Drug-misusing offenders: results from the 2008 cohort for England and Wales

This report presents statistics on the proven offending by individuals identified as Class A drug misusing offenders. Both drug use amongst offenders, and their levels of offending can be difficult to measure with confidence. The data presented in this report are intended to provide a proxy measure which indicates the level of proven offending by known (Class A) drug-misusing individuals who have been identified through their contact with the criminal justice system.

Local agencies work to reduce the offending of individuals who are identified as drug users through a partnership approach involving local authorities, criminal justice integrated teams (CJITs), drug action teams (DATs), treatment services, police, probation, prisons and other partners and agencies. A wide range of interventions and partners are involved.

Results from the analysis of two different datasets are presented in this report: a national measure for the whole of England and Wales, and a local measure for individual partnership areas. More information is given on both of these datasets below and in the explanatory notes at the end of the report. It is important to note that neither of these datasets constitute a measure of offending by all drug-misusing individuals; they only cover those offenders that were identified by contact with the criminal justice system in a given time period.

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