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To reduce the number of women being sentenced to death, this chapter explores and critically reflects on the calls being made by women’s rights activists in Southeast Asia for cross-border drug trafficking to be reconstituted as human trafficking. Drawing on interviews with a range of stakeholders, alongside information on 146 cases of women sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Malaysia, this chapter shows that the gendered dynamics of drug trafficking can indeed be understood as a form of human trafficking. However, there are concerns from a feminist activist perspective in representing it in these terms because the discourse of human trafficking, has been used by the patriarchal state to legitimize racialized and gendered oppression of women at borders. This has ramifications in terms of human rights, particularly with regards to women’s right to freedom of movement as well as the right to livelihood.

The dynamics of drug use and trafficking in Poland have changed dramatically since the early 1990s. These changes include legal definitions of drug use, the actors involved in trafficking, and the types of drugs traversing the country. The Polish police force experienced two significant reforms in the 1990s and drug‐related legislation underwent significant reconstruction in 1997 and 2000, while drug trafficking operations continue to persist by organized criminal groups. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively investigate these police reforms and drug legislation developments since 1990, and empirically analyze the interaction effects of these reforms with drug trafficking arrests in Poland.

Officially reported annual data were tested using multivariate regression analyses.

The findings observed from this exploratory study suggest that both the police reforms and changes in drug‐related legislation positively affected the number of arrests for drug trafficking. Additionally, this study found support for an increase in efficiency of the policing model despite the recent decline in the strength of the police force. Interestingly, the number of police officers in the country had no effect on any of the variables.

Quantitatively, the small number of observations poses limitations on the interpretation of the multivariate regression results. In addition, future research should include additional explanatory variables to achieve a greater comprehensive summary of the interaction effects of policing reforms and drug‐related legislation with drug trafficking arrests.

This paper illustrates the need for accurate and timely national‐level, systematically collected data on drug‐ and police‐related indicators that will allow for more inclusive and comprehensive analyses.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine potential interaction effects of police reform and drug‐related legislation on drug trafficking arrests in Poland.

Inequality of rights, wage gaps, and gender stereotypes are the context in which women in Latin America live, aggravating their situation of poverty. Under this scenario, drug trafficking is presented as a legitimate job offer as an answer to women’s economic needs. Currently, drug trafficking not only categorizes women as merchandise for sexual services but also integrates professional, technical, and logistical services within the criminal structures.

This research follows a qualitative methodology, making a documentary review to identify the role of women in drug trafficking. As partial results, it is evident that women recognize that gender gaps are not solved by their insertion in the drug trafficking economy, because they must perform jobs that put them at greater risk with the authorities, but they do solve an economic need.

This paper aims to examine sentencing decisions for drug-trafficking offences in the criminal courts of the city of Recife to address a gap in quantitative research on drug sentencing and incarceration in Brazil.

Using original data obtained from the Court of Justice for Pernambuco, the research used multivariate regression analysis to investigate the effect of case processing, offender, and offence characteristics on sentence length.

A key finding of the research is the influence of two legal factors on sentence length: admitting to a drug-trafficking offence and being categorized as “mitigated trafficking”. Results also indicate that first-time defendants were more likely to be categorized as mitigated trafficking, stressing the importance of criminal history on predicting sentencing outcomes. “Mitigated trafficking” is a distinct category of drug-trafficking created by the Drug Law nº. 11.343 (2006) to protect defendants considered novices in the illicit drug market from receiving longer imprisonment sentences.

The findings suggest that the policy strategy of having a legal distinction for a specific type of defendant appears to be effective in impacting sentence length for drug-trafficking convictions. Future research could explore how similar strategies could be adopted to influence sentencing for other vulnerable groups. However, focussing on a defendant records or prior convictions as an eligibility criterion could disproportionately impact defendants who are caught in a cycle of re-offending for socio-economic reasons or a need to finance a substance use disorder.

This research address a gap in quantitative sentencing research in Brazil and contributes to the broader literature by presenting results that are aligned with previous studies conducted in North America.

The article aims to describe the role of asset recovery in combating drug and people trafficking within the UK and the different means by which the proceeds of crime can be taken away from such organised criminals.

The author uses official data on asset recovery to critically analyse both the policing of drug trafficking in the UK and the official discourse on the extent, value and costs to the country of the trafficking of women for sex by organised crime.

The article raises important questions about the credibility of the official estimates of the scale of drug trafficking by organised crime and/or the management and funding of those tasked with policing it within the UK.

The work provides either a more accurate guide on the extent, value and costs to the country of the trafficking of women for sex or a much needed antithesis to the official discourse on the topic.

There are four main narcotics operations in the Caribbean: drug production; the consumption and abuse of drugs; drug trafficking; and money laundering. These have numerous effects, including arms trafficking, corruption, crime, and an adverse impact on tourism, an economic mainstay of several Caribbean nations. These operations and effects have implications for several aspects of political, socio‐economic, and security conduct in the region, including the area of governance. This article examines some of the connections involving arms trafficking, corruption and governance.

This paper seeks to analyse the content and implications of resolution 52/1 of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations (UN) titled “Promoting international cooperation in addressing the involvement of women and girls in drug trafficking, especially as couriers”.

Drawing on socio‐legal analysis and an extensive search of UN databases, the resolution is contextualised and the findings of the resulting report which examines the scale of women's participation in the global drug trade is summarised.

The article demonstrates that the data produced are unreliable as a measure of women's participation in the international drug trade.

It is argued that this resolution is weakened by lack of clarity about how gender ought to be mainstreamed in global drug control.

As the first resolution on women and girls' participation in the international drug trade, Resolution 52/1 is a significant step towards raising awareness and systematically accounting for their participation.

This paper assesses the significance and impact of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 and the Money Laundering Regulations in the context of previous legislation and examines the extent to which the law has been strengthened by the new legislation. It also highlights the major international initiatives which have been responsible for exposing the extent of the money‐laundering phenomenon and which have helped shape the present legislative framework. The banking and financial system is finding itself in the front line of the war being waged internationally against money launderers. Traditional concepts of banking secrecy are being undermined as governments struggle to preserve the integrity of the banking system. The war is on a vast scale. The Financial Action Task Force (created in 1989 by the seven major industrial nations and the President of the European Commission) estimated that the amount of money being laundered through the financial system was US$85bn per year. The extent of the problem was recognised in the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 1993 which found that eight of the world's major money‐Iaundering states are located in Europe. Europe has responded to the growing crisis in the financial sector with the Money Laundering Directive which was due to be fully implemented across the Community by 1st January, 1993. The directive, which applies to credit institutions and financial institutions, including Community‐based branches of non‐Community institutions, reflects a number of key international initiatives and attempts to harmonise the anti‐laundering legislation of the Member States, though with varied success. This paper outlines the directive and its antecedents, before tracing the considerable developments within the UK since the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986, which marked the beginning of the Government's campaign to deprive criminals of the fruits of their crime, culminating in the Criminal Justice Act 1993 (CJA 1993). The secondary legislation is also analysed, in the form of the Money Laundering Regulations (the ‘Regulations’), which came into effect on 1st April, 1994. The CJA 1993 introduces and defines the ambit of the new money‐laundering offences, whilst the Regulations clarify the procedures which must be adopted by anyone carrying on ‘relevant financial business’. For the sake of brevity the focus has been only on the position in England and Wales, since Scotland and Northern Ireland are governed by different statutes.