Dr Karen Duke

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), Ministry of Justice, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Royal Society for the Arts, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Commission (FP7 ALICE RAP, Addicton and Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe: Reframing Addictions Project 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.  I am also the Research Leader for Criminology and Sociology and co-ordinated our REF 2021 submission for Social Policy and Social Work UoA20.

My main areas of teaching are in the areas of drugs and criminal justice. I am the  Module Leader for CRM 4618 Drugs and Crime (Distance Learning) and CRM 3704 Drugs, Crime and Control. I also lead sessions on CRM1270 Crime in Social Context, CRM 2274 Prisons and Penology and CRM 4613 Criminal Justice, Courts and Prisons.  I supervise undergraduate and MA dissertation students and MPhil/PhD students across a range of topics. 

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professional Memberships:

Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA)

Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Society

Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Member of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy, European Society for Social Drug Research, European Society of Criminology, American Society of Criminology, the British Society of Criminology, and the Social Policy Association.