Judith Aldridge

Judith Aldridge is originally from Toronto Canada, but has lived and worked in Manchester since 1989. She was Senior Research Fellow in SPARC, a multi-disciplinary research centre at the University of Manchester with a focus on drug and alcohol issues. She is now Senior Lecturer in Criminology.

Much of Judith's research has centred around youthful drug use. A two year study of dance drug use culminated in the publication (with F. Measham and H. Parker), of Dancing on Drugs: Risk, Health and Hedonism in the British Club Scene (Free Association Books 2001). She is co-author of a collection of writings that come out of eight years of research in the drugs field, UK Drugs Unlimited (Palamin, 2001) and of Illegal Leisure: The Normalisation of Adolescent Recreational Drug Use (Routledge, 1998, second edition forthcoming).

She was Principal Investigator on an ESRC funded ethnographic study of youth gangs in an English city, the data from which is currently being analysed.  She collaborated with Home Office researchers in Britain to produce ‘gang’ questions for the 2004 and 2005 Youth Offending Crime and Justice Survey, resulting in the first nationally representative data on gangs and co-offending. 

Judith’s current research interests are in relation to drug dealing and other ways of ‘doing business’ within gangs, and in the ‘economies’ of drug dealing networks. 

Judith has lectured at Liverpool John Moores University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Mauritius. She teaches in the areas of criminology, drug use, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and statistics.

She is Director of the PhD programme in Criminology and Socio-legal Studies for the School of Law.

Recreational drug use, youth gangs, drug dealing.

Principal Investigator on the ESRC funded project: 'Youth Gangs in an English City: Social Exclusion, Drugs and Violence'.

Judith is the course convenor of:

• LW2501 : Drugs & Society: Historical & Contemporary Debates
• SA7362 : Qualitative Research Methods
• LW1441: Foundations of Academic Thought
• LW2441 : Using Social Research Data: Crime and Other Topics
• LW2452: Data Analysis

She is in principle ready to supervise in drug use; youth gangs; and particularly interested in supervising research employing qualitative methods.

Publications

2010 'A book review of John Pitts, Reluctant Gangsters: The Changing face of youth crime' Youth Justice. Forthcoming. pdf.

2010 (with J Shute, R Ralphs and J Medina) 'Blame the parents? Challenges for parent-focussed programmes for families of gang-involved young people' Children and Society. Forthcoming. pdf.

2009 (with R Ralphs and J Medina) 'Who needs enemies with friends like these? The importance of place for young people living in known gang areas' Journal of Youth Studies 12(5):483-500. pdf.

2008 (with J Medina and R Ralphs) Youth Gangs in an English City: Final Report to the ESRC. pdf

2008 'Decline but no fall? New millennium trends in young people's use of illegal and illicit drugs in Britain' Health Education, 108(3): 189-206. pdf

2008 'A hard habit to break? A role for substance use education in the new millenium' Health Education, 108(3): 185-188. pdf

2008 (with V. Charles) 'Researching the intoxicated: informed consent implications for drug and alcohol researchers' Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 93, 191-196. pdf

2008 (with J. Medina and R. Ralphs) 'Dangers and problems of doing 'gang' research in the UK'. In (F. van Gemert, D. Peterson & I. Lein Eds.) Street Gangs, Migration and Ethnicity. Cullompton: Willan.

2006 (with C. Sharp & J. Medina) Delinquent youth groups and offending behaviour: Findings from the 2004 Offending Crime and Justice Survey. Home Office Online Report 14/06.

2002 (with H. Parker & L. Williams) 'The normalisation of 'sensible' recreational drug use: further evidence from the N. W. England longitudinal study' Sociology 36(4): 941-964.

2001 (with H. Parker & R. Egginton) UK Drugs Unlimited: New Research and Policy Lessons on Illicit Drug Use. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2001 (with F. Measham & H. Parker) Dancing on Drugs: Risk, Health and Hedonism in British Clubs. London: Free Assocation Books.

1998 (with H. Parker & F. Measham) Illegal Leisure: The Normalisation of Adolescent Recreational Drug Use. London: Routledge (Reprinted 1998).