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Police-based diversion measures to prevent criminal offending and decrease social costs
Summary of the evidence
Police-based diversion measures defined as measures involving “the police initiating and leading the intervention and the [people who use drugs] receiving a diversionary scheme to avoid a criminal record and any consequences that may result from continued formal contact with the criminal justice system”, have been evaluated in a narrative systematic review (Blais et al., 2022, 27 studies, US =17, Portugal = 5, Australia = 5) and were found to be effective in:
- preventing criminal offending or future contacts with the criminal justice system
The analysis also showed promising results for improving participants' health and diminishing social costs as well as costs associated with processing drug-related offenses.
There was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the effect of police-based diversion measures on drug use, drug accessibility, or changes in participants’ socioeconomic conditions.
Findings from qualitative studies suggest that program acceptance by police officers, constructive intersectoral collaboration, clear eligibility criteria, and timely access to services seem to facilitate the implementation and delivery of police-based diversion measures.
The review solely focused on diversion measures that offered an alternative to a formal arrest (i.e., measures where arrest and criminal prosecution were only replaced by an administrative fine were not considered) and included
- the Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction (CDDA) in Portugal where drug use is decriminalized,
- police-based diversion programs implemented in jurisdictions where drug use is still a criminal offense, such as the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which creates a de facto decriminalization of drug use and is implemented in several US cities,
- police-based diversion programs rest on a mixture of de jure and de facto decriminalization implemented in Australia where the most common type of program is “cannabis cautioning”, where minor cannabis offenders are diverted away from the criminal justice system into education or treatment programs
