Alex Stevens is Professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield (UK) and a trustee of Harm Reduction International. He researches the overlaps between drugs, crime and public health, drug policy, and efforts to reduce the harms of drug and efforts to control it.

Aim: To explore whether and how police drug diversion (PDD) schemes in the UK reduces the level of punishment received by people who use drugs, or ‘widens the net’ by bringing more people who use drugs into the criminal justice system.
Method: We report on the findings of a multi-component, realist evaluation of three English PDD schemes. This involved a process evaluation for which we carried out interviews and focus groups with over 214 people involved in PDD schemes, including people who use drugs, police officers, and diversion practitioners. The quantitative outcome evaluation collected data from over 66,000 police contacts with people who use drugs in 13 police force areas. We also used data on trends in the use of criminal sanctions and PDD schemes, including variations by gender, ethnicity and socio-economic deprivation.
Results: In qualitative analysis, we identified three ‘ideal types’ of people to whom PDD is applied. These are: (1) people who already want help to change their drug use and related behaviours; (2) people who are ambivalent about drug use and related issues, and may be willing to accept PDD if it is offered in a supportive and trusted way; (3) people who see no reason for the police or PDD schemes to intervene in their lives. Quantitative analysis is ongoing. We will report the results on whether PDD reduces the overall use of criminal punishments of people who use drugs, or widens the net of criminal justice involvement (or both, or neither).
Conclusion: There are some people who use drugs who see PDD as beneficial, while others see it as an ongoing and unjustified infringement of their freedom. PDD may be both reducing and producing harms of different kinds for different people.