Dr Marian Duggan

Article

• Duggan, M. (2019). “Some men deeply hate women, and express that hatred freely”: Examining Victims’ Experiences and Perceptions of Gendered Hate Crime. International Review of Victimology.
  Abstract View in KAR
  Extensive debate about the place of gender within the hate crime policy domain has been fuelled by national victimisation surveys indicating people’s experiences of ‘gender hate crime’ coupled with Nottinghamshire Police’s decision to begin categorising misogynistic street harassment as a form of hate crime. Drawing on the results of an online survey of 85 respondents, this article explores people’s experiences of gender-related victimisation as ‘hate crimes’. The analysis demonstrates how participants relate their experiences to the hate crime concept, their perceptions on punishment and reporting to the police, and also wider impacts on their recovery processes. This paper provides a timely contribution towards current debates around using the existing hate crime model for addressing crimes motivated by gender hostility.
• Mason-Bish, H. and Duggan, M. (2019). Some Men Deeply Hate Women, and Express That Hatred Freely: Examining Victims’ Experiences and Perceptions of Gendered Hate Crime. International Review of Victimology [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758019872903.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  Extensive debate about the place of gender within the hate crime policy domain has been fuelled by national victimisation surveys indicating people’s experiences of ‘gender hate crime’ coupled with Nottinghamshire Police’s decision to begin categorising misogynistic street harassment as a form of hate crime. Drawing on the results of an online survey of 85 respondents, this article explores people’s experiences of gender-related victimisation as ‘hate crimes’. The analysis demonstrates how participants relate their experiences to the hate crime concept, their perceptions on punishment and reporting to the police, and also wider impacts on their recovery processes. This paper provides a timely contribution towards current debates around using the existing hate crime model for addressing crimes motivated by gender hostility.
• Duggan, M. (2019). Reflections on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (England and Wales). Journal of Gender Based Violence [Online] 3. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/239868019X15538584809332.
  Abstract View in KAR
  The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) aims to reduce harm through improving access to background information for people with concerns about a romantic partner’s behaviour. This reduction is predicated on the disclosure recipient taking steps to ensure their safety, either by managing the situation or ending the relationship. As fewer than half of the thousands of annual applications result in disclosures, and no information is held about any subsequent steps taken by applicants or recipients, it is unclear whether or not the DVDS is actually reducing domestic violence. Nonetheless, Scotland and Northern Ireland have implemented their own variations of this policy, as have some Canadian and Australian states.
  
  This policy analysis draws on empirical research into the DVDS in terms of its national and local operation in order to assess the strengths and limitations of its capacity to reduce harm. The analysis outlines how the policy may be difficult to access; deflect – rather than prevent – harm; shift safeguarding responsibilities onto the most vulnerable; and be incorrectly interpreted in terms of outcome. The paper makes recommendations for improvement in order to enhance the policy’s efficacy.
• Duggan, M. and Grace, J. (2018). Assessing vulnerabilities in the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. Child and Family Law Quarterly [Online] 30:145-166. Available at: https://store.lexisnexis.co.uk/categories/legal/family-welfare-law-34/child-and-family-law-quarterly-skuukskuZ000050712886CFLQ75800/details.
  Abstract View in KAR
  The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (‘Scheme’) is one of a raft of measures that has been spearheaded by the Home Office to tackle violence against women. Since its national implementation in March 2014, thousands of applications have been made to the police for information regarding a person’s history of violence. Also known as ‘Clare’s Law’, the Scheme, as a piece of criminal justice policy created by the Home Office, importantly has no specific statutory basis, instead resting on existing legal frameworks. Drawing on both a legal analysis of new Scheme guidance published by the Home Office in December 2016 and early empirical research into its operation, this paper offers a close reading of the Scheme and highlights several persistent procedural and practical vulnerabilities for ‘right to ask’ victims in the operation of Clare's Law. These vulnerabilities, it is argued, could have significant ramifications for the Scheme’s efficacy and for public confidence in the policy in the longer term. The conclusion proposes recommendations for reform to improve the current working of the Scheme and offers insight to those seeking to adopt of this policy in other jurisdictions.
• Duggan, M. (2018). Victim hierarchies in the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. International Review of Victimology [Online] 24:199-217. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758017749116.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  Since its national implementation in March 2014, the UK Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (also known as ‘Clare's Law’) has enabled thousands of people in England and Wales to seek information from the police about whether their partner has a history of domestically abusive behaviours. Politicians have hailed the policy on the basis that it empowers people to make informed choices about their safety, thus represents a vital part of wider domestic violence reduction strategies. This, of course, is all dependent upon people knowing the policy exists; being able to apply to it; meeting the relevant criteria; there being information to disclose; and this being relayed to the applicant accordingly. Drawing on empirical research into the policy’s operation in one policing area, this paper highlights several discrepancies with respect to how the scheme is functioning. The analysis suggests that the hierarchical, two-tier approach to implementation is impacting on displaced responsibility and potential risk enhancement, while the symbolic mobilisation of domestic violence victims for contemporary political gain is also explored. The paper concludes with suggestions for reform to boost the ability of the policy to prevent domestic violence and abuse.
• Duggan, M. (2017). Lost in Transition? Sexuality and Justice in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly [Online] 68:159-180. Available at: https://nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/nilq/article/view/33.
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  Northern Ireland has pioneered the delivery of transitional justice, largely as a result of its troubled past. Efforts to guide this long-divided society towards greater inclusion have been facilitated by a range of processes (judicial and otherwise) designed to deliver truth, justice and accountability. Legal requirements to consider a broader demographical representation in consultations means that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voices are increasingly evident in this transition. Yet continued political resistance to sexual minority equality, set against a backdrop of wider social integration, indicates the piecemeal approach to progress which is being adopted. This article critically analyses the socio-legal positioning of sexual minorities in Northern Ireland’s ongoing processes of transitional justice. In addressing how sexual orientation fits with the driving factors underpinning a move towards a ‘post-conflict’ society, the analysis queries the heteronormative cultural dynamics informing this utopian future and the impact this may have on exacerbating rather than eradicating homophobic victimisation.
• Duggan, M. and Heap, V. (2013). Victims as vote-winners? The antisocial behaviour/hate crime nexus: Marian Duggan and Vicky Heap cast a critical eye over the policy connections. Criminal Justice Matters [Online] 94:24-25. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09627251.2013.865499.
  Abstract View in KAR
  Antisocial behaviour (ASB) and hate crime have a number of connections: both are relatively recent notions, both are underpinned by their subjective nature and both have laid the foundational concepts for reimagining the 'victim' in the criminal justice system. Over the past two decades, victims of crime and ASB have been promoted to the forefront of criminal justice policy developments. The status of victims has been elevated, but in a prescriptive manner that determines the most appropriate course of action. This paper explores whether continued efforts by the coalition to elevate victims' status will actually benefit victims, or are a case of political posturing to secure the populist law and order vote, using the ASB/hate crime nexus as an example. © 2013 Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
• Duggan, M. (2012). Using Victims’ Voices to Prevent Violence Against Women: A Critique. British Journal of Community Justice 10:25-37.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  Several changes to the UK criminal justice system have led to an
  increasing visibility and engagement with victims after decades of concentrating
  mainly on offenders. Victim-focused policies have advanced from homogenising
  responses to victims of crime through to appreciating the diversity in victims’ needs
  and wants, while also seeking to reduce or prevent future victimisation. However,
  several ‘victim-focused’ crime prevention policies are paradoxically dependent on
  the creation of a victim in the first place. This paper considers this contradiction in
  relation to two recent Coalition Government proposals. Both the Domestic
  Violence Disclosure Scheme and plans to criminalise stalking behaviours rely upon
  victimisation already having taken place. The paper argues that these supposedly
  ‘preventative’ proposals are in fact responsive and problematic as their
  implementation relies upon the creation of victims. Furthermore, it suggests that
  rather than effectively preventing abuse, victims’ voices are instead being used to
  enhance and expand legislation. The paper suggests that criminal justice policies
  alone are unable to prevent violence against women and that more engagement
  needs to occur outside of the criminal justice arena.
• Duggan, M. (2010). The politics of Pride: representing relegatedsexual identities in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 61:163-178.
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• Duggan, M. (2008). Theorising homophobic hate crime in Northern Ireland. The British Criminology Conference [Online] 8:33-49. Available at: http://www.britsoccrim.org/volume8/3Duggan08.pdf.
  Abstract View in KAR
  Homophobic violence in Northern Ireland is an area which has come under the spotlight in the wake of the ongoing, successful, peace process. To some degree the peace process itself has been accused of facilitating and overlooking homophobic violence. This paper invokes a culturally relative perspective in order to assess whether
  there are different dynamics which ay be impacting on the effectiveness of challenges and responses to omophobiamh and violence in Northern Ireland

Book

• Duggan, M. and Heap, V. (2014). Administrating Victimization: The Politics of Anti-Social Behaviour and Hate Crime Policy. [Online]. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137409270.
  Abstract View in KAR
  The study of victims and victimization has evolved to produce more information about the effects and impacts of crime, as well as victims' experiences of engagement with the criminal justice system. This book analyses the socio-political context in which particular groups of victims have been prioritised by UK policy-makers in the past two decades as requiring enhanced or targeted services.
  
  Focusing on anti-social behaviour and hate crime, Duggan and Heap explore how separating victims according to victimization type allows for a targeted approach which benefits some and disadvantages others. They assess the extent to which certain forms of victimization, or demarcated groups of victims, have been used by governments to further punitive political agendas under the guise of being 'victim-focused' or 'victim-led'. In so doing, this book explores the changing role and status of the victim in contemporary criminal justice discourses, as well as the increased managerialism evident in facilitating victims' engagement in the broader criminal justice system.
• Duggan, M. (2012). Queering Conflict: Examining Lesbian and Gay Experiences of Homophobia in Northern Ireland. [Online]. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Group. Available at: https://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10213&edition_id=10530.
  Abstract View in KAR
  Queering Conflict offers a unique culturally specific analysis into the ways in which homophobia in Northern Ireland has been informed and sustained during the latter half of the twentieth century. This book takes the failure of the British Government to extend the 1967 Sexual Offences Act to Northern Ireland as its central point to demonstrate the subtle, but important, differences governing attitudes towards homosexuality in Northern Ireland.
  
  Both homophobia and hate crimes are shown to be situated within the framework of Northern Ireland's socio-political history as well as part of an overall culture of violence which existed as a result of 'the Troubles'. Duggan shows how the influence of moral and religious conservatism born out of sectarian divisions led to homophobia becoming an integral part of community cohesion and identity formation. Decades of political instability led to the marginalization of rights for lesbians and gay men, but the peace process has led to the development of a discourse of equality which is slowly allowing sexual minorities to situate themselves within the new Northern Ireland.

Book section

• Ring, S. (2018). Making Sense of our Past: Historical Child Sexual Abuse, the Ideal Victim and the Ideal Offender. In: Duggan, M. ed. Revisiting the Ideal Victim Concept. Policy Press.
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• Duggan, M. (2018). Idealising Domestic Violence Victims. In: Duggan, M. ed. Revisiting the ’Ideal Victim’: Developments in Critical Victimology. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 159-174.
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• Duggan, M. (2017). Commentary on A and B (by C) v A (Health and Social Services Trust). In: Enright, M., McCandless, J. and O’Donoghue, A. eds. Northern / Irish Feminist Judgments: Judges’ Troubles and the Gendered Politics of Identity. London, UK: Hart Publishing, pp. 623-643.
  Abstract View in KAR
  The case in this chapter is a clinical negligence claim against a fertility clinic, which carelessly used the wrong donor sperm in a woman’s IVF treatment (A and B (by C, their mother and next friend) v A (Health and Social Services Trust) [2011] NICA 28). The consequences of this mistake were that the children born from the fertility treatment had different skin colour to the woman and her husband, as well as each other. The claim was from the children, as the clinic settled out-of-court with the parents. Marian Duggan’s commentary explains and problematizes the approach of the feminist judgment, as well as putting the broader identity issues signalled by the case in context while Julie McCandless’ subsequent feminist judgment deploys very different reasoning to the original court decisions, and in part reaches a different conclusion.
• Duggan, M. and Heap, V. (2016). Victim Hierarchies. In: Corteen, K., Morley, S., Taylor, P. and Turner, J. eds. A Companion to Crime, Harm and Victimisation. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Available at: https://policypress.co.uk/a-companion-to-crime-harm-and-victimisation.
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• Duggan, M. (2016). Heteronormativity and the inverted relationship between socio-political and legislative approaches to lesbian, gay and bisexual hate crime. In: Schweppe, J., Haynes, A. and Taylor, S. eds. Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime: Contributions from the Island of Ireland. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 145 -164. Available at: https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781137526663.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  The Republic of Ireland is under growing pressure to enact hate crime legislation in line with several of its European counterparts, including the UK. The island of Ireland is unusual in that Northern Ireland has had hate crime legislation in place for several years whilst across the border in the Republic, virtually no laws exist to recognise or address crimes based on prejudice or hostility. Useful and symbolic as it can be, criminalisation is often critiqued as warranting a criminal justice response to what may be social - and potentially preventable - issues. The prejudices which are integral to discerning a crime as being motivated by hostility are not innate; they must be somehow learnt and learnt in response to the socially constructed identity which they target. Alternative socio-political (or socio-cultural) approaches to address the prejudices informing hostility against lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) communities have focused on preventative awareness-raising, political engagement. Most recently, socio-political assimilation has been through enhanced legal rights on par with heterosexuals; gains made in relation to marriage equality, healthcare, parenting and employment (in some parts of the UK) are to be commended, yet prejudice remains. Even after a decade of hate crime law, the number of people victimised as a result of their sexual identity remains high and prosecutions low. This chapter evaluates the impact of heternormativity on socio-political and legislative approaches to LGB hate crime to evaluate the efficacy of such approaches in light of the context in which they are situated and what lessons can be imparted to those seeking to implement similar measures.
• Duggan, M. and Heap, V. (2016). Policy and Victims in the UK. In: Corteen, K., Morely, S., Taylor, P. and Turner, J. eds. A Companion to Crime, Harm and Victimisation. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Available at: https://policypress.co.uk/a-companion-to-crime-harm-and-victimisation#book-detail-tabs-stison-block-content-1-0-tab3.
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• Duggan, M. (2016). Preventing Victimisation. In: Corteen, K., Morley, S., Taylor, P. D. and Turner, J. eds. A Companion to Crime, Harm and Victimisation. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Available at: https://policypress.co.uk/a-companion-to-crime-harm-and-victimisation#book-detail-tabs-stison-block-content-1-0-tab3.
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• Duggan, M. (2014). Sectarianism and Hate Crime in Northern Ireland(Chapter 10). In: Hall, N., Corb, A., Giannasi, P. and Grieve, J. eds. Routledge International Handbook on Hate Crime. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
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• Duggan, M. (2014). Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities to shape hate crime policy. In: Chakraborti, Mr. Jon Garland, N. and Garland, J. eds. Responding to Hate Crime: The Case for Connecting Policy and Research. Bristol: Policy Press. Available at: http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447308768&sf1=keyword&st1=9781447308768&m=1&dc=6.
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• Duggan, M. (2013). Working with victims: values and validations. In: Cowburn, M., Duggan, M., Robinson, A. and Senior, P. eds. Values in Criminology and Community Justice. Policy Press. Available at: http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447300359&sf1=keyword&st1=Values+in+Criminology+&m=1&dc=15.
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• Cowburn, M., Duggan, M. and Pollock, E. (2013). Working with different values: extremism, hate and sex crimes. In: Cowburn, M., Duggan, M., Robinson, A. and Senior, P. eds. Values in Criminology and Community Justice. Policy Press. Available at: http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447300359&sf1=keyword&st1=Values+in+Criminology+&m=1&dc=15.
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• Duggan, M. (2010). Homophobic hate crime in Northern Ireland. In: Chakraborti, N. ed. Hate Crime: Concepts, Policy, Future Directions. Cullompton: Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp. 78-98. Available at: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9781843927808/.
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Edited book

• Duggan, M. (2018). Revisiting the ’Ideal Victim’: Developments in Critical Victimology. [Online]. Duggan, M. ed. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Available at: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/revisiting-the-ideal-victim.
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• Duggan, M. (2013). Values in Criminology and Community Justice. [Online]. Cowburn, M., Duggan, M., Robinson, A. and Senior, P. eds. Policy Press. Available at: http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447300359&sf1=keyword&st1=Values+in+Criminology+&m=1&dc=15.
  Abstract View in KAR
  The way we think about crime and the way that society responds to it are imbued with values that can determine what is considered important and what gets attention. Sometimes values that are claimed may not be the values expressed in practice, as we see in the multiple and confusing discourses about victims and offenders, punishment and protection, rights and responsibilities. This collection of writings considers values in crime theory, criminal justice and research practice, uncovering the many different 'sides' – to echo Howard Becker's famous phrase – that criminologists, policy makers and researchers take. It spans Marxist, postmodernist and feminist perspectives on criminology, analyses of the dynamics of race, gender and age, research methods and ethics, the working of the criminal justice system and engages with current debates about new challenges for criminology, such as the green movement and Islamophobia. This is a timely and thought-provoking collection which will be of interest to academics and students in criminology and criminal justice, and on professional courses, such as probation and youth justice practice. - See more at: http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447300359&sf1=keyword&st1=Values+in+Criminology+&m=1&dc=15#sthash.ZgWMj1RQ.dpuf

Internet publication

• Duggan, M. (2016). New Domestic Violence Policy to Hand Back Control to Victims – But Does It? [Blog]. Available at: https://policyandpoliticsblog.com/2016/09/14/new-domestic-violence-policy-to-hand-back-control-to-victims-but-does-it/.
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• Duggan, M. (2016). Parading Resilience: Sexual Minority Rights in Northern Ireland [Blog]. Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2016/06/08/parading-resilience-sexual-minority-rights-in-northern-ireland/.
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• Duggan, M. (2015). Gendering Homophobic Hate Crime: Reporting, Responses and Research [Blog]. Available at: http://www.internationalhatestudies.com/gendering-homophobic-hate-crime-reporting-responses-research/.
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• Duggan, M. (2015). Shared Futures: Engaging Men in Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls [Blog]. Available at: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/Discussing%20alternatives%20to%20criminal%20justice.pdf.
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• Duggan, M. (2015). Pride, Prejudice and Politics: Global Tensions in Effecting Sexual and Religious Rights [Blog]. Available at: http://www.internationalhatestudies.com/pride-prejudice-politics-global-tensions-effecting-sexual-religious-rights/.
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• Duggan, M. (2014). The Strengths and Limitations of Enhanced Sentencing for Hate Crimes [Blog]. Available at: http://www.internationalhatestudies.com/strengths-limitations-enhanced-sentencing-hate-crimes/.
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• Duggan, M. (2013). Saying “I do” to the True Meaning of Equality: Citizenships, Rights and Homophobia in Northern Ireland [Blog]. Available at: http://www.internationalhatestudies.com/saying-i-do-to-the-true-meaning-of-equality-citizenships-rights-and-homophobia-in-northern-ireland/.
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Monograph

• Duggan, M. and McCandless, J. (2015). “Right Thinking People” and Suffering Through the Politics of Difference in Northern Ireland: A Feminist Judgment. London School of Economics. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2702163.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  This paper forms part of the Northern/Ireland Feminist Judgments Project. It comes in two parts: a feminist judgment and an accompanying commentary. The purpose of a Feminist Judgments Project is to rewrite the “missing” feminist judgments in significant legal cases. A driver of the methodology is to put feminist theory and critique into action, and to show how cases could have been reasoned and/or decided differently. The case in this chapter is a clinical negligence claim against a fertility clinic, which carelessly used the wrong donor sperm in a woman’s IVF treatment (A and B (by C, their mother and next friend) v A (Health and Social Services Trust) [2011] NICA 28). The consequences of this mistake were that the children born from the fertility treatment had different skin colour to the woman and her husband, as well as each other. The claim was from the children, as the clinic settled out-of-court with the parents. Julie McCandless’ feminist judgment deploys very different reasoning to the original court decisions, and in part reaches a different conclusion. Marian Duggan’s commentary explains and problematizes the approach of the feminist judgment, as well as putting the broader identity issues signalled by the case in context.

Research report (external)

• Chakraborti, N., Gadd, D., Gray, P. and Duggan, M. (2011). Public Authority Commitment and Action to Eliminate Targeted Harassment and Violence. [Online]. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Available at: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/documents/research/rr74_targeted_harassment.pdf.
  Abstract View in KAR
  ‘How Fair is Britain?’, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (the
  Commission’s) first Triennial Review of inequality in 2010, identified targeted
  harassment as one of the most important challenges to human rights, equality and
  good relations facing Britain today. The Commission uses the term 'targeted
  harassment and violence' (hereafter referred to as targeted harassment) to describe
  any unwanted conduct, violence, harassment, or abuse targeted at a person because
  of their age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, transgender
  status or a combination of these characteristics. The reality faced by many people
  across Britain is one of being targeted on a daily basis because of who they are.
  
  The Commission initiated this project in January 2010, to examine public authority
  action to eliminate targeted harassment. At that time, the evidence base on public
  authorities’ responses to targeted harassment was unsystematic and underdeveloped.
• Duggan, M. (2007). Scoping Study on Homophobia in the Northern Ireland Further Education Sector. Department for Employment and Learning.
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Review

• Duggan, M. (2011). Review of Relating Rape and Murder: Narratives of Sex, Death and Gender. British Journal of Criminology [Online] 51:1072-1074. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azr049.
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• Duggan, M. (2011). Rethinking Rape Law: International and Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Clare McGlynn and Vanessa Munro (London: Routledge, 2010. 368pp. £27.99 pb) Phoenix, J. ed. British Journal of Criminology [Online] 51:616-619. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azr022.
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Thesis

• Frederick, B. (2016). Exploring the (Sub)Cultural Dynamics of Gay, Bisexual and Queer Male Drug Use in Cyberspace.
  Abstract View in KAR View full text
  In 2015, Peccadillo Pictures released the movie 'Chemsex', an 80-minute documentary about the experiences of gay, bisexual and queer male (GBQM) drug users in London-men whose lives have been impacted by chemsex, that is, the mixing of illicit drugs such as crystal methamphetamine, gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and mephedrone with 'risky' sex. The film has been described by the media as painting a bleak portrait of a 'subculture on the edge'-one that is fueled by both the heteronormative marginalization of GBQM and the popularity of online and mobile-based GBQM social networks. The release of 'Chemsex' was prompted by research that reveals increases in GBQM drug use-not only in London, but among GBQM in many gay ghettos throughout the world. Most of these studies emerge from disciplines outside criminology-for example, behavioral health, epidemiology and public health. These studies also describe GBQM drug users as existing within a subculture. Moreover, these studies also link GBQM drug use to external marginalization and or stigma related to sexual identity or HIV-seropositivity. Yet, rarely are the cultural dynamics of GBQM drug use fully explored. Neither do these studies address the fact that drug use-in most jurisdictions-is a crime.
  
  Cultural criminologists argue that crime, deviance and transgression are part of an ongoing process that is interwoven with the dynamics of culture and all of its attendant meanings. This thesis explores the cultural dynamics that may shape the meanings that underlie GBQM drug use-in particular, drug use that is facilitated and or expressed through cyberspace.
  
  This thesis conceptualizes the cultural dynamics of GBQM drug using three tenets that are central to cultural criminological inquiries: that crime and deviance and transgression are often related to marginalization and oppression; that these phenomena are often subcultural in nature; and, that subcultures cannot be studied apart from their mediated representations. Complementing this framework is a research design that employs virtual ethnography, instant ethnography, ethnographic content analysis and visual content analysis. Critical discourse analysis is also employed in an effort to analyze the underlying power differentials that are present in the mediated representations of GBQM drug use. Using these methods, I was able to participate in the activities and understandings of GBQM drug users who were situated in cyberspace. Using the theoretical framework that was constructed, I was then able to analyze and draw conclusions as to the cultural dynamics that underlie their activities, behaviors, language, norms, rituals and values.
  
  One of the key findings of this thesis was in the discovery of shared group drug injecting experiences that are constructed as temporary networks using Skype and other webcam conference call applications. Another finding concerns the sharing by GBQM of drug-themed photo content in mainstream and GBQM social networks. A third finding involves their sharing of drug-themed videos to Internet 'tube sites'.