Drugs, Crime, and Justice

Drugs, Crime, and Justice is an engaging, yet comprehensive, analysis of the interrelationships among drug use/abuse, crime, and justice. The first four chapters introduce readers to the interrelationships between drugs and crime, while the second later chapters provide readers with an overview of historical and contemporary policies, as well as a comprehensive review of research on policing drug markets, arresting drug offenders, and prosecution and sentencing of drug offenders in state and federal courts. The authors also examine and assess the impact of the war on drugs and conclude with a discussion of recent policy changes such as drug courts and reform/repeal of mandatory minimum sentences and an examination of new and emerging drug policies in the 21st Century.

Steven Belenko is Professor in the Temple University Department of Criminal Justice and adjunct Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has conducted extensive research and published widely on drug abuse and crime, the impact of substance abuse on the adult and juvenile justice systems, drug policy, and developing and testing organizational change strategies to improve the implementation of drug treatment for offenders. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, he is the sole author of two books on drug policy and coauthor of a recent book on implementation of drug treatment in community corrections. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology.

Cassia Spohn is School Director and Foundation Professor of Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. She is the author of several books, including The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (with Sam Walker and Miriam DeLone) and How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Equity in Sentencing. She has published a number of articles examining prosecutors’ charging decisions in sexual assault cases and exploring the effect of race/ethnicity on charging and sentencing decisions. Her current research interests include the effect of race and gender on court processing decisions, victim characteristics and case outcomes in sexual assault cases, judicial decision making, sentencing of drug offenders, and the deterrent effect of imprisonment. In 1999, she was awarded the University of Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award.