Working with service users who consume Class A drugs and are in contact with the criminal justice system
Why read this evidence review?
This evidence review provides an in-depth look at the issue of illicit drug use among people in contact with the criminal justice system. Tim McSweeney has been a prominent researcher in this area for over 20 years and has advised international and global bodies such as the United Nations and World Health Organisation on policy responses for tackling drug-related crime.
The review covers a wide range of issues including:
- Trends in illicit drug use
- Our knowledge of patterns of opiate and cocaine use among people in contact with the criminal justice system
- Points of intervention throughout the criminal justice process
- A summary of evidence of ‘what works’ with this client group
- The critical success factors of working with service users who misuse Class A drugs.
An online evidence base for the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system
This article forms part of a series from Clinks, created to develop a far-reaching and accessible evidence base covering the most common types of activity undertaken within the criminal justice system. There are two main aims of this online series:
- To increase the extent to which the voluntary sector bases its services on the available evidence base
- To encourage commissioners to award contracts to organisations delivering an evidence-based approach.
Each article has been written by a leading academic with particular expertise on the topic in question. The topics are selected by Clinks’ members as areas of priority interest. Clinks intends to build a comprehensive directory of the best evidence available across a wide range of criminal justice topics within the next three years (2020-2023). The online evidence base is co-ordinated by Russell Webster on behalf of Clinks.