Book Review: Illegal Leisure Revisited: Changing Patterns of Alcohol and Drug Use in Adolescents and Young Adults
| Author | Dr Alex Newbury |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225412461217 |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
Youth Justice
12(3) 269 –275
© The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225412461217
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Book Reviews
J Aldridge, F Measham and L Williams, Illegal Leisure Revisited: Changing Patterns of
Alcohol and Drug Use in Adolescents and Young Adults, Routledge, Hove, 2011, £22.75 Pb,
ISBN 978-0-41549-553-0
Reviewed by: Dr Alex Newbury, Centre for Criminology and Sociology, Royal Holloway, University
of London, UK.
This is an interesting and comprehensive account of the North West Longitudinal Study,
which assesses the attitudes towards, and use of, illicit drugs and alcohol by a cohort of
(initially) 776 young people, starting at 14 years of age and continuing to track the cohort
until aged 27 years. The book updates and amplifies an earlier publication - Illegal Leisure
(Aldridge et al., 1998) − and provides a rich and detailed account of the study, plus some
well-considered and carefully argued commentary on both historical and contemporary
policy on drug use, and proposals for future change. The final chapter’s contribution to the
normalization debate in relation to drug use is particularly interesting.
Chapter 1 provides historical context to drug use trends amongst young people in the
UK from 1980−2010. It summarizes the main strategic responses to young people’s alco-
hol and drug use, discussing public concern and media attention, and how these have
influenced and shaped the contents of consecutive governments’ policies on drugs and
under-age drinking. These have ranged from Michael Howard’s punitive short, sharp
shock regime, to New Labour’s establishment of a ‘National Treatment Agency’, appoint-
ment of a Drugs’ Tsar, and more nuanced drug strategies distinguishing Problem Drug
Users (PDUs) from ‘dance drug’ users. The chapter also outlines blind spots in govern-
ment strategic planning in relation to alcohol, which is picked up again in the concluding
chapters. This is primarily attributed to government’s refusal to perceive alcohol, and
tackle harm caused by its abuse, as a drug for the purposes of policy initiatives. The
authors call for the need to ‘provide robust information, harm-reduction advice and acces-
sible, appropriate and flexible service provision’ (p. 24) more in line with the current drug
and alcohol use and perceptions of young people.
Chapter 2 describes the study in detail, discussing methodology, sampling and the
questionnaire, and giving an update on the most recent findings. Its discussion of dealing
with the media and their (mis)representations of the early findings is particularly interest-
ing. Chapter 3 gives an overview of young people’s historical and present experiences and
patterns of alcohol use, with a small section on smoking. Alcohol is described as ‘our
461217YJJ12310.1177/1473225412461217Youth JusticeBook Reviews
2012
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