ABSTRACT
This new pattern in crime control policy is particularly characteristic of Britain and the United States. However, there are inevitably local differences where penal populism influences policy development (see above). This is evident in relation to drug crime (contra Bottoms 1995, Roberts et al. 2003). In Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands (see Tham 2005, Balvig 2005, van Swaaningen 2005), there has been a crackdown, largely as a reaction against the tolerant approach taken to this issue in these countries in the recent past: the visible presence of drug addicts in these countries had become a symbol of misplaced welfarism and tolerance, now thought to be corroding their economic and social fabrics. In contrast, in Britain and New Zealand, two countries where penal populism has been very influential, drug concerns have been much less visible: even in the United States, these have been somewhat muted elements in the three strikes movement.
