaces
- Laneways should have double yellow lines (i.e. no parking) and have bins removed.
Footnotes and references
- ↑ from: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/drugdealing_openair/
- ↑ The links between sex and drug markets have been well-documented. May et al. (1999) (Full text) {Briefing Note} found that the majority of the sex-workers they interviewed were drug-dependent. See also the POP Guide on Street Prostitution. (Full text)
- ↑ Media/News > Fact Research Guide > Social and economic costs of drug use in the UK, http://www.tdpf.org.uk/MediaNews_FactResearchGuide_SocialAndEconomicCosts.htm
- ↑ In England and Wales, the Home Department estimated that around 50% of the total number of crimes are drug-motivated. Source: Media/News > Fact Research Guide > Social and economic costs of drug use in the UK http://www.tdpf.org.uk/MediaNews_FactResearchGuide_SocialAndEconomicCosts.htm
- ↑ http://www.dublincitybid.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/193910_Dublin-City-Bid_final-2.pdf
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