Jennifer Ward

Peer education as a means of drug prevention and education among young people: an evaluation

Peer education has become increasingly popular in Britain as a method of drug education and prevention for young people. Few initiatives nave undergone formal evaluation and the extent to which such programmes influence the drug use of young people is consequently unknown. The results from a process evaluation of a community based peer intervention are presented here. Research and evaluation took place between April 1995 and June 1996. Findings show that the intervention was successful in that drug information was disseminated to a wide cross-section of the target population including those who would Otherwise not have access to such information, for example parents and teachers. The evaluation found a considerable number of contacts made by the peer educators were through speaking to friends and distributing drug information leaflets. While it appears that contacts of this nature achieve increased levels of knowledge about drugs, it remains unclear how effective the intervention was in influencing the drug-using behaviour of young people currently involved in drug use. Until impact and outcome evaluations of peer intervention programmes have been completed, there is no clear evidence that peer education is a superior method of drug education and prevention in comparison to other approaches.

Some practical and ethical issues encountered while conducting tracking research with young people leaving the 'care' system.

Jennifer Ward is a research associate in the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK; tel: + 44 (0)20 79197093; fax: + 44 (0)20 79197383; e-mail: j.r.ward@gold.ac.uk. Her most recent research has focused on young people growing up in the state childcare system and illegal drug use. Zoë Henderson is a research assistant who during her employment on the study was based in the Public Policy Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Some practical and ethical issues encountered while conducting tracking research with young people leaving the ‘care’ system

Researching Drug Sellers: an 'Experiential' Account from 'the Field'

Ethnographic research techniques are well regarded as a way to elicit detailed understandings of human interaction. They are particularly useful for examining ‘deviant’ cultures and the dynamics of illegal activity. Though, ethnographic research on illegal activity can be ‘messy’. This paper reports some practical and ethical issues encountered while carrying out an ethnographic study of drug use and drug selling among ‘rave’ dance participants in London. In particular it addresses the issue of using friendship to assist the research relationship and the use of a semi-covert style of research. Connected to this, it touches on the emotional work of the fieldworker whilst undertaking ‘sensitive’ research. It makes a timely contribution to discussions of ‘reflexivity’ in the research process, as well as the discourse on social sciences research governance. It argues the standardized codes of ethical conduct can not easily be translated to ethnographic research on criminal activity, such as drug use and drug selling.