SECReT student seminars 2010
- Crime and the decriminalisation of cannabis
- The security research agenda at a global bank
- What is crime science?
- Case study: HSBC-SAS real time global fraud analysis
- Interagency cooperation across the intelligence community
- The dark side of creativity
- The new national police improvement strategy
- Statistics and crime
- Cybersecurity futures
- The work of the FBI lab
- Developing investigative leads through the analysis and interpretation of microscopic trace evidence
- dstl and crime science
- Advances in fingerprint identification
- How cities can be designed to resist infectious diseases
- The UK’s International Counter-Terrorism Strategy
- Exploring the limits of the justice system in reducing harm
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Crime and the decriminalisation of cannabis
Publication date: Nov 19, 2010 9:40:43 AM
Start:
Oct 20, 2010 10:30:00 AM
End:
Oct 20, 2010 12:00:00 PM
Location: Brook House, UCL
Speaker: Professor Imran Rasul, UCL Economics
Audience: SECReT students
Dr Imran Rasul from UCL’s highly prestigious Economics Department, presented a seminar from a highly topical research study that looked at questions such as “what is the effect on crime of the decriminalization of cannabis possession?”; “can the changes in crime be understood in terms of behavioral responses of three types of agent: police officers, suppliers of drugs and consumers of drugs” and “can we use the results on drug related crimes and other crime types to shed light on potential re-allocation of police resources?”
The seminar detailed the results of a policy experiment: decriminalization of cannabis possession in one London borough: Lambeth from July 2001 until July 2002. The Lambeth Cannabis Warning Scheme (LCWS) was introduced as a pilot project on 4th July 2001, to run for six months. Under the scheme, those found in possession of small quantities of cannabis for their personal use: (i) had the drugs confiscated; (ii) were given a warning - prior to the policy such individuals would have been arrested and an offence recorded.
Dr Rasul revealed that the data shows a surge in drugs offences that is qualitatively large and persists after the official reversal of the policy. Evidence also suggests a collapse in police effectiveness against drugs crime and he speculative conclusion that the policy led to growth in drugs market as a whole.
Crime and the decriminalisation of cannabis seminar slides: Dr Imran Rasul, UCL SECReT
