Out Of Court Disposals: An Unrealised Catalyst for Change in the Battle Against Drugs-Related Offending.

By Anya Gwen Innes Hutin,

UWE Bristol (University of the West of England).

This dissertation examines out-of-court-disposals practice in England & Wales in relation to drugs-related offending and harms, particularly ahead of the new Two-Tier Plus Framework proposed by the s.98-121 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act 2022 c.32. The paper considers the provenance of ideological crime-control politics visible in the Misuse of Drugs Act c.38 and its siphon into policing, causing discriminatory practices still present today. The paper outlines how orthodox retributive and utilitarian approaches to punishment have led to the current courts backlog and prison crisis, thus setting the stage for innovative methods, such as out-of-court-disposals (OOCDs), to better address the exegesis of drugs related offending. The paper considers current concern over OOCDs application within England and Wales, employing both doctrinal and sociolegal analysis to present as fuller picture as the limited commentary allows. To enable discussion of ‘what works’ the author provides a systematic analysis of jurisdiction-wide out-of-court-disposal pilots, providing evidenced critique for the draft Code of Practice (Ministry of Justice, 2023) on the new Community Cautions and Diversionary Cautions, has been waiting to be administered by the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act for some time. The new framework has the potential for a fresh start in evidence-gathering assisting further innovation in this area of criminal justice.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17146220

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