NCJ Number
239092
Journal
Criminology & Criminal Justice Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2012 Pages: 41-60
Date Published
February 2012
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article presents a UK government communications initiative intended to inform about, and build public confidence in, the national drugs strategy.
Abstract
This article presents the results of a research project exploring the impact on the public of National Tackling Drugs Week, a UK government communications initiative intended to inform about, and build public confidence in, the national drugs strategy. The research shows that the initiative had a limited reach and that its impact was variable: while it could raise confidence, it could also raise concerns about crime, and while it could inform, it could also elicit suspicions of 'spin'. Acknowledging that the policy aim of building public confidence is now an international one, the discussion counsels against simplistic corporate communications-based solutions to the public confidence problem, suggesting instead that the impact of communication is dependent on other contextual contingencies, and that when communications are employed for confidence-building ends, their prospects would be enhanced if they were two-way rather than one-way, and part of a wider strategy of deliberative democracy. (Published Abstract)