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Information security refers to 'the practice of defending information from unauthorised access'. Information security practices include everyday activities such as protecting your bank details, or keeping your workplace logins secure. Despite increasingly restrictive approaches to research ethics, academia continues to lag behind journalism when it comes to best practice with regards to information security. This article discusses information security as it pertains to qualitative and especially ethnographic research into crime and deviance. In doing so, the article addresses a gap in the methodological literature by drawing on lessons and real-world examples from journalism, academia and activism, in order to offer guidance for researchers seeking to maintain information security in a digital, networked social world. The article proceeds in three parts. First, the article considers what information researchers might want to protect, who they might want to protect it from and what the consequences might be if they failed to do so (an exercise known as 'threat modelling'). The different powers, resources and capacities of, and threats posed by, state actors such as the police and intelligence agencies, as well as an array of non-state actors, are considered. Second, the article outlines some general principles of information security and how they might apply to ethnographic research into crime and deviance. Third, the article discusses a range of practical considerations when it comes to using mobile phones (cell phones), social media, passwords and encryption in the course of researching crime and deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In February 2012, new sentencing guidelines for drug offences became effective in all courts in England and Wales. An explicit aim was to reduce the length of sentences for drug ''mules'' and so make them more proportionate. Methods: This article examines their early impact drawing on data from the Court Proceedings Database and the Crown Court Sentencing Survey for importing/exporting a Class A drug. Findings: Overall, the guidelines have achieved their intended aim. The length of the average custodial sentence for drug trafficking fell following the introduction of the guidelines, largely due to taking defendants' roles into account. Notably, three-quarters of those in ''lesser'' roles received sentences less than four years, representing an important change. Nonetheless, around 10% of mules received very long sentences due to the continued use of drug weight in sentencing. Conclusion: The new guidelines represent an internationally important innovation in drug policy reform

This article undertakes a global review of women's involvement in cultivation, processing, transporting and selling drugs. It is underpinned by twin theoretical concerns. First, we recap and critique the emancipation thesis, especially from a global perspective. Secondly, we examine how diverse global contexts shape women's involvement and the roles they occupy in these economies, challenging the notion that women's involvement in the drug trade is novel, increasing, or attributable to emancipation. Our review shows that women are ubiquitous to the drug trade and women's labor is fundamental to it. Rather than emancipation, we find that contextually-embedded experiences of gender shape women's involvement. We conclude by identifying and thematizing factors better able to explain women's participation in the illegal drug trade and guide future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepping and verstehen - A narrative criminological perspective: Talk, chat, and stories are ubiquitous in ethnographic research. Engaging with the recently burgeoning literature around narrative criminology, this article argues that considerations of stories and storytelling can add much to cultural criminologists' pursuit of 'criminological verstehen ' (Ferrell, 1997). In doing so, we focus on one case study: ethnographic research grounded within the USA's contemporary 'doomsday' prepping subculture. The article considers the value of attending to narrative during the pursuit of verstehen at two levels. First, we address the importance of storytelling upon entry to the ethnographic field – drawing attention to how the narratives researchers share, and their respect for certain stories, can facilitate deep and experiential access to stigmatized fields of activity (such as prepping). Second, we explore how narrative remains in play during immediate experiences. In particular, we argue that fleeting excitements featured in prepping lifestyles are often shaped by the significance of the 'moments' in which they occur to numerous personal narratives. We therefore contend that, for ethnographers interested in verstehen , a consideration of narrative offers a means to expand and deepen empathetic appreciation of participants' worldviews and activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]