RT Article
T1 The policing of cuckooing in ‘County Lines’ drug dealing: An ethnographic study of an amplification spiral
JF The British journal of criminology
VO 61
IS 5
SP 1390
OP 1406
A1 Spicer, Jack
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1776053087
AB 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.
K1 Cuckooing
K1 Drug markets
K1 County Lines
K1 Drugs policing
K1 Amplification spiral
DO 10.1093/bjc/azab027