National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NDLERF)
Police diversion is one of Australia’s most utilised interventions for drug offenders. Yet fuelled in large part by methodological deficits there remain key gaps in knowledge about the outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of such approaches. For example few studies have successfully obtained a control group of offenders who have not been diverted or have looked at program impacts beyond recidivism. Using a purpose built national online survey this study will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of three different forms of police diversion for cannabis use/possess offenders (cautions, expiation and warnings) versus a traditional criminal justice system (CJS) response.
This study will use a purpose built national online survey to evaluate the outcomes and cost-effectiveness. This survey will recruit a large sample of cannabis use/possess offenders from across Australia who have been detected by police in the past 3-9 months and either diverted into one of the programs or not-diverted. The survey will assess outcomes across multiple domains (including but not limited to recidivism), multiple groups (diverted and non-diverted offenders) and costs.
The survey was completed December 2014 and data analysis is underway.
Final report is due March 2015.
National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NDLERF)
Dr Tim McSweeney
Institute for Criminal Policy Research, Birkbeck, University of London
CRICOS Provider Code: 00D98G
ABN 57 195 873 179
T +61 (2) 9385 0333
F +61 (2) 9385 0222
E dpmp@unsw.edu.au
DPMP, NDARC
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
Randwick Campus
22 - 32 King Street
Randwick NSW 2031
