engleski

THE STRUCTURE AND THE DYNAMICS OF THE ILLEGAL DRUG MARKET IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

According to Ritter (2005), the term "illegal drug market" is widely used in drug-related research, however, meaning different things to different researchers. The most influential fact on the lack of research in this area is nonexistence of a unified / unique definition of the drug market (Degenhardt et al., 2004), but the levels and their definitions differ from study to study. Another significant problem is the lack of information on the structure of the distribution process in different countries, the way in which a particular market responds to changes in supply and demand, and the concrete impact of measures aimed at reducing supply and demand for drugs (Natarajan and Hough, 2000). Understanding the drug market is important for a number of reasons, mostly in helping design drug prevention through specific projects, sanctioning and other efforts to enforce laws related to drug abuse. The main goal of this research was to collect data on the structure and dynamics of the drug market in the Republic of Croatia, based on the results obtained in the earlier study on secondary crime in relation with drug abuse in 2016. The sample in this research included 156 perpetrators of criminal offenses related to drug crimes serving prison sentence in Lepoglava Penitentiary, 24 juveniles in the Turopolje Educational Center and 150 perpetrators of misdemeanor acts under the Law on Suppression of Drug Abuse from the official statistical reports of several police administrations involved in this research. Data were collected from the official police reports and specifically for this research designed questionnaires for adults and juveniles. Furthermore, a series of interviews were conducted with juveniles and these data were subjected to qualitative data analysis. The results indicate that the drug market in the Republic of Croatia is extremely dynamic and can confirm the approach of drug-related crime approaches supported by the EMCDDA (2007) - psychopharmacological (drug use leads to criminality due to psychopharmacological influence of the consumed drugs), economic model (drug abusers are most often involved in property crimes that provide resources for further consumption) and a “systemic model” that implies the perpetration of violent offences associated with drug distribution.

Drugs, drug market, Croatia

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