SSPSSR Criminal Justice Professor Alex Stevens has been appointed Chair of Drug Science’s Supervised Injecting Facilities Working Group (SIFWG); a consortium of scientific experts, academics, policy makers, treatment providers and advocacy groups, co-operating to reduce the harms of intravenous drug use.
Supervised Injecting Facilities (SIFs) provide safe spaces for people to consume controlled drugs under supervision. Led by Professor Stevens, the Drug Science SIFWG will evaluate the evidence for piloting SIFs in the UK by examining their impact on crime, public health, drug litter and engagement with treatment services.
Professor Stevens has ongoing research expertise and interest in how evidence is used in making policy and in the effects of drug treatment interventions. He also works on youth crime and the reduction of youth risk behaviours and has published peer-reviewed articles and policy reports on social exclusion and youth crime.
His published works include a book on Drugs, Crime and Public Health (Routledge, 2011), and studies of alternatives to criminalisation for drug possession (including decriminalisation in Portugal). Last month, Professor Stevens wrote ‘The Politics of Being an “Expert”: A Critical Realist Auto-Ethnography of Drug Policy Advisory Panels in the UK‘ for Qualitative Criminology. In it, he draws on his experience of being on policy panels, including the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and of advising select committees such as the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee. And in October 2020, Professor Stevens published an article on ‘Critical realism and the ‘ontological politics of drug policy’ for ScienceDirect.
Previous projects led by Professor Stevens include:
- the ‘Connections’ project which promoted research and good practice in preventing drugs and related infections in European criminal justice systems
- QCT Europe, a European-funded, six-country research project on treatment for drug dependent offenders
- Early Exit, a study of early retention in treatment for the Department of Health
- The development and evaluation of the RisKit programme, which work with vulnerable 14-16 year olds to reduce their risk-taking behaviours, with funding from Kent County Council and the National Institute of Health Research
- The ongoing evaluation of the Ministry of Justice’s Prison Leavers Project.
At SSPSSR, Professor Stevens teaches modules on drugs, criminal justice and social research methods at undergraduate level. At postgraduate level, he supervises MA dissertations and PhD theses.