The policing of cuckooing in ‘County Lines’ drug dealing: An ethnographic study of an amplification spiral

Responding to cases of ‘cuckooing’, where drug dealers take over other people’s homes, has become a significant policing activity in the United Kingdom. Drawing on ethnographic data and the deviancy amplification spiral model, this article theorizes how police responses to cuckooing emerged, develop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Spicer, Jack (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2021, Volume: 61, Issue: 5, Pages: 1390-1406
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Cuckooing
Drug markets
County Lines
Drugs policing
Amplification spiral
Description
Summary:Responding to cases of ‘cuckooing’, where drug dealers take over other people’s homes, has become a significant policing activity in the United Kingdom. Drawing on ethnographic data and the deviancy amplification spiral model, this article theorizes how police responses to cuckooing emerged, developed and became established. Five stages of the spiral are outlined: identifying cuckooing as a problem; demonstrating a response; spreading the problem; making it other people’s problem too; the establishment of a policing priority. The article advances amplification theory by considering it from within the setting of the police and the contemporary drug supply context of County Lines. It concludes by stressing the importance of critically considering the dynamic relationship between the police and their drug market targets.
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azab027