A new report published by the Australian Institute of Criminology explores perceptions of police fairness among Australian drug users.
Led by Flinders University Associate Professor Caitlin Hughes, with researchers from RMIT University, University of Queensland, University of Sheffield, University of California and University College London, the study uses Global Drug Survey data to compare the perceptions of drug users in Australia and in 29 other countries.
Procedural justice in policing has attracted increased attention in many parts of the world, including Australia. This is due to the way in which police treat citizens and the fairness of the decisions made can have direct impacts on the cooperation and compliance of citizens.
However, analyses of procedural justice as it pertains to illicit drugs remain scant. This is a significant omission given that drug offences are one of the leading offences recorded in most parts of the world.
The AIC research was carried out to assess perceptions among people who use drugs of whether police treat people fairly and make impartial decisions.
Most Australian respondents (58-60%) said that police frequently or somewhat frequently respect people's rights and make decisions based upon the law and facts.
However, a similar proportion of respondents (58%) said police frequently or somewhat frequently pick and choose how they enforce the drug laws, and 57% said police frequently or somewhat frequently abuse their authority over people they suspect have broken the law.
Based on a composite measure combining eight indicators of procedural justice, Australia ranked 15th out of 30 countries for the perceived procedural justness of its police among people who use drugs.
This is higher than the United States but significantly lower than New Zealand and Canada, says Professor Hughes, a Matthew Flinders Fellow from Flinders Criminology and the Centre for Social Impact at Flinders University.
"The research demonstrates that there is an opportunity and need to improve the procedural justice of Australian street-level drug law enforcement," she says.
"Importantly, this research shows that building procedural justice can increase cooperation with police and generate health and social benefits for people who use drugs, police, governments and communities."
A range of policy recommendations to build more procedurally just approaches were outlined in the report, including expanding alternatives to arrest (e.g. referrals to a health intervention instead of court) for personal use, and possession offences and introducing more harm reduction policing approaches such as police carrying of naloxone (an overdose reversal drug).
Based on a composite measure combining eight indicators of procedural justice, Australia ranked 15th out of 30 countries for the perceived procedural justness of its police among people who use drugs.
Building procedural justice in Australian street-level drug law enforcement (2026) by C Hughes, A Stevens, M Barratt, J Ferris, L Maier and A Winstock, has been published in Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.52922/ti78151
