Prior to joining Middlesex, I worked as a researcher in the Home Office Research and Planning Unit and was involved in two major studies on refugee settlement in Britain. Since then, my research has focused on the following areas: the interface between drugs and criminal justice policy; drugs and alcohol policy in prisons; the relationship between research and policy; harm reduction in prisons; the shift towards 'recovery' in drugs policy and practice; stakeholders in addictions policy and substance use prevention and young people. I have conducted research and undertaken consultancy for the Home Office, Department of Health, former Central Drugs Co-ordination Unit (Cabinet Office), the Royal Society of Arts, UNODC and the European Commission (FP7 ALICE RAP, Addicton and Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe: Reframing Addictions Project, Work Package on Stakeholders in Addiction and EPPIC: Exchanging prevention practices on polydrug use among youth in criminal justice systems 2017-2020 EPPIC project).
I am Co-Director of the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and joint Editor-in-Chief of the peer reviewed journal: Drugs: education, prevention and policy
My main areas of teaching are in the areas of drugs and criminal justice. I am the Programme Leader for the MA Comparative Drug and Alcohol Studies and Module Leader for CRM 4607 Drugs and Crime (Distance Learning) and CRM 3520 Drugs, Crime and Criminal Justice. I lead the prisons part of CRM 2530 Criminal Courts and Prisons. I supervise undergraduate and MA dissertation students and MPhil/PhD students across a range of topics. I am also the research leader for the Department of Criminology and Sociology.
Education
Editorships
Co-Editor-in-Chief of refereed journal, Drugs: education, prevention and policy, http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/idep20
Professional Memberships
Current areas of work:
The interface between drugs, alcohol and criminal justice policy; drug and alcohol policy in prisons; drug treatment; harm reduction in prisons; recovery and criminal justice; evidence and policy-making; implementation of drugs and alcohol policy at local level; stakeholder analysis in addictions policy and young people and substance use prevention practices.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS:
Hellman, Matilda, Berridge, Virginia, Duke, Karen L. and Mold, Alex (2016) Concepts of addictive substances and behaviours across time and place. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Duke, Karen L. (2003) Drugs, prisons and policy-making. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Duke, Karen L., Gleeson, Helen, Dabrowska, Katarzyna, Herold, Maria Dich and Rolando, Sara (2021) The engagement of young people in drug interventions in coercive contexts: findings from a cross-national European study. Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy, 28 (1): 26-35. (doi:10.1080/09687637.2020.1763917)
Frank, Vibeke Asmussen, Rolando, Sara, Thom, Betsy, Beccaria, Franca, Duke, Karen L. and Herold, Maria Dich (2021) Editorial DEPP: drug experienced young people in contact with the criminal justice system. Understanding the challenges and working towards solutions. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy (doi:10.1080/09687637.2020.1825627)
Rolando, Sara, Asmussen Frank, Vibeke, Duke, Karen L., Kahlert, Rahel, Pisarska, Agnieszka, Graf, Niels and Beccaria, Franca(2021) 'I like money, I like many things'. The relationship between drugs and crime from the perspective of young people in contact with criminal justice systems. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 28 (1): 7-16. (doi:10.1080/09687637.2020.1754339)
Moazen, Babak, Dolan, Kate, Moghaddam, Sahar Saeedi, Lotfizadeh, Masoud, Duke, Karen L., Neuhann, Florian, Stöver, Heinoand Jahn, Albrecht (2020) Availability, accessibility, and coverage of needle and syringe programs in prisons in the European Union: a multi-stage scoping review. Epidemiologic Reviews, (doi:10.1093/epirev/mxaa003)
Duke, Karen L. (2020) Producing the 'problem' of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in English prisons. International Journal of Drug Policy, 80, 102479. (doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.05.022)
Duke, Karen L., Thom, Betsy, and Gleeson, Helen(2020) Framing 'drug prevention' for young people in contact with the criminal justice system in England: views from practitioners in the field. Journal of Youth Studies, 23 (4): 511-529.(doi:10.1080/13676261.2019.1632818)
Gleeson, Helen, Duke, Karen L. and Thom, Betsy (2019) Challenges to providing culturally sensitive drug interventions for black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) groups within UK youth justice systems. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 19 (3): 172-181. (doi:10.1108/DAT-11-2018-0068)
Thom, Betsy, Duke, Karen L. and Herring, Rachel (2017) Workforce development: is there a paradigm shift? Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 24 (6): 27-429. (doi:10.1080/09687637.2017.1385725)
Thom, Betsy, Herring, Rachel, Thickett, Anthony and Duke, Karen L. (2016) The Alcohol Health Alliance: the emergence of an advocacy coalition to stimulate policy change. British Politics, 11 (3):301-323.(doi:10.1057/bp.2015.50)
Duke, Karen L. (2016) Exchanging expertise and constructing boundaries: the development of a transnational knowledge network around heroin-assisted treatment. International Journal of Drug Policy, 31: 56-63. (doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.12.004)
Kolind, Torsten and Duke, Karen L. (2016) Drugs in prisons: exploring use, control, treatment and policy. Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy, 23 (2): 89-92. (doi:10.3109/09687637.2016.1153604)
Lancaster, Kari, Duke, Karen L. and Ritter, Alison (2015) Producing the 'problem of drugs': a cross national-comparison of ‘recovery' discourse in two Australian and British reports. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26 (7): 617-625. (doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.04.006)
Bjerge, Bagga, Duke, Karen L. and Frank, Vibeke Asmussen (2015) The shifting roles of medical stakeholders in opioid substitution treatment: a comparison between Denmark and the UK. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 15 (4): 216-230. (doi:10.1108/DAT-07-2015-0033)
Duke, Karen L. and Thom, Betsy (2014) The role of evidence and the expert in contemporary processes of governance: the case of opioid substitution treatment policy in England. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25 (5): 964-971. (doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.01.015)
Thom, Betsy , Duke, Karen L., Frank, Vibeke Asmussen and Bjerge, Bagga (2013) Stakeholders in opioid substitution treatment policy: similarities and differences in six European countries. Substance Use and Misuse, 48 (11): 933-942. (doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.797720)
Duke, Karen L. , Herring, Rachel, Thickett, Anthony and Thom, Betsy (2013) Substitution treatment in the era of recovery: an analysis of stakeholder roles and policy windows in Britain. Substance Use and Misuse, 48 (11): 966-97 (doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.797727)
Duke, Karen L. (2012) From crime to recovery: the reframing of British drugs policy? Journal of Drug Issues, 43 (1): 39-55. (doi:10.1177/0022042612466614)
Duke, Karen L. (2010) Clashes in culture: the professionalisation and criminalisation of the drugs workforce. British Journal of Community Justice, 8 (2): 31-43.
Duke, Karen L. (2006) Out of crime and into treatment? The criminalisation of contemporary drug policy since tackling drugs together. Drugs: education, prevention and policy, 13 (5): 409-415
Duke, Karen L. (2005) Déjà vu?: Opportunities and obstacles in developing alcohol policy in English prisons. Drugs: education, prevention and policy, 12 (5): 417-430. (doi:10.1080/09687630500281873)
Duke, Karen L. (2002) Getting beyond the 'official line': reflections on dilemmas of access, knowledge, and power in researching policy networks. Journal of Social Policy, 31 (1): 39-59. (doi:10.1017/S0047279402006505)
Duke, Karen L. (2001) Evidence-based policy making? the interplay between research and the development of prison drugs policy.Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1 (3): 277-300. (doi:10.1177/1466802501001003002)
Duke, Karen L. (2000) Prison drugs policy since 1980: shifting agendas and policy networks. Drugs: education, prevention, and policy, 7 (4): 393-408.
BOOK CHAPTERS:
Duke, Karen L. and Kolind, Torsten (2020) Framing and reframing drug ‘problems’ in prison spaces and populations. In: Risk and substance use: framing dangerous people and dangerous places. MacGregor, Susanne and Thom, Betsy (eds.) London: Routledge, pp. 162-182.(doi:10.4324/9781351033503-10)
Bjerge, Bagga, Duke, Karen L., Frank, Vibeke Asmussen, Rolando, Sara and Eisenbach-Stangl, Irmgard (2016) Exploring user groups as stakeholders in drug policy processes in four European countries. In: Concepts of addictive substances and behaviours across time and place. Hellman, Matilda, Berridge, Virginia, Duke, Karen L. and Mold, Alex, (eds.) Oxford University Press.
Hellman, Matilda, Berridge, Virginia, Duke, Karen L., and Mold, Alex (2016) Ownership of addiction: variations across time and place. In: Concepts of addictive substances and behaviours across time and place. Hellman, Matilda, Berridge, Virginia, Duke, Karen L., and Mold, Alex, (eds.) Oxford University Press.
Duke, Karen L. and Kolind, Torsten (2016) The prison population and illegal drug use. In: Handbook on Drug and Alcohol Studies – Social Science Perspectives. Kolind, Torsten, Thom, Betsy and Hunt, Geoffrey, (eds.) London: Sage.
Duke, Karen L. (2011) Re-conceptualising harm reduction in prisons. In: The drug effect: health, crime and society. Fraser, Suzanne and Moore, David, (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 209-224.
Duke, Karen L. (2009) The focus on crime and coercion in UK drugs policy. In: Responding to drugs misuse: research and policy priorities in health and social care. MacGregor, Susanne, (ed.) London: Routledge. pp. 14-24.
Duke, Karen L., Sales, Rosemary A. and Gregory, Jeanne (1999) Refugee resettlement in Europe. In: Refugees, social policy and citizenship in Europe. Bloch, Alice and Levy, Carl, (eds.) Palgrave pp. 105-131.
Duke, Karen L. and Gleeson, Helen and Dabrowska, Katarzyna and Herold, Maria Dich and Rolando, Sara and Thom, Betsy (2023) Building cultures of participation: involving young people in contact with the criminal justice system in the development of drug interventions in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy and Poland. Youth Justice , 23 (1). pp. 97-116. ISSN 1473-2254
Duke, Karen L. and Gleeson, Helen and MacGregor, Susanne and Thom, Betsy (2023) The risk matrix : drug-related deaths in prisons in England and Wales, 2015-2020. Journal of Community Psychology , 2023 . ISSN 0090-4392 (Published online first)
Kolind, Torsten and Duke, Karen L. (2022) Exploring the motivations and social organisation of intoxication in prison settings. In: Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication. Hunt, Geoffrey and Antin, Tamar and Asmussen Frank, Vibeke , eds. Routledge International Handbooks . Routledge, pp. 191-202. ISBN 9780367178703
Thom, Betsy and Duke, Karen L. (2022) Exchanging prevention practices on polydrug use among youth in criminal justice systems (EPPIC). In: How to Manage International Multidisciplinary Research Projects. Hantrais, Linda , ed. Edward Elgar, pp. 114-125. ISBN 9781802204711
Duke, Karen L. and Trebilcock, Julie (2022) ‘Keeping a lid on it’: exploring ‘problematisations’ of prescribed medication in prisons in the UK. International Journal of Drug Policy , 100 . pp. 1-10. ISSN 0955-3959