Dr Stuart Taylor
Staff Tutor In Social Policy & Criminology
Biography
Professional biography
Stuart is a 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 recently acted as Academic Consultant on the BBC's Drugs Map of Britain series and current projects include a book titled Drugs and Crime (due for publication by Sage in 2025) and an edited collection titled Legacies of the Lost in Criminology (due for publciation by Polity Press in 2026).
Research interests
Stuart has extensive experience of managing and facilitating empirical research studies within a wide range of contexts. His main interests sit within three areas. First and foremost, the area of drugs, drug use and drug policy with former studies considering; cannabis use; cannabis cultivation; and the employment of self-testing drug checking technologies among ecstasy users. Secondly, the policies and processes of the criminal justice system, with previous 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 part of the module team for DD212 Understanding Criminology and DD804 Crime and Global Justice.
Publications
Book Chapter
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)
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)
Other
Presentation / Conference
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)
