ABSTRACT

Police mobilisation is a first step in the judicial process and an important source of information on offending. Whether victims mobilise police is affected by their assessment of its utility. Victims who are criminals, such as drug dealers, are known to face a different cost–benefit scenario than law-abiding persons. Dutch ‘coffeeshops’ are a unique type of dealer. They operate in a grey area, allowed by the government to sell a prohibited drug, cannabis, so long as they comply with a set of regulations. Little is known about their mobilisation of police in response to victimisation, including how it is affected by the rules governing their business. We explore this issue with qualitative data collected from personnel of 50 coffeeshops in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We analyse how they think about the potential benefits and costs of asking the police for help post victimisation. In many ways, their thought process is similar to that of most any victim, but they also consider the potential negative ramifications of inviting police to their door. We conclude by discussing the implications for future research, regulation and drug control broadly, and coffeeshops specifically.

摘要

警察动员是司法程序的第一步，也是获取犯罪信息的重要来源。受害者是否动员警察受到他们对其效用的评估的影响。众所周知，毒贩等罪犯受害者面临着与守法者不同的成本收益情景。荷兰的“咖啡店”是一种独特的经销商。他们在灰色地带经营，政府允许出售违禁药物大麻，只要他们遵守一系列规定。人们对他们动员警察应对受害事件知之甚少，包括受其业务规则的影响。我们通过从荷兰阿姆斯特丹 50 家咖啡店的员工那里收集的定性数据来探讨这个问题。我们分析了他们如何看待在受害后寻求警方帮助的潜在收益和成本。在许多方面，他们的思维过程与大多数受害者的思维过程相似，但他们也会考虑邀请警察到他们家门口的潜在负面影响。最后，我们广泛讨论了对未来研究、监管和药物控制的影响，特别是对咖啡店的影响。