There is a growing body of research evidence demonstrating the impact of a range of pre-sentence diversion options at engaging substance misusing defendants in treatment, and reducing illicit drug use and ‘related’ offending in both Australian and British contexts.
Within both the Australian and international literature, the association between substance use and criminal activity is well established. The nature of the relationship, however, is still widely debated with no overall consensus being reached on how crime and substance use influence each other.
There is a lack of knowledge about the offending profiles of MDMA offenders and the optimal means of policing MDMA.
Governments and policy makers are interested in determining which interventions are more or less effective than others, such that the scarce funding resources can be allocated in the most efficient manner possible. Thus, where should law enforcement invest its resources?
