Karen J Laidler
Biographic Data
| ID | 124396 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen J Laidler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen J |
| FAMILY NAME | Laidler |
| SIGNATURE | LAIDLER K J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5408-1649 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 113 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Harm reduction as “moral improvisation”: The role of frontline drug workers within Hong Kong’s abstinence-based drug policy
Background Within Hong Kong’s prohibitionist, abstinence-based approach to drug use and policy, frontline drug workers (FDWs) are the key point of contact between the state and People Who Use Drugs (PWUD). Adopting a street-level bureaucrat perspective, we examine the role of FDWs in implementing drug policy in Hong Kong.Methods We conducted five focus groups (n = 17) with frontline drug workers (FDWs) to understand how they perceive their role i…
Intimacy, gender and ethnicity: Non-monogamous relationship dynamics among the Hui in Northwest China
This study uses snowball sampling to explore the experiences of intimate and sexual relationships of non-monogamous marriages among the Hui ethnic group in northwestern China. It examines how Islam is socially expressed to culturally validate polygynous relations, and how the discourse of masculinity controls and shapes the definition of non-monogamous intimate relationships. This research suggests that moral and legal explanations for such non-m…
The perception and management of risk by people who use heroin in Hong Kong's ‘drug-free’ society
Gangs and the Gig Economy: Triads, Precarity and Illicit Work in Hong Kong
Paid employment in the criminal economy is, in many ways, the essence of precarious labour yet to date criminological work on the so-called ‘gig economy’ is scarce. Here we apply emergent sociological literature on ‘post-Fordist’ working cultures to precarious youth employment in Hong Kong, arguing: (1) recent reorganizations of labour markets towards flexible entrepreneurship are mirrored in the illicit economy; (2) a shift in structural feature…
Bag politics and 'Wall' Street capital: The Role of Social Capital in Social Supply Networks and Broader Society Amongst Privileged Persons Who Use Cocaine
Drawing on ethnographic data on the use and supply of cocaine in Hong Kong among privileged expatriates, we examine how members of the subculture enter into and navigate the fluid yet instrumental social supply networks and learn "bag politics" (the negotiation of using, obtaining, and sharing drugs). At the heart of "bag politics" lies a process of developing, sustaining, and strengthening one's social capital within and beyond social supply net…
Care and Control Revisited: Parent–Youth Co-residence and the Negotiation of Adulthood in Hong Kong
Parent–youth co-residence has become a growing trend worldwide. In Hong Kong, the cultural practice of ‘guan’ – an entangled form of parental care and control – presents a valuable case to study young adults’ lives in co-residence. Drawing on data from 24 semi-structured interviews with young people, this study analyzes how guan has four co-existing dimensions where acts of kindness and restriction occur and overlap. This is particularly present …
The Paradox for Chem-Fun and Gay Men: A Neoliberal Analysis of Drugs and HIV/Aids Policies in Hong Kong
Globally, there has been increasing public health and scholarly interest in chemsex, where the consumption of drugs is related to enhancing sexual pleasure, often in a group context, particularly among gay men or men who have sex with other men (MSM). Since the early 2000s, Hong Kong has witnessed the growth of a chemsex scene. In recent years, HIV/AIDs surveillance reports indicate that chemsex goers have contributed to the rise of HIV infection…
The burgeoning recognition and accommodation of the social supply of drugs in international criminal justice systems: An eleven-nation comparative overview
Doing criminology on media and crime in Asia
This article draws from recent critiques on media criminology in the North. In doing so, we are interested in whether and how these critiques figure in relation to those doing criminology in the South, in particular in Asia. We first describe why media criminology has yet to develop as an area of study in its own right and what lessons we might draw from the development of media criminology in the Northern context. We then examine the contours of…
Becoming a Male Client of Compensated Dating
This study explores men's experiences in compensated dating (CD), particularly their process of becoming a client of CD in Hong Kong. By drawing on 30 individual interviews with male clients, cyber-ethnography of a major CD on-line forum, informal conversations with CD participants, off-line participant observations, and the sparse literature available on this under-examined social phenomenon, we also analyze men's subjective understandings of be…
Tuned Out or Tuned In: Spirituality and Youth Drug Use in Global Times
Doing criminology from the periphery: Crime and punishment in Asia
In a recent article in Theoretical Criminology, Katja Franko Aas (2012: 12) reflects on the geopolitical imbalances and ‘situatedness’ of criminological theory and the pervasive North–South divide in knowledge production. Notwithstanding the growing awareness of global connectedness in transnational and comparative criminology and engagement with the legacies of imperialism and (post-)colonialism in recent years (see, for example, Agozino, 2003; …
Doing criminological ethnography in China: Opportunities and challenges
This article reflects on the emerging criminological research enterprise in China. We provide a brief overview on the nature of criminological knowledge production in China, particularly in relation to practical and political constraints. We contend that while there are distinct challenges associated with doing criminology in China, there are also new possibilities for alternative methodologies and critical analyses to push the boundaries of admi…
Relationship type, condom use and HIV/Aids risks among men who have sex with men in six Chinese cities
This study is the first to examine the role of partner type in sexual practices of men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Using cross-sectional self-administered questionnaires (N=692) with MSM in six Chinese cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Dalian and Beijing) in 2008, this paper examines MSM's sexual practices, particularly condom use with different male and female partner types. We categorise sexual partner relationships into f…
Moving beyond the gang-drug-violence connection
The aim of this article is to reflect on the conceptual and methodological developments of our gang research over the past 20 years. We have conducted a large number of consecutive qualitative studies on youth gangs, drugs and alcohol in one urban locale for over two decades and have amassed a data set of over 2000 qualitative interviews. We have kept pace with the social changes in San Francisco as they have impacted and shaped youth gangs and t…
Young mother (in the) hood: Gang girls' negotiation of new identities
This article examines the experiences of young women in street gangs who become mothers. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 65 young women in the San Francisco, CA, Bay Area, we examine their narratives about the transition to motherhood. In particular, we focus on the ways these young women negotiate femininities and attempt to reconcile their identities as young mothers and gang girls-both stigmatized identities. For many of the young women…
The Path and Promise of Fatherhood for Gang Members
While an increase in research on criminal desistance has occurred in recent years, little research has been applied to the gang field. Using qualitative interview data, this article examines fatherhood as a potential turning point in the lives of 91 gang members in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fatherhood initiated important subjective and affective transformations that led to changes in outlook, priorities and future orientation. However, these su…
Immigration and Crime: The Effects of Immigration on Criminal Behavior
Sit Down to Float: The Cultural Meaning of Ketamine Use in Hong Kong
From the late 1990s onward, ketamine use among young persons in Hong Kong grew rapidly becoming the drug of choice. This article examines ketamine's attraction in Hong Kong, and in so doing uncover the cultural meaning of ketamine use. The analysis is organized around the emergence and shifts in meanings and experiences of those who initiate and continue to use ketamine. The data stems from a comparative study of the social setting of club drug u…
Anti-Feminist Backlash and Gender-Relevant Crime Initiatives in the Global Context
Youth Gangs and Drugs: The Case of Marijuana
While the association between drug sales and violence has been a central focus of gang research since the 1980s, the issue of drug use within gangs has been given much less attention. This is especially true in the case of marijuana. This lack of interest is surprising given the extent to which gang members use marijuana. Other than alcohol, marijuana is the most widely used substance in gang life. In examining the culture and role of marijuana i…
Moving into Motherhood: Gang Girls and Controlled Risk
A growing body of research challenges the popular characterization that young mothers are bad mothers. This article focuses on a group of girls and young women who were pregnant or mothers and who were engaged in a risky lifestyle through their heavy involvement in gangs, partying, and drinking. The authors examine the impact of the process of motherhood at its different stages (from pregnancy to parenthood) on both the 'homegirls'' involvement a…
Respectability And Autonomy: The Articulation and Meaning of Sexuality among the Girls in the Gang
This article explores two different discourses of sexuality among female gang members. Homegirls have long been associated with stereotypes about their sexuality-they are usually portrayed as either too sexual or not (hetero)sexual enough. Yet, in spite of these stereotypes, we know little about how female gang members themselves talk and think about sexuality. In this article, using data from the authors' ongoing study of street gangs in the San…
The Asian Gang: Ethnicity, Identity, Masculinity
The Meaning and Gendered Culture of Getting High: Gang Girls and Drug Use Issues
This paper explores drug use in the lives of female gang members. Gang researchers have traditionally neglected the roles that females play in street gangs. More recent efforts have begun to examine the social life of young women and to uncover the extent to which the women develop a subculture within a male-dominated environment. In analyzing the culture of drug use in gang life, we uncover the extent to which women use illicit drugs in a highly…
The Path and Promise of Fatherhood for Gang Members
While an increase in research on criminal desistance has occurred in recent years, little research has been applied to the gang field. Using qualitative interview data, this article examines fatherhood as a potential turning point in the lives of 91 gang members in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fatherhood initiated important subjective and affective transformations that led to changes in outlook, priorities and future orientation. However, these su…
Becoming a Male Client of Compensated Dating
This study explores men's experiences in compensated dating (CD), particularly their process of becoming a client of CD in Hong Kong. By drawing on 30 individual interviews with male clients, cyber-ethnography of a major CD on-line forum, informal conversations with CD participants, off-line participant observations, and the sparse literature available on this under-examined social phenomenon, we also analyze men's subjective understandings of be…
Young mother (in the) hood: Gang girls' negotiation of new identities
This article examines the experiences of young women in street gangs who become mothers. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 65 young women in the San Francisco, CA, Bay Area, we examine their narratives about the transition to motherhood. In particular, we focus on the ways these young women negotiate femininities and attempt to reconcile their identities as young mothers and gang girls-both stigmatized identities. For many of the young women…
Doing criminology from the periphery: Crime and punishment in Asia
In a recent article in Theoretical Criminology, Katja Franko Aas (2012: 12) reflects on the geopolitical imbalances and ‘situatedness’ of criminological theory and the pervasive North–South divide in knowledge production. Notwithstanding the growing awareness of global connectedness in transnational and comparative criminology and engagement with the legacies of imperialism and (post-)colonialism in recent years (see, for example, Agozino, 2003; …
Doing criminological ethnography in China: Opportunities and challenges
This article reflects on the emerging criminological research enterprise in China. We provide a brief overview on the nature of criminological knowledge production in China, particularly in relation to practical and political constraints. We contend that while there are distinct challenges associated with doing criminology in China, there are also new possibilities for alternative methodologies and critical analyses to push the boundaries of admi…
Moving into Motherhood: Gang Girls and Controlled Risk
A growing body of research challenges the popular characterization that young mothers are bad mothers. This article focuses on a group of girls and young women who were pregnant or mothers and who were engaged in a risky lifestyle through their heavy involvement in gangs, partying, and drinking. The authors examine the impact of the process of motherhood at its different stages (from pregnancy to parenthood) on both the 'homegirls'' involvement a…
Respectability And Autonomy: The Articulation and Meaning of Sexuality among the Girls in the Gang
This article explores two different discourses of sexuality among female gang members. Homegirls have long been associated with stereotypes about their sexuality-they are usually portrayed as either too sexual or not (hetero)sexual enough. Yet, in spite of these stereotypes, we know little about how female gang members themselves talk and think about sexuality. In this article, using data from the authors' ongoing study of street gangs in the San…
The Meaning and Gendered Culture of Getting High: Gang Girls and Drug Use Issues
This paper explores drug use in the lives of female gang members. Gang researchers have traditionally neglected the roles that females play in street gangs. More recent efforts have begun to examine the social life of young women and to uncover the extent to which the women develop a subculture within a male-dominated environment. In analyzing the culture of drug use in gang life, we uncover the extent to which women use illicit drugs in a highly…
Gangs and the Gig Economy: Triads, Precarity and Illicit Work in Hong Kong
Paid employment in the criminal economy is, in many ways, the essence of precarious labour yet to date criminological work on the so-called ‘gig economy’ is scarce. Here we apply emergent sociological literature on ‘post-Fordist’ working cultures to precarious youth employment in Hong Kong, arguing: (1) recent reorganizations of labour markets towards flexible entrepreneurship are mirrored in the illicit economy; (2) a shift in structural feature…
Doing criminology on media and crime in Asia
This article draws from recent critiques on media criminology in the North. In doing so, we are interested in whether and how these critiques figure in relation to those doing criminology in the South, in particular in Asia. We first describe why media criminology has yet to develop as an area of study in its own right and what lessons we might draw from the development of media criminology in the Northern context. We then examine the contours of…
Moving beyond the gang-drug-violence connection
The aim of this article is to reflect on the conceptual and methodological developments of our gang research over the past 20 years. We have conducted a large number of consecutive qualitative studies on youth gangs, drugs and alcohol in one urban locale for over two decades and have amassed a data set of over 2000 qualitative interviews. We have kept pace with the social changes in San Francisco as they have impacted and shaped youth gangs and t…
Immigration and Crime: The Effects of Immigration on Criminal Behavior
Bag politics and 'Wall' Street capital: The Role of Social Capital in Social Supply Networks and Broader Society Amongst Privileged Persons Who Use Cocaine
Drawing on ethnographic data on the use and supply of cocaine in Hong Kong among privileged expatriates, we examine how members of the subculture enter into and navigate the fluid yet instrumental social supply networks and learn "bag politics" (the negotiation of using, obtaining, and sharing drugs). At the heart of "bag politics" lies a process of developing, sustaining, and strengthening one's social capital within and beyond social supply net…
Care and Control Revisited: Parent–Youth Co-residence and the Negotiation of Adulthood in Hong Kong
Parent–youth co-residence has become a growing trend worldwide. In Hong Kong, the cultural practice of ‘guan’ – an entangled form of parental care and control – presents a valuable case to study young adults’ lives in co-residence. Drawing on data from 24 semi-structured interviews with young people, this study analyzes how guan has four co-existing dimensions where acts of kindness and restriction occur and overlap. This is particularly present …
Situations of Violence in the Lives of Girl Gang Members
The Asian Gang: Ethnicity, Identity, Masculinity
The Meaning and Gendered Culture of Getting High: Gang Girls and Drug Use Issues
This paper explores drug use in the lives of female gang members. Gang researchers have traditionally neglected the roles that females play in street gangs. More recent efforts have begun to examine the social life of young women and to uncover the extent to which the women develop a subculture within a male-dominated environment. In analyzing the culture of drug use in gang life, we uncover the extent to which women use illicit drugs in a highly…
Respectability And Autonomy: The Articulation and Meaning of Sexuality among the Girls in the Gang
This article explores two different discourses of sexuality among female gang members. Homegirls have long been associated with stereotypes about their sexuality-they are usually portrayed as either too sexual or not (hetero)sexual enough. Yet, in spite of these stereotypes, we know little about how female gang members themselves talk and think about sexuality. In this article, using data from the authors' ongoing study of street gangs in the San…
Moving into Motherhood: Gang Girls and Controlled Risk
A growing body of research challenges the popular characterization that young mothers are bad mothers. This article focuses on a group of girls and young women who were pregnant or mothers and who were engaged in a risky lifestyle through their heavy involvement in gangs, partying, and drinking. The authors examine the impact of the process of motherhood at its different stages (from pregnancy to parenthood) on both the 'homegirls'' involvement a…
Youth Gangs and Drugs: The Case of Marijuana
While the association between drug sales and violence has been a central focus of gang research since the 1980s, the issue of drug use within gangs has been given much less attention. This is especially true in the case of marijuana. This lack of interest is surprising given the extent to which gang members use marijuana. Other than alcohol, marijuana is the most widely used substance in gang life. In examining the culture and role of marijuana i…
Sit Down to Float: The Cultural Meaning of Ketamine Use in Hong Kong
From the late 1990s onward, ketamine use among young persons in Hong Kong grew rapidly becoming the drug of choice. This article examines ketamine's attraction in Hong Kong, and in so doing uncover the cultural meaning of ketamine use. The analysis is organized around the emergence and shifts in meanings and experiences of those who initiate and continue to use ketamine. The data stems from a comparative study of the social setting of club drug u…
Anti-Feminist Backlash and Gender-Relevant Crime Initiatives in the Global Context
The Path and Promise of Fatherhood for Gang Members
While an increase in research on criminal desistance has occurred in recent years, little research has been applied to the gang field. Using qualitative interview data, this article examines fatherhood as a potential turning point in the lives of 91 gang members in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fatherhood initiated important subjective and affective transformations that led to changes in outlook, priorities and future orientation. However, these su…
Immigration and Crime: The Effects of Immigration on Criminal Behavior
Young mother (in the) hood: Gang girls' negotiation of new identities
This article examines the experiences of young women in street gangs who become mothers. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 65 young women in the San Francisco, CA, Bay Area, we examine their narratives about the transition to motherhood. In particular, we focus on the ways these young women negotiate femininities and attempt to reconcile their identities as young mothers and gang girls-both stigmatized identities. For many of the young women…
Relationship type, condom use and HIV/Aids risks among men who have sex with men in six Chinese cities
This study is the first to examine the role of partner type in sexual practices of men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Using cross-sectional self-administered questionnaires (N=692) with MSM in six Chinese cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Dalian and Beijing) in 2008, this paper examines MSM's sexual practices, particularly condom use with different male and female partner types. We categorise sexual partner relationships into f…
Moving beyond the gang-drug-violence connection
The aim of this article is to reflect on the conceptual and methodological developments of our gang research over the past 20 years. We have conducted a large number of consecutive qualitative studies on youth gangs, drugs and alcohol in one urban locale for over two decades and have amassed a data set of over 2000 qualitative interviews. We have kept pace with the social changes in San Francisco as they have impacted and shaped youth gangs and t…
Doing criminology from the periphery: Crime and punishment in Asia
In a recent article in Theoretical Criminology, Katja Franko Aas (2012: 12) reflects on the geopolitical imbalances and ‘situatedness’ of criminological theory and the pervasive North–South divide in knowledge production. Notwithstanding the growing awareness of global connectedness in transnational and comparative criminology and engagement with the legacies of imperialism and (post-)colonialism in recent years (see, for example, Agozino, 2003; …
Doing criminological ethnography in China: Opportunities and challenges
This article reflects on the emerging criminological research enterprise in China. We provide a brief overview on the nature of criminological knowledge production in China, particularly in relation to practical and political constraints. We contend that while there are distinct challenges associated with doing criminology in China, there are also new possibilities for alternative methodologies and critical analyses to push the boundaries of admi…
Tuned Out or Tuned In: Spirituality and Youth Drug Use in Global Times
Becoming a Male Client of Compensated Dating
This study explores men's experiences in compensated dating (CD), particularly their process of becoming a client of CD in Hong Kong. By drawing on 30 individual interviews with male clients, cyber-ethnography of a major CD on-line forum, informal conversations with CD participants, off-line participant observations, and the sparse literature available on this under-examined social phenomenon, we also analyze men's subjective understandings of be…
Doing criminology on media and crime in Asia
This article draws from recent critiques on media criminology in the North. In doing so, we are interested in whether and how these critiques figure in relation to those doing criminology in the South, in particular in Asia. We first describe why media criminology has yet to develop as an area of study in its own right and what lessons we might draw from the development of media criminology in the Northern context. We then examine the contours of…
The burgeoning recognition and accommodation of the social supply of drugs in international criminal justice systems: An eleven-nation comparative overview
The Paradox for Chem-Fun and Gay Men: A Neoliberal Analysis of Drugs and HIV/Aids Policies in Hong Kong
Globally, there has been increasing public health and scholarly interest in chemsex, where the consumption of drugs is related to enhancing sexual pleasure, often in a group context, particularly among gay men or men who have sex with other men (MSM). Since the early 2000s, Hong Kong has witnessed the growth of a chemsex scene. In recent years, HIV/AIDs surveillance reports indicate that chemsex goers have contributed to the rise of HIV infection…
Care and Control Revisited: Parent–Youth Co-residence and the Negotiation of Adulthood in Hong Kong
Parent–youth co-residence has become a growing trend worldwide. In Hong Kong, the cultural practice of ‘guan’ – an entangled form of parental care and control – presents a valuable case to study young adults’ lives in co-residence. Drawing on data from 24 semi-structured interviews with young people, this study analyzes how guan has four co-existing dimensions where acts of kindness and restriction occur and overlap. This is particularly present …
Gangs and the Gig Economy: Triads, Precarity and Illicit Work in Hong Kong
Paid employment in the criminal economy is, in many ways, the essence of precarious labour yet to date criminological work on the so-called ‘gig economy’ is scarce. Here we apply emergent sociological literature on ‘post-Fordist’ working cultures to precarious youth employment in Hong Kong, arguing: (1) recent reorganizations of labour markets towards flexible entrepreneurship are mirrored in the illicit economy; (2) a shift in structural feature…
Bag politics and 'Wall' Street capital: The Role of Social Capital in Social Supply Networks and Broader Society Amongst Privileged Persons Who Use Cocaine
Drawing on ethnographic data on the use and supply of cocaine in Hong Kong among privileged expatriates, we examine how members of the subculture enter into and navigate the fluid yet instrumental social supply networks and learn "bag politics" (the negotiation of using, obtaining, and sharing drugs). At the heart of "bag politics" lies a process of developing, sustaining, and strengthening one's social capital within and beyond social supply net…
Harm reduction as “moral improvisation”: The role of frontline drug workers within Hong Kong’s abstinence-based drug policy
Background Within Hong Kong’s prohibitionist, abstinence-based approach to drug use and policy, frontline drug workers (FDWs) are the key point of contact between the state and People Who Use Drugs (PWUD). Adopting a street-level bureaucrat perspective, we examine the role of FDWs in implementing drug policy in Hong Kong.Methods We conducted five focus groups (n = 17) with frontline drug workers (FDWs) to understand how they perceive their role i…
Intimacy, gender and ethnicity: Non-monogamous relationship dynamics among the Hui in Northwest China
This study uses snowball sampling to explore the experiences of intimate and sexual relationships of non-monogamous marriages among the Hui ethnic group in northwestern China. It examines how Islam is socially expressed to culturally validate polygynous relations, and how the discourse of masculinity controls and shapes the definition of non-monogamous intimate relationships. This research suggests that moral and legal explanations for such non-m…
Sociology (20 works) · Political science (15 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Criminology (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Social science (8 works)