When two dark figures collide: Evidence and discourse on drug-related crime

This paper explores the socio-political construction of drug-related

crime; a concept that has dominated recent developments in UK drug

policy. It has been assumed that the perceived overlap between known

offenders and drug users is also present among the much larger groups

of unknown offenders and drug users. This assumption has led to inflated

claims of scale, precision and causality in political discussions of the

drug–crime link. The discourse coalition approach is used to analyse

how such methodologically suspect knowledge has been translated into

policy since 1997. It is argued that the concept of drug-related crime

has been influential because it is tactically and structurally useful to

powerful groups in discursive struggle.