Tagged: National Health Service

Science & Technology / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

“Free” Heroin on the NHS

by paulabowles The links between illegal drug use and crime, particularly acquisitive, have long been recognised as problematic. Recent statistics published in The Independent suggest that as few as ten percent of addicts commit 75 percent of all acquisitive crime. In spite of these consistently dispiriting figures, the familiar approach is one of punishment, with some attempt at rehabilitation. Moreover, all of these programmes have at their foundations an aim to ensure their clients maintain complete desistance from drug use....

Political & Economic Sociology

Healthcare Reform and "Emotional Economics"

by esminihan Debate over health care reform in the United States can be approached from various theoretical frameworks.  Economists tend to frame arguments for government intervention on the “externalities” associated with health care, or, the benefits to society as a whole that are not captured in the market.  These externalities range in nature from what could be considered practical (lower rates of communicable disease, greater mobility in the labour market) to emotional (feelings of satisfaction that members of society are...