Dr Stuart Taylor
Staff Tutor In Social Policy & Criminology
Biography
Professional biography
Stuart is a criminologist and critical drugs scholar whose primary interests lie in the field of substance use and the interconnections between sociocultural construction of drugs, prohibitionist drug policies and social harm. He is the co-editor of Legacies of the Lost in Criminology (Policy Press, 2026), co-author of Drugs and Crime (Sage, 2025), and was academic consultant on the BBC television series Drugs Map of Britain (BBC, 2024).
Research interests
Stuart’s research interests centre upon crime, justice and social harm. First and foremost, the area of drugs, drug use and drug policy with previous studies considering cannabis use, cannabis cultivation and the use of drug checking technologies. Secondly, the policies and processes of the criminal justice system, with former studies centring on community justice, risk assessment, resettlement, multi-agency work and the use, dispensation and attitudes towards community sentences. Thirdly, the interplay between alcohol (and indeed the alcohol industry), sexual offences and the Night-Time Economy (NTE), with prior studies focusing on the value of sexual consent campaigns in the NTE and experiences of sexual assault within the NTE.
Teaching interests
Stuart is passionate about teaching and is currently Deputy Chair for DD212 Understanding Criminology and DD804 Crime and Global Justice whilst also working on DD105 Introduction to Criminology.
Publications
Book
Book Chapter
Fatigue and Fatality: Remembering Roy (2026)
Drug Markets and Drug Dealing: Time to move on (2023)
Cultural Competence to Cultural Obsolescence: Drug Use, Stigma and Consumerism (2022)
Media and Intoxication: Media Representations of the Intoxicated (2020)
Digital Artefact
Journal Article
Drug Addiction: Failure, Feast and Phoenix (2025)
Enlightened hedonism? Independent drug checking amongst a group of ecstasy users. (2020)
Moving beyond the other: A critique of the reductionist drugs discourse. (2016)
Outside the outsiders: Media representations of drug use (2008)
‘The worst tax form you’ve ever seen’? Probation officers’ views about OASys (2006)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Fatigue and Fatality: Remembering Roy (2024)
Drug Markets and Drug Dealing: Time to move on? (2022)
The 12 Dichotomies of Drug Policy (2020)
Private drug testing: reducing harm, guaranteeing good times? (2019)
Drugs, Consumerism and Harm: Private drug checking (2019)
How will different user groups respond to legal reform? (2018)
Deviant Leisure: Consuming Harm - Intervening with Deviant Leisure (2017)
Gendered sexual violence in the Night-Time Economy (2017)
Transforming Rehabilitation and Through the Gate (2017)
Transforming Rehabilitation and Through The Gate: Research from a resettlement prison (2016)
The Metamorphosis of Prohibition: Do global drug policy reforms represent progressive change? (2016)
On Fallacies and Alienation: The Reductionist Drugs Discourse (2015)
The Shifting Landscape of Cannabis in the Community: Acceptance, Anxieties and Ambiguities (2014)
The Shifting Landscape of Cannabis in the Community: Acceptance, Anxieties and Ambiguities (2014)
The Shifting Landscape of Cannabis in the Community: Acceptance, Anxieties and Ambiguities (2014)
Public education and public criminology from the UK (2013)
The ‘Day of Crime’ programme: Lessons in public education and public criminology from the UK? (2013)
‘Days of Crime': The route to a more enlightened, engaged and educated public? (2011)
Community Justice & Public Engagement: Rhetoric & Reality (2010)
The Community Order: Issues of implementation & use (2007)
The worst Tax Form you’ve ever seen’: Probation Officers views on OASyS (2005)
Report
The community order and the suspended sentence order: The views and attitudes of sentencers (2008)
The use and impact of the Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Order (2007)
