Prison Sentencing for Drug Trafficking Offenders: UK and South America

This report provides an in-depth analysis of prison sentencing related to drug trafficking offenders, focusing on a comparison between the United Kingdom and two South American countries: Colombia and Brazil. The report begins with an introduction that defines drug trafficking, its global impact, and the societal consequences. It then outlines the aim, objectives, and research questions guiding the study, emphasizing the rationale and significance of comparing legal frameworks. The methodology section details the research type (qualitative), philosophy (interpretivism), and approach, explaining the data collection and analysis strategies, including a literature search strategy and ethical considerations. The literature review provides an international definition of drug trafficking, examines UK perspectives, and delves into drug trafficking and prison sentencing in the UK, Colombia, and Brazil. The data analysis section presents key themes, including how drug trafficking is viewed and dealt with in the UK, the specifics of UK prison sentencing, and a comparative analysis of policies and practices in the three countries. The report concludes with a summary of findings and implications, drawing upon the research to offer insights into the effectiveness of current sentencing practices and potential areas for improvement in addressing drug trafficking.

An insight to prison sentencing of drug
trafficking offenders, comparing UK sentencing
to South American prison sentencing

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background .................................................................................................................................1
Aim .............................................................................................................................................2
Objective .....................................................................................................................................2
Research questions ......................................................................................................................2
Rationale .....................................................................................................................................2
Significance of the study .............................................................................................................3
METHODOLGOY .........................................................................................................................4
Research type ..............................................................................................................................4
Research philosophy ...................................................................................................................5
Research approach ......................................................................................................................5
Research design ..........................................................................................................................6
Data collection and analysis ........................................................................................................6
Literature search strategy ............................................................................................................7
Ethical considerations .................................................................................................................8
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................9
Drug trafficking: An international definition ..............................................................................9
UK Perspectives on drug trafficking .........................................................................................10
Drug Trafficking and UK Prison sentencing.............................................................................10
Drug Trafficking in Colombia...................................................................................................12
Drug trafficking in Brazil...........................................................................................................13
Part of the world dealing best with issues..................................................................................14
DATA ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................15
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................15
Theme 1: Way drug trafficking is viewed and dealt with in UK:- ...........................................15
Theme 2: Drug Trafficking and UK Prison sentencing...............................................................1
Theme 4 : Drug trafficking in Brazil ..........................................................................................4
Theme 5: Contrast in policy and practices for drug trafficking prison sentencing......................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

ABSTRACT
This report is based on the prison sentencing relation to drug trafficking offenders, and
will compare UK sentencing with South American prison sentencing. In this report two South
American countries will be taken and will their prison sentences will be compared with UK.
Report will discuss about the international definition of drug trafficking and how drug trafficking
is being reviewed and dealt with UK. It will also discuss about the policies and strategies of
various these countries in order to deal with drug trafficking. In this report two countries
Colombia and Brazil will be taken and their policies and prison sentences will be compared with
that of UK.

TITLE: An insight to prison sentencing of drug trafficking offenders, comparing UK
sentencing to South American prison sentencing
INTRODUCTION
Background
Drug trafficking is defined as the black marketing of illegal or prohibited drugs
internationally. The global market of drug trafficking is associated with the manufacturing,
cultivation, sales or distribution of the drugs which are related to the drug prohibition laws.
There are several drugs whose trade is permitted only with license as they may be harmful for
the health and have serious implications. Some of the most common drugs which are used for
trafficking purpose includes cannabis, heroin, alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine and
temazepam. Since these drugs have very high monetary value internationally, there is increasing
and long term trend of trading them illegally even when they are prohibited.
The drug trafficking not only affects the countries which produce or transit them, but also
to the nations in which these drugs are imported illegally (Wood, 2017). One of the key reason
due to which drug trafficking prohibition policies are made is societal impact of these drugs. The
addiction of these drugs leads to increase events of drug violence and crime rates. The
individuals which get addicted to these drugs suffers from severe health implications and easily
engaged in criminal activities. Thus, for assuring the safe, healthy and quality life of community,
especially young people, it is important that countries must have effective drug trafficking
policies.
With the huge profits and increasing demands of class A drugs, trafficking dealers are
exploring various ways to assure their continuous supply in the market. (Fleetwood, Radcliffe
and Stevens, 2015) The mere prisoning and chasing of such networks may not result in
regulating crime rates and trafficking of such products. The key drug trafficking policy adopted
by UK is to prohibit the exchange of drugs and to sentence the prison to smugglers, dealers as
well as importers who are involved in drug trafficking.
The addition to such drugs can have adverse impact on the development and growth of
young generation and children and thus, economic development is also influenced due to
increased crime rate and social imbalance due to violence and crimes. The drug trafficking is
becoming one of the key issue in UK and South America (Middleton, Antonopoulos and
Papanicolaou, 2019). However, there are various differences in the policy frameworks of these
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countries. With the increasing global trade and technologies, the methods and ways of drug
trafficking are also getting advanced. Thus, there is high need that United Nations must analyse
its policy to identify the possible scope for the improvements so that future generations can be
prevented from this increasing threat. There is need to analyse the prison sentencing for these
cases of drug trafficking so that severity of issue can be controlled and improved.
Aim
To gain an insight to prison sentencing of drug trafficking offenders in UK and to
compare it with two South American countries.
Objective
 To understand the drug trafficking and its impact in UK.
 To analyse the various UK policies and case studies related to drug trafficking.
 To comparatively evaluate the Drug trafficking sentencing in UK with South American
countries, Colombia and Brazil.
Research questions
 Is UK harsh enough or is the time to served enough to prevent future smuggling and deter
others?
 What is the prevalence and severity of drug trafficking in UK?
 How effective drug trafficking policies and prison sentencing are of UK and South
America?
Rationale
Drug trafficking is becoming a serious threat for developing as well as developed
countries. The countries suffering from issues of poverty, economic instability and
unemployment are often easy target for the smugglers to develop a new business market for the
illegal drugs (Garcia, 2018). These drugs tends to have significant impact on the psychotic
reactions of individuals and thus contribute to increased crime rates. The prohibited drugs which
are smuggled illegally tend to have direct association with the violent crimes like kidnapping,
murder and rapid decline in health and economic status of the communities as well as nation.
One of the key reason which is responsible for causing drug violence is poor law
enforcement and regulations (Frederick, 2017). The economic instability and poor government
control over the transmission and distribution of the drugs can make it easy for the international
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traders to indulge in drug trafficking without any fear. Thus key rationale for choosing this topic
as the research subject is that prison sentencing and legal framework for offenders of drug
trafficking can play a crucial role in managing and controlling the issue. Hence, it is very
essential that impact and effectiveness of prison sentencing must be evaluated. Another reason
for conducting this study that UK and South America both have been very powerful national in
the world. The drug trafficking issue has become a major threat and concerning matter for entire
world (Dolliver, 2015 ). Thus, the comparative study of the prison sentencing of both the nations
can provide crucial information and knowledge for addressing this global issue. With the
increasing interconnectivity and interactions between global boundaries, drug accessibility and
global abuse is increasing rapidly. It is the high need to address the issue of drug trafficking so
that political and economic instability, social crimes, damage to communities and their health
can be managed.
Significance of the study
Drug trafficking also results in social violence, money laundering, corruptions and for
creating drug addictions among young people or other communities. The trafficking routes are
also an easy medium for transporting illicit products and can also serve as easy pathway for the
terrorists as well. With advancing technology and transportation mediums, criminals are
exploring more creative and innovative approaches for transporting illegal drugs (Dolliver,
Ericson and Love, 2018). The legal system of UK and South America experiences several
challenges in enforcement of law and prison sentencing. Thus, the analysis and findings from the
study are very significant in developing good understanding of the problem so that problem
solutions can be determined and this global issues can be resolved. The study results will be
helpful in drawing suitable conclusions for improving the legal framework in UK. On the basis
of these conclusions, UK can evaluate that if the existing policies are effective enough or it need
considerable improvement.
America has been among one of the developed countries which are dealing with the drug
trafficking as major issue. Thus, comparative analysis of the UK sentencing with that of two of
American countries will be helpful and extremely significant in terms of suggesting necessary
recommendations (Desroches, 2017). The insight of prison sentencing in South America will
also help in identifying the loop holes in existing framework for preventing expansion of such
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illegal network of drug distribution. In this way, the study is considered as significant in
controlling smuggling and to deter others from indulging in such activities.
The drug misuse is also one of the potential cause of deaths among young people. Due to
this reason, trafficking of drugs is considered as more serious crime than possessing drugs.
According to National Crime Agency, UK, deal lines for selling illegal drugs in UK has
increased from 720 to 2000 in just one year (Warrell and Alatise, 2019). The young boys of age
group 15 to 17 are easy target for the drug dealers and are mostly exploited by the drug gangs.
Thus, the study plays a very important role in creating awareness among young people that what
punishments they can get if they are found guilty in such practices (Antonopoulos and Hall,
2016). Study outcomes are vital in creating awareness and suggesting necessary improvements in
framework for prison sentencing so that drug trafficking crime can be managed and regulated.
METHODOLGOY
Research methodology is defined as the blue print for executing a research study in
systematic and proper way. The well defined approach to conduct a research is helpful in
improving the research outcomes. The research methods which are used for completion of this
research are as follows:
Research type
Research type describes the way in which research study utilises the data to draw the
relevant conclusions for achieving research objective. Research studies can be either qualitative
or quantitative type. The qualitative studies are based upon verbal narrative such as written or
spoken data and is usually non statistical study. On the other hand, quantitative studies are based
upon statistical and logical observations for determining the results and study outcomes (Taylor,
Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). In qualitative studies, ideas and concepts are explored using non
structured techniques such as group discussions and interviews. Quantitative studies are mainly
used for conducting the research studies in which it is required to determine the relation between
research variables through statistical analysis or the dependency. Quantitative studies employ
structured methods like questionnaires, surveys and observation for exploring the relations.
This study is of qualitative type as it aims at exploring the existing facts and trends of
prison sentencing in case of drug trafficking (Mackey and Gass, 2015). For this purpose, it will
utilise various qualitative facts and reports to understand the research subject. One of the
advantage of using qualitative study is that it can be conducted using existing literature and a
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vast range of perspectives are available. It does not provide bias or personalised results as in case
of quantitative research.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy explains the ways or perspectives in which data collection and
analysis procedure must be executed in a study. Research philosophy is of three types namely:
realism, positivism and interpretivism. With the use of interpretivism philosophy, various
elements or the variable of the research are interpreted so that qualitative analysis can be
improved and performed with better efficiency. On other other hand, positivism philosophy is
defined as the approach in which scientific evidences like statistics and experiments are used to
describe any phenomenon and event. Realism philosophy aims at creating knowledge on the
basis of scientific facts so that reality can be independently extracted from the human
perspectives or mind. In this study, interpretivism philosophy is used so that a more effective
analysis of the data can be performed (Kumar, 2019). One of the advantage of using
interpretivism philosophy is that it helps in assessing the cross cultural differences and thus
comparative evaluation of UK and South American legal framework can be effectively and
accurately analysed through this philosophy.
Research approach
Research approach is known as the well-defined procedures and assumptions for
providing detailed insight of the data collection and analysis methods and ways to interpret the
data. Research studies can use inductive, deductive and abductive approaches for the study. In
inductive approach, various theories and existing trends are observed for exploring the relevant
conclusions for the study. In inductive approach observations are used to develop and explain the
theories and concepts (Flick, 2015). Thus, in this approach no hypothesis are used in the study.
Contrary to this, the research studies based on deductive approach develops hypothesis on the
basis of theories an then suitable research strategies are used for testing them.
Another research approach which can be used by researchers is known as abductive
approach in which drawbacks of both the other approaches are addressed. In deductive approach,
there is difficulty in choosing suitable theory for hypothesis testing while in inductive approach
there is unclarity in amount of empirical data used for the development of theory. In this study,
inductive approach is used because it gives an in-depth idea of existing theories so that valuable
and more precise conclusions can be drawn (Fletcher, 2017). Along with this advantage,
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inductive approach is also valuable in terms of enhancing research experience in the from of data
collection, cost and time. The data collection process is more flexible and informative in case of
inductive approach and thus quality of research is also improved.
Research design
Research design is known as the methodological framework which provides a logical
integration of the various research problem. Thus, research design explain researchers way to use
a particular methodology for conducting research. The research can be accomplished using
various types of designs such as descriptive, exploratory and causal. The exploratory designs are
preferred for the studies in which instead of generalising information, end conclusions are
developed (Kumar, 2019). Exploratory research studies are used for the issues which needs to be
prioritised so that various perspectives of research issues can be explored and conclusive
decisions can be taken.
On the other hand, descriptive research studies aims at exploring and explaining the
information related to research topic. Descriptive studies helps to analyse the data in its natural
environment without changing the surrounding aspects of the research study. However, this
study design is preferred as pre cursor to quantitative studies. It is time-consuming and
expensive as well. Since this study does not uses quantitative analysis, descriptive research
design is not suitable for the research. The third type of research design is causal type which
demonstrate the cause and effect relationship. Causal study designs are helpful in providing in
depth and extreme fundamental information related to their topic chosen.
Casual research designs are highly expensive and more time is required to accomplish
such studies. These studies are beneficial in terms of providing replication if require. However,
the research subject of this project does not demands for the analysis of cause and effect
relationship and thus in this study, cause and effect design is not used (Flick, 2015). In this study,
exploratory design is used because this research design does not have any rigid structural or
experimental norms. Its flexibility and versatility also encourages the scope for future research.
The open ended nature of the exploratory research design is highly interactive so that various
perspectives can be explored in low cost.
Data collection and analysis
The process of gathering the research data from variety of sources is known as data
collection. The collected data is analysed through suitable approaches and analysis techniques.
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The research data collection methods are of two types: primary and secondary data collection.
The primary collection methods includes methods in which researchers collect their data at their
own for the research. These methods includes questionnaires, interview, discussions and survey.
One of the advantage of primary data collection method over secondary is that it helps to access
and collect real time data instead of data from the previous studies.
Though, primary data collection methods are expensive and time consuming, they tend to
provide highly specific results for the analysis as per the needs of researcher. On the other hand,
in secondary data methods the researchers review and analyses the research work which has been
done by other scholars or researchers. For secondary data analysis, sources On the other hand, in
secondary data methods the researchers review and analyses the research work which has been
done by other scholars or researchers. such as books, articles, research papers and journals are
used (Walliman, 2017). Apart from the advantage of having economic feasibility, the key benefit
of using secondary data for the study is that contrary to the primary methods, secondary
approach provides more refined form of data. Thus, it is very convenient to draw the conclusions
and findings.
Primary and secondary data can be qualitative as well as quantitative. The analysis of
quantitative data is performed by using statistical tools and investigation such as SPSS or
statistical approaches. Quantitative data analysis is preferred when studies aim to derive the
mathematical relation between research variables. This study analyses qualitative data and thus,
various themes are developed on the basis of themes identified in the literature review section.
In this study, secondary data collection methods are used because these are very quick
and easy to access. Since the research topic includes the aspects of UK and two other American
countries, it is not economically feasible to conduct a primary data collection. Instead the use of
government publications, reports other secondary sources may provide more relevant and
accurate data along with the economic and time feasibility. The reason behind this is that
government does not reveal proper information which can be collected for the research.
Literature search strategy
The study uses secondary sources for the data collection process. Thus, the research
quality greatly depends upon the literature searched for the review. It is very essential for the
researchers to adopt a suitable literature search study so that good quality secondary sources can
be chosen for the study (Cuervo‐Cazurra and et.al., 2017). The secondary sources chosen for the
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study are searched using various searching platforms such as Google Scholar, Emerald insight
and case study reports of both UK and South America. For the searching purpose, specific search
terms will be used. The use of highly specific and boolean searching techniques by combining
various key words can result in improved quality of the search results.
Different keywords such as drug trafficking, UK regulations for drug trafficking, Prison
sentencing for drug trafficking in UK and America, Drug smuggling regulations and
punishments in Brazil and Colombia are used for the study purpose. In order to enhance the
accuracy and effectiveness of the research, it is also important to assure that secondary sources
chosen for the research are authentic and relevant. To assure this, only those sources of data are
chosen which are not less than 5 years old and which are written in English language.
The secondary sources which are based upon drug trafficking regulations in countries
other than UK and America are also neglected so that research objre this, only those sources of
data are chosen which are not less than 5 years old and which are written in English language.
ective can be achieved and comparative perspective of regulations in America and United
Kingdom can be obtained. For the selection of studies, several other aspects such as relevancy,
authenticity, currency, purpose and accuracy parameters are also judged. A well defined
literature search strategy has been prioritised in the entire research so that suitable themes can be
developed and analysis results meet the quality standard.
Ethical considerations
Ethical considerations are not only desirable for the primary studies, but they are equally
important for the secondary researches as well. Ethical guidelines provide essential
considerations which must be taken into account while conducting a research. Secondary
researches are based upon the studies chosen through literature searre this, only those sources of
data are chosen which are not less than 5 years old and which are written in English language.
ch. Thus, ethics must be considered while choosing a particular secondary source. When any
secondary source is chosen and used for the analysis and research purpose, then it must be given
credit. This can be done by referencing the secondary source. The proper reference and citation
assures the credibility and authority of the resource.
Another important ethical consideration for the study is that data analysed from the
secondary sources must not be misleading or misinterpreted. The inaccurate or falsified
misinterpretation of the secondary information is highly unethical. Such falsification can mislead
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