Wasted Lives

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews in Hong Kong, this book offers an investigation of the lives of older triad members who use drugs, focusing on their social exclusion within the underground criminal economy.

Vincent Shing Cheng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research is about older offenders and older people who use drugs in Hong Kong. He has published in journals like Punishment and Society, Child & Family Social Work, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, Journal of Drug Issues, Asian Journal of Law and Society, and China Journal of Social Work. His book, Hypocrisy: The Tales and Realities of Drug Detainees in China, receives an Honorable Mention in the 2020 ACS Distinguished Book Award of the Asian Criminology Society. He has been appointed as Centre Fellow by the Centre for Criminology of the University of Hong Kong.

Introduction 1. Illegal employment market in Driftwood Bay 2. Criminal career of the old people in Driftwood Bay 3. Triad membership, formal and generational hierarchy 4. Generating respect: The crime boss and his crew 5. Disposable but not despicable Conclusion