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

Spicer, Jack

Abstract

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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 7, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 21, 2021
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology
• Print ISSN: 0007-0955
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3529
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1390-1406
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab027
• Keywords: cuckooing; drug markets; County Lines; drugs policing; amplification spiral
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7250923
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azab027/6217393?redirectedFrom=fulltext