CRIM 205 Chapter 7: Chapter Seven
7 Aug 2018
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Document Summary
War on drugs offers the opportunity for expansion: more money, more personnel, and greater police powers. Most effective tactics has been to create a link between drugs and crime. Even drugs with limited effects can become a gateway to hardcore drugs. Prisons and jails are full of nonviolent offenders, minorities are imprisoned at high rates, women serve long sentences away from children. Masking the costs of the drug war: majority of drug crimes fall under state jurisdiction. Myths and consequences: expansion of law enforcement powers, massive numbers of citizens arrested and imprisoned are necessary to deter drug use, substitution effects. Casualties of the drug war: drug war has been racist, people of colour face more discrimination, prosecutors more likely to pursue mandatory minimum sentences for black people. Number of benefits from decriminalization: reduces number of people arrested, redirecting law enforcement resources to prevent serious and violent crime.
