IRVING LEVESON The 19608 was a period of rapid social and economic change, coupled with spectacular growth in the role of government in dealing with social issues. The demands of public programs and policies created enormous pressures for improved information and analyses. In the field of drug abuse these pressures were compounded by the rapid rise of drug use and the absence of much critical information and analysis. The most elementary steps to develop a data base were just beginning, and many years of effort would be required before the accumulation of knowledge could produce. a strong foundation for public policy. There has been enormous progress in improving knowledge about drug abuse since the mid-1960s. However, as in many fields, research has concentrated on a few questions while others largely are ignored, and even where studies exist there are problems of assimilation. Information is widely dispersed, not always accessible and often not in the most useful form. Many analysts do not have adequate understanding of the ways in which studies might enter into policy development, while at the same time, persons responsible for policy formation often do not have sufficient knowledge of how to use research to help resolve policy issues. A major objective of this volume is to illustrate the formation of linkages which may bridge the gap between research and policy.
IRVING LEVESON The 19608 was a period of rapid social and economic change, coupled with spectacular growth in the role of government in dealing with social issues. The demands of public programs and policies created enormous pressures for improved information and analyses. In the field of drug abuse these pressures were compounded by the rapid rise of drug use and the absence of much critical information and analysis. The most elementary steps to develop a data base were just beginning, and many years of effort would be required before the accumulation of knowledge could produce. a strong foundation for public policy. There has been enormous progress in improving knowledge about drug abuse since the mid-1960s. However, as in many fields, research has concentrated on a few questions while others largely are ignored, and even where studies exist there are problems of assimilation. Information is widely dispersed, not always accessible and often not in the most useful form. Many analysts do not have adequate understanding of the ways in which studies might enter into policy development, while at the same time, persons responsible for policy formation often do not have sufficient knowledge of how to use research to help resolve policy issues. A major objective of this volume is to illustrate the formation of linkages which may bridge the gap between research and policy.
Economics Uncut: A Complete Guide to Life, Death and Misadventure, edited by Simon Bowmaker, contains several delightful chapters on topics central to economics and the family. Although the book s implicit thesis is to dazzle with the catholicity of economics, the chapters on marriage and divorce, reproduction, suicide, and abortion are lively introductions to these family topics, and other chapters make delightful reading on their own. Darius Conger, Economics and the American Family: A Review of Recent Literature , Choice This volume collects a wide array of economic explanations of social issues that are often thought to be beyond the realm of economic explanation. . . . This work will be valuable reading for general readers and undergraduate students. Graduate students in social sciences other than economics will find accessible economic explanations of many issues in their fields. Highly recommended. R.B. Emmett, Choice Expertly compiled and deftly edited by Simon W. Bowmaker Economics Uncut: A Complete Guide to Life, Death and Misadventure features informed and informative essays and seminal articles by eighteen accomplished economists on a variety of economic issues. . . A superbly organized and presented compendium of seminal studies and commentaries adhering to high academic standards of methodology and reporting, Economics Uncut is an important and strongly recommended addition to academic library Economic Studies reference collection, as well as being quite accessible to the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the economic implications and impacts with respect to the social issues of the present day. Library Bookwatch/Internet Bookwatch The book s variety of subject matter, combined with its innovative yet academic approach, makes it both entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Emma Winberg, Economic Affairs Economics Uncut presents itself as a complete guide to Life, Death and Misadventure . Whatever the specific chapter topic, from pornography to crime, from suicide to assisted reproduction, cost benefit analyses abound, demand and supply relations are discussed in an attempt to rationalize consumer preferences, choice and price levels and, thus, complex relationships are neatly reduced to mathematical equations, with tables and graphs being plentiful. Werner Bonefeld, Journal of Contemporary European Studies If you thought you could hide your secrets from the prying eyes of economists, think again. From sex to drugs to gambling to crime, this book will show you how the tools of economics can be used to understand just about any human behavior. This book will assuredly be the unofficial economist s guide to vice for the foreseeable future. Steven Levitt, University of Chicago and author of Freakonomics In this insightful and entertaining book, Simon Bowmaker introduces readers to the fascinating side of modern economics that applies economic analysis to a wide range of social issues from illegal drugs to religion and everything in between. In this form, economics is anything but the dismal science. This is a fun and enlightening book that shows readers what many economists often forget that economics is a powerful tool for understanding the world around them. Kevin M. Murphy, University of Chicago, US Economics is generally associated with the financial pages of newspapers apart from front page discussion of major topics such as inflation, budget deficits, or unemployment. However, the topics discussed in many of the other pages of a typical newspaper, such as crime, divorce, or sport, are also appropriate for economic analysis. Economics is concerned with decisions and many important topics in today s society involve taking drugs or committing a crime or getting a divorce, for example, and so can be examined from an economic point of view. Many of these areas can be considered from different directions: legal, medical, political, religious, sociological, or psychological, for
Conventional wisdom once held that the demand for addictive substances like cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs was unlike that for any other economic good and, therefore, unresponsive to traditional market forces. Recently, however, researchers from two disparate fields, economics and behavioral psychology, have found that increases in the overall price of an addictive substance can significantly reduce both the number of users and the amounts those users consume. Changes in the "full price" of addictive substances—including monetary value, time outlay, effort to obtain, and potential penalties for illegal use—yield marked variations in behavioral outcomes and demand. The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse brings these distinctive fields of study together and presents for the first time an integrated assessment of their data and results. Unique and innovative, this multidisciplinary volume will serve as an important resource in the current debates concerning alcohol and drug use and abuse and the impacts of legalizing illicit drugs.
This doctoral study focuses on a relational approach to recovery as an addition to the dominant individualized interpretations of addiction recovery. It explores the (enabling or disabling) role of social networks and broader societal contexts in which recovery processes are embedded, without disregarding the deeply personal nature of addiction recovery in terms of building a meaningful life. This dissertation is based on the Recovery Pathways (REC-PATH) research project, a longitudinal and multi-country cohort study designed to map pathways to drug addiction recovery. Rooted in the policy, quantitative and qualitative research phases of the REC-PATH project, this study uncovers contextual dynamics at play in addiction recovery. Grounded in first-person accounts of recovery from drug use problems, we critically investigate the complex and ambiguous roles that interpersonal relationships, life circumstances, support services and structural factors might play throughout recovery processes. Conceptualizing addiction recovery as a relational process of change has implications for how practice, policy and research are organized. This dissertation thus provides tools for students, practitioners and policymakers who want to contribute to developing recovery-supportive environments that include attention to the contextual dimensions of recovery.
The initial enthusiasm for the evidence-based policy agenda has recently been replaced with increasing scepticism. Critics point out that 'policy-based evidence' characterises the relationship more accurately. Analysing the role and nature of evidence in the context of UK drug policy and drawing on a range of theories of the policy process and research utilisation, this book pursues an alternative route for conceptualising the evidence and policy connection, which moves beyond zero-sum statements of evidence-based policy and policy-based evidence. It will be essential reading for students and researchers in public policy and criminology.
"An international abstracting service covering etiology of crime and juvenile delinquency, the control and treatment of offenders, criminal procedures and the administration of justice." Abstracts of journal articles and monographs. Covermaterial from psychiatric literature as well as from criminological sources.
Written by leaders in the addictions field, 100 authors from six countries, this handbook is a thoroughly comprehensive resource. Philosophical and legal issues are addressed, while conceptual underpinnings are provided through explanations of appetitive motivation, incentive sensitization, reward deficiency, and behavioral economics theories. Major clinical and research methods are clearly mapped out (e.g. MRI, behavioral economics, interview assessments, and qualitative approaches), outlining their strengths and weaknesses, giving the reader the tools needed to guide their research and practice aims. The etiology of addiction at various levels of analysis is discussed, including neurobiology, cognition, groups, culture, and environment, which simultaneously lays out the foundations and high-level discourse to serve both novice and expert researchers and clinicians. Importantly, the volume explores the prevention and treatment of such addictions as alcohol, tobacco, novel drugs, food, gambling, sex, work, shopping, the internet, and several seldom-investigated behaviors (e.g. love, tanning, or exercise).
