Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong
Dr. Karen Joe Laidler is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong. Her research primarily focuses on illicit drug use and markets, youth gangs, violence, and the gendered nature of crime and social control. As a native San Franciscan, she has been involved in criminological research since the 1980s, working with non-profit organizations and government agencies in Northern California on a variety of primary- and policy-related research, including the evaluation of drug intervention programs; juvenile court intervention; inmate grievance processes; bail reform; sentencing guidelines; risk assessment for juvenile detention; prison planning and classification systems for adult prisons; and drug use problems among methamphetamine users.
She moved to Hong Kong in the 1990s and has witnessed the development of the city’s drug market over the past two decades. Her recent projects include a study on how young people obtain their drugs and social supply, drug use and risks among young gay men, investment fraud, and social harms and service access for ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. She is currently completing a 20-year follow-up study on Hong Kong’s drug market and has been organizing harm reduction training for practitioners and policy makers in Asia in recent years.
Learn about Karen Joe Laidler’s work:
Accomplishing Femininity Among The Girls in the Gang. (2001) with G. Hunt
