Researching, Representing and Evidencing the Social World

Rationale: In the field of crime, Drug crime is a crime that is increasing at a rapid rate due to an increase in the demand for the same in the youth of society. The current issue is increasing the amount of Drugs crime in the UK. This report will throw light on the same issue by highlighting different stats and the impact of the same on society and will also explain different regulations and measures of the same.

Significance: This report will help society in understanding the impact which is brought by drug crime in the UK. Also, this report will provide information to the researcher who will be conducting the research on the same topic in the future.

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Literature Review

Theme 1: "Statistical Review of Drugs Crime in the UK"

Drug crime is the crime that relates to possessing, manufacturing, and distributing drugs. As per the article of Klein (2017), the UK has seen a good amount of rise in Drug offenses in the recent past, this is well-supported by the evidence provided. Stats highlight that in the year 2018-19 UK alone accounted for 151.47 thousand drug offenses, this data has seen good growth, as in the year 2017-18 there were 136.48 thousand drug offenses in the UK. The article also highlights that the year that saw the tremendous growth in drug crime was 2009-10 as in that year there were 243 thousands drug offenses that was taken place.

Hurley (2018) in his article, highlights that out of all the drug offenses Drug trafficking is one of the most increasing drug offenses in the UK, As out of a total number of offenses 25.17 thousand offenses which was found to be Drug trafficking. Drug trafficking is defined as the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of substances that are subject to drug prohibition law in the UK. It has been also found that the remaining 116 thousand offenses were related to the possession of drugs in the nation.

MacDonald and Pyle (2018) highlight that the young adult group of 16 to 24 years is the group that used to be more frequent drug users as compared to the other sectors of drug users in society. When looking at all the adults aged 16 to 59 years. 2.4 percent of all adults used to consume drugs on a frequent basis. This is equivalent to a total of 811 thousand people in the UK. Facchin and Margola (2016) highlight that when focusing on just the age group of 16-24 years it has been found that 4.9 percent of the total adults used to frequent drug users. This is equivalent to 312,000 young people.

In the published paper of Stark, Kidd, and Sykes (2018), it was identified that most of the offenses that occurred were due to the consumption of cannabis drugs. It was found that 34 percent of frequent consumers of drugs used to consume cannabis. However, there is a decline in powder cocaine drug offenses as more than 52 percent of users who have consumed cocaine powder have consumed it just once or twice in a previous year. , consumption of ecstasy has also seen a good amount of decrease in the last few years. As articles show 73.8 percent of the consumers who have consumed ecstasy have just consumed it once or twice in the year.

Theme 2: "Impact of Drug Crime upon society"

Lanza and et.al., (2017) in their article pass on the view that negative health issue is the biggest impact which is brought by Drug crime in society. As it is used to increase the chances of Mental Disorder, Psychosis, and Road traffic accidents and also may lead to death for the consumer, this is not a positive sign for any of the society as every society needs a healthy human resource to grow. Mendoza, Aldhaheri, and Mccarthy (2018) have thrown light on the topic by highlighting that, an increase in number of the drug crimes in society has eventually increased domestic disputes in the nation. A consumer of a drug is not in a good mental and physical situation to be in a relationship with the other partner. This eventually increased number of the domestic disputes in the nation.

Lyman (2016) highlights in the published paper that Drug crime also used to have a great impact on the environment of the nation as well. As cultivation of drugs used to produce hazardous chemicals in the environment can create a negative impact on society. As Chemicals which are used in cultivating the drugs like meth and Flammable are hazardous in nature. Lanza and et.al., (2017) on the same viewpoints add some weight to the viewpoint of the above author, by highlighting that, it is also used to create an indirect impact on the environment as well. The cultivation of drug substances on public land used to impact the environment in a negative way as well. Cultivators often dam streams and redirect the water through plastic, gravity-fed irrigation systems in order to water the plants.

Theme 3: "Reason for increasing Drug crime in the UK"

As explained by the other author as well that there is a good addiction to Drugs among adults in the UK. It has been also found that there are many reasons which used to drive Drug crime in the Nation. Yang and Xia (2019) pass on the view that childhood experiences such as emotional, physical, or sexual abuse are generally used to create stress in the minds of the children from the starting stage itself. This eventually drives them toward building a good drug addiction which leads to Drug crime in the nation. At the same time, lack of family support is also one of the big factors which used to drive Drug addiction in adults which provides great support to them in committing Drug crimes in the nation.

Possi (2018) highlights that one of the biggest reasons the UK is finding it difficult to reduce the number of drug crimes in the UK is that Drug addiction can be genetic. As it has been observed in the past the person who used to have a blood relative who is addicted, especially a parent or full sibling, you have a higher risk for drug addiction.

Data analysis

From the secondary research, it is observed that drug crime increased from 2017 to 2019 because of overconsumption by youths. As per the Journal article, it is interpreted that over the last ten years, the proportion of frequent users of both powder cocaine and ecstasy has decreased among the age group of 16 to 59. While, the number of drugs used in general has increased among the youth who are 16 to 24 years old as compared to the age group of 16 to 59 years old (Drugs Misuse: Findings from the 2017/18 crime survey for England and Wales, 2018). Moreover, as per the Statistics on crime in England and Wales which were published in January 2017, there were around 141,714 drugs conducted of which 25175 were used for trafficking and 116539 were used for consumption. However, these data represent a small fall over the previous year (How many drug crimes committed, 2018).  

Moreover, it is also analyzed from the secondary data i.e. from the Office for National Statistics that there were 4359 deaths from drug poisoning in England and Wales in 2018 which is considered one of the highest records. This in turn creates a negative impact on society and it is also increased from the last year as well. There were 2208 deaths involved because of heroin and 637 deaths were also related to cocaine this figure also clearly shows that drug crime has increased in UK in the recent years and this also resulted in death. In addition to this, the death of males has increased due to drugs i.e. 96.3 deaths per million people in London. , Wales, north-west, and Yorkshire were also high (Fear of public health emergency as drug deaths hit record levels, 2018).

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Additionally, cannabis is one of the most commonly used drugs in 2017-18 because around 7.2 percent of adults whose age is between 16 and 59 use this. The records show the highest estimate in nine years, and among younger adults whose age is between 16 to 24 cannabis was the most commonly used drug in 2017-18 and research shows that there were around one million adults. Further, from the journal article it is also observed that younger people are more likely to take drugs as compared to older ones whose age is between 55 to 59. Besides this, it is also observed that there is an increased level of drug use and there is a higher frequency of people who visit pubs, bars, and nightclubs.

In addition to this, research also reveals that people who live in urban areas reported higher levels of drugs as compared to those who live in rural areas. Therefore, it is clearly reflected that drug consumption and drug crime are increasing in the UK because of over overtaking of drugs and this in turn directly creates an impact on society.

Also Read: https://www.assignmentdesk.co.uk/free-samples/social-work/risk-consequences-and-family-strategy

Analysis of Policy Related to Drug Crime in UK.

To control Drug crime in the UK, there are many types of Legislation, Laws, and policies made by the government of the UK.

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971: This act is used to regulate the production, supply, and possession of controlled drugs in the nation. Controlled drugs have been listed in three different categories. A, B, and C. Class A drugs are classified as the most harmful drugs. This includes drugs like cocaine and crack, heroin, LSD, and methadone. Class B drugs are classified as less harmful drugs. Examples of such drugs are All cathinone derivatives, including mephedrone, and methlone. Class C includes the drugs of anabolic steroids, minor tranquilizers, GBL, and GHB.

This act has set out many types of criminal offenses in regard to many types of different activities related to Controlled drugs. Such as the Production of controlled drugs leads to 14 years of imprisonment for the drugs of the C category. In the case of A and B categories punishment may lead to life imprisonment. Supply or offering to supply controlled drugs also leads to the same penalties for the consumer 14 years imprisonment for the Class C category drugs and life imprisonment for the Class A and B drugs in the UK (Murji 2019). Possession offense of C drug involved 2 years imprisonment. Whereas for the B and A classes, possession leads to 5 and 7 years imprisonment respectively. When there is offence of possession with intent to supply for the drugs of C and B class there is the punishment of 14 years imprisonment. Whereas in the offense of A-class Drugs, the punishment used to raise to the Life imprisonment. In the case someone permits the activity to take place on the premises, the penalty for all three class drugs is 14 years imprisonment.

Under this Act, the distinction has been made between the possession of controlled drugs and possession with intent to supply the same. As Drug Trafficking Act 1994 was used to define the different offences related to drug trafficking in the UK. In addition it in the year 2011 temporary class drug order was introduced by way of the police reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which used to allow a faster response to the new psychoactive substance supply offenses.

Misuse Drugs Regulation 2001: This act was passed on with the purpose of providing law full possession and supply of controlled drugs for legitimate purposes. This act has set out many laws which used to describe how this substance will be stored and it will be schedule for regulation, depending on the usefulness of different doctors and therapeutic needs (Beharry and Gibbons, 2016). In the past, it was not that easy for Doctors as well as for therapeutic also to have a controlled drug in the nation.

Psychoactive Substances Act 2016: This act was introduced by the government in plug-in the gap between the existing legislation, which was not proving adequately with what was termed as a psychoactive substance. This has brought the blanket ban on a variety of activities like production, supply, and possession with the intent to supply.

Research Method:

Reflection

After conducting the research and carrying out the study, It has been found that this report has helped me in improving my level of knowledge about Drug Crime in the UK as in the past I did not have that sort of knowledge about the same. This knowledge will help me in building a variety of different studies on the basis of the same in the future.

This report has also helped me build a variety of professional skills such as Sourcing and communication skills. As this report is based on secondary data it has driven me to source a variety of information regarding the topic this has eventually helped me in improving my Sourcing skills. This study has also helped me in improving my communication skills in the process of carrying out the study I have taken the help of my college in every different situation in the study, it has helped me in improving the, as I used to use both written and oral communication to communicate in the team.

This study has also helped me in improving my level of interest in the topic, as after going through the topic I have understood that this topic is very vast and there are many aspects that are unknown to me.

Research Method and Proposal

Research is the proper investigation that has been conducted by the organization for the purpose of solving the issue that is faced. The scholar has taken the Qualitative research as it was getting very difficult for the scholar to present the outcome of the research in the numeric form. Another option that was in front of scholars was quantitative research type in which the result was presented in the form of numeric form.

The research approach is the different assumption regarding the detailed method of data collection, analysis, and interpretation (Kumar, 2019)  Scholar has taken the help of a deductive approach to conduct the research, the reason behind is it used to support the type of research which is selected that is qualitative research type. Scholars was having the option of choosing an inductive research approach as well, which looks at testing already-made theories.

Research philosophy is the belief of the scholar about the different phenomena through which data can be gathered, analysed, and used. Scholars have taken the help of the interpretivism research philosophy to conduct the research. The reason behind the same is identified is that this research philosophy has helped the scholar understand the human interest involved in the study as well. Positivism research philosophy was another type of research philosophy that may have been selected by the scholar to carry out the same, which used to look at natural phenomena and their properties and relations.

Research Ethics: Scholars have taken care of a variety of ethics in conducting the research. Scholars have maintained a high level of confidentiality in the process of carrying out the operation of the research (Bresler and Stake, 2017). Scholars have also taken permission from different authors before taking the help of the different content that was published by the author. Also, Scholars have to make sure that the data which has been collected for the purpose of conducting the research, is being collected from reliable sources.

Data Analysis is the process in which the collected data is presented in a way that it easier for the viewer to understand the same. Data will be collected with the help of the secondary data collection tool by going through the different journals and articles related to the topic of the study. Also, taking the help of the already collected data analysis articles. Scholars have also taken the help of the thematic data analysis tool to analysis the data.

Research Question

• What is the current situation of Drug crime in the UK?
• What Impact does Drug Crime have on the society?
• What are the factors which are increasing Drug crime in the UK?

CONCLUSION

After going through the above report it has been summarized that there is a good sort of increase in Drug crime in the UK in the recent past. There has been an increase of 15000 offenses of Drug crime in the last year. After that, the report summarized that there are many types of impacts which is brought by Drug crime on society, as it is used to increase home disputes and also used to create an impact on the children and environment of a country. After that, the report summarized that stress and abuse are a few of the factors which used to drive the children toward drugs. After that, the report summarized that there are many types of laws which have been developed in regard to Drug crime such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, Misuse Drugs Regulation 2001, and Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

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