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Avkriminalisering av cannabis - En komparativ studie mellan universitets- och polisstudenters attityder

Johansson, Julia LU and Hahnsjö, Gabriella (2022) RÄSK02 20221
Department of Sociology of Law
Popular Abstract
Cannabis is a well-debated topic in contemporary society where globally, several countries have legalized or decriminalized cannabis use in recent years. Yet Sweden remains a country that distances itself from such decriminalization policies and has long enforced a prohibitionist approach to drugs and drug use. The qualitative study presented here examines and compares university and police student attitudes to decriminalization of cannabis in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 students and the results analyzed using thematic analysis. To situate and explain the study findings, the thesis employs Berger and Luckmann’s social constructionist theory and Braithwaite and Ayres’ “responsive regulation pyramid”. The study... (More)
Cannabis is a well-debated topic in contemporary society where globally, several countries have legalized or decriminalized cannabis use in recent years. Yet Sweden remains a country that distances itself from such decriminalization policies and has long enforced a prohibitionist approach to drugs and drug use. The qualitative study presented here examines and compares university and police student attitudes to decriminalization of cannabis in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 students and the results analyzed using thematic analysis. To situate and explain the study findings, the thesis employs Berger and Luckmann’s social constructionist theory and Braithwaite and Ayres’ “responsive regulation pyramid”. The study findings show that the two student groups display different attitudes regarding the decriminalization of cannabis. The university students commonly expressed more liberal views on cannabis compared with the police students. Moreover, the university students believe that the effects of cannabis are individual-based while the police students collectively seem to view these effects at a societal level. The study concludes that university students share more positive accommodative attitudes to a decriminalization of cannabis with police students expressing a deterrence view of law that sees more problems and disadvantages for society than advantages with such a shift in legal policy. Since the results of this study cannot be generalized to a broader Swedish societal context, the thesis recommends that more research is needed in Sweden to explore public attitudes to cannabis. Further research could also explore practicing police attitudes to a decriminalization of cannabis. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Johansson, Julia LU and Hahnsjö, Gabriella
supervisor
organization
course
RÄSK02 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
attityder, avkriminalisering, cannabis, polisstudenter, universitetsstudenter.
language
Swedish
id
9096067
date added to LUP
2022-08-03 08:54:28
date last changed
2022-08-03 08:54:28
@misc{9096067,
  author       = {{Johansson, Julia and Hahnsjö, Gabriella}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Avkriminalisering av cannabis - En komparativ studie mellan universitets- och polisstudenters attityder}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}