This is the website of the Cultural Criminology team at the University of Kent, UK.
The aim is to provide a general introductory resource for those interested in cultural criminology.
The website is maintained by Dr Keith Hayward.
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| Biographies: Dr Kate O'Brien |
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(Lecturer in Criminology, University of Kent) My interests in youth and crime, informal economies (particularly drug markets), and violence and the nighttime economy are underpinned by my broader interests in gender, crime and social control. I am also interested in the spatial and cultural aspects of crime and social control and most of my research is based upon ethnographic fieldwork. My PhD research, which I completed in 2004, was based on an ethnographic study of young women's connections to drug supply within the neighbourhood context. More recently, I have been involved in an ESRC funded project exploring the role of female bouncers within Britain's night-time economies. This was another ethnographic study that involved in-depth interviews with women working as bouncers and participant observation methods in licensed venues. Current research projects: I am currently writing my first book entitled Dealing Tac: Young People, Gender and Neighbourhood Drug Markets (2007, Culhompton: Willan), which builds upon my PhD research. In broad terms the book provides a detailed account of the ways in which girls and boys of white British origin access and participate in alcohol and illegal drug taking within the context of supply at the local level. It also explores the relationship of children and young people to the local informal economy from a gendered perspective and illustrates how their drug behaviours should be understood in both localised and gendered terms. I am also engaged in writing up the findings from the female bouncer project. This was a collaborative project with Dick Hobbs (LSE) and Louise Westmarland (OU). Recent Publications
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