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Although the current research cannot exclude an opportunity account of the role of alcohol in assault, the results are entirely consistent with alcohol consumption as a causal agent.

It may be argued that seizing large quantities of heroin being imported into the country should decrease its supply and hence increase its price, resulting in a reduction in the quantity of the drug being purchased or consumed. To date, however, there has been no empirical evidence that heroin seizures in Australia have any effect on the price of heroin at street level. This article describes a 2-year research study during which the price and purity of street-level heroin were regularly monitored. It was found that heroin seizures had no effect on the price, purity or perceived availability of heroin at street level. It was further found that admissions to methadone treatment were not affected by the price or perceived availability of heroin or by local arrests for heroin use/possession, nor was any relationship found between these arrests and the price of street-level heroin. Nevertheless, two-thirds of those who sought entry to local methadone programmes indicated the price as a reason for stopping using heroin. This paper argues that supply-side law enforcement should only be used as a strategy for maintaining high heroin prices if the demand for heroin can be shown to be price-elastic and, further, that the costs of such a strategy need to be weighted against the benefits.

Abstract(97 words-has to be less than 100)In New South Wales, Australia, a cost effectiveness evaluation was conducted of an adult drug court program as an alternative to jail for the increasing number of criminal offenders addicted to illicit drugs. This paper describes the program, the CEA and the results. While the evaluation was conducted using the traditional steps of a CEA, due to the complexity of the program and data limitations it was not always possible to adhere to 'text book procedures'. This paper discusses each of the steps involved in undertaking the CEA highlighting the key issues faced in the evaluation.4

Despite a century of effort, criminologists do not yet fully understand the relationship between disadvantage and crime. The balance of evidence suggests that economic and social stress increase the risk of involvement in crime by increasing the motivation to offend. But there are a number of empirical anomalies that cannot easily be reconciled with this interpretation of the evidence. Weatherburn and Lind argue that the transmission mechanism linking economic and social stress to crime is not offender motivation but disruption to the parenting process. They put forward an epidemic model of the genesis of delinquent-prone communities and show how this model resolves the empirical anomalies facing conventional interpretations of the disadvantage/crime relationship. This book offers compelling new evidence which will stimulate debate in this area of criminology and will also interest academics, policy makers and practitioners in the field.