Suchergebnisse

Engagement in property crime by drug users is often regarded as driven by the need to support a habit and/or as merely an aside to involvement in the drug "industry." This paper examines a group of successful women drug dealers in Melbourne—most of whom are also illicit drug users—and maps their involvement in property crime. It concludes that property offenses are tightly integrated with the women's drug businesses. Success in property offending is a characteristic of successful drug dealers, and stolen property and money plays a key part in the trade—providing a lucrative source of income, gifts, payments, and rewards. Property crime provides excitement and other, valued, intangible satisfactions, including status and self-esteem.

The objective of this article is to offer a brief commentary, within a theoretical and conceptual framework, on the drug traffic (which could equally apply, for that matter, to any issue of worldwide import, such as the environment or human rights) that could serve as a point of reference in the relationship between the countries of Latin America (like Colombia) or the Third World and those of the industrialized North, such as the United States.This article will argue that, in dealing with global issues, like that of the narcotraffic, it is necessary to take into account two components with close links to one another. The first of these arises from the fact that global issues require global politics to deal with them.

Australia's Courts take their role in dealing with illicit drug activity very seriously. They extol regularly and publicly the virtues of deterrent sentences in curbing drug trafficking and prison sentences of several years are not uncommon. Despite the shared aim of eliminating illegal drug activity Courts in different Australian States impose remarkably disparate sentences and adopt their own approach in sentencing drug offenders. Some States have made considerable efforts to refine the principles employed to determine appropriate sentences for drug offenders and to recognise the complexities of drugs and drug activity, but others have been content to rest on the deterrent element of sentences at the expense of a more sophisticated approach. Nonetheless, the sentencing of drug offenders in Australia has developed in a particular pattern which will be explored in this paper with particular reference to the political response.

Many theories have been developed to explain the influence of different groups in policy making. Some focus on public opinion, claiming that especially in issues of high salience, public opinion will play a decisive role in determining policy directions. Other theories claim interest groups (including professionals) and politicians are more critical in shaping the agenda and the solutions which are seen as viable in addressing a particular problem. The supervised injecting facilities debate in Australia, which reached its peak between 1999 and 2001 when the ACT, Victoria and NSW attempted to establish such facilities, was one characterised by a high degree of conflict between groups with differing moral and political beliefs about drug use. Case studies of each jurisdiction were assembled to delineate the impact of these different groups on the eventual failure to establish trials in ACT and Victoria, compared to success in NSW. The results indicate public opinion was sharply divided on the issue, therefore cannot be considered a major determinant of public policy in this area. Politicians however, because of their ability to block the legislation and funding needed to establish the trials, undoubtedly had the greatest influence in policy making.

South Carolina's Operation Rolling Thunder targets cash and contraband but harasses guilty and innocent travelers alike.

Adapted from the source document.