In Glasgow, street gangs have existed for decades, with knife crime becoming a defining feature.
More than a decade on from Deuchar’s original fieldwork, this book explores the transitional experiences of some of the young men he worked with, as well as the experiences of today’s young people and the practitioners who work to support them.
Through empirical data, policy analysis and contemporary insights, this dynamic book explores the evolving nature of gangs, and the contemporary challenges affecting young people including drug distribution, football-related bigotry and the mental health repercussions emerging from social media.
Drawing upon unique empirical data based on interviews with high-profile ex-offenders and experts, this book sheds new light on drug markets and gangs in the UK. The study shows how traditional methods of tackling gang violence fail to address the intertwined nature of those criminal activities which can overlap with other organised crime spheres. McLean sparks new debate on the subject, offering solutions and alternatives.
This book aims to challenge current thinking about serious youth violence and gangs, and their racialisation by the media and the police. Written by an expert with over 14 years’ experience in the field, it brings together research, theory and practice to influence policy. Placing gangs and urban violence in a broader social and political economic context, it argues that government-led policy and associated funding for anti-gangs work is counter-productive. It highlights how the street gang label is unfairly linked by both the news-media and police to black (and urban) youth street-based lifestyles/cultures and friendship groups, leading to the further criminalisation of innocent black youth via police targeting. The book is primarily aimed at practitioners, policy makers, academics as well as those community-minded individuals concerned about youth violence and social justice.
There is an alleged crisis of cohesion in the UK, manifested in debates about identity and ‘Britishness’, the breakdown of social connections along the fault lines of geography, ethnicity, faith, income and age, and the fragile relationship between citizen and state. This book examines how these new dimensions of diversity and difference, so often debated in the national context, are emerging at the neighbourhood level.
Contributors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds critically assess, and go beyond the limits of, contemporary policy discourses on ‘community cohesion’ to explore the dynamics of diversity and cohesion within neighbourhoods and to identify new dimensions of disconnection between and within neighbourhoods. The chapters provide theoretically informed critiques of the policy responses of public, private, voluntary and community organisations and present a wealth of new empirical research evidence about the dynamics of cohesion in UK neighbourhoods. Topics covered include new immigration, religion and social capital, faith schools, labour and housing market disconnections, neighbourhood territoriality, information technology and neighbourhood construction, and gated communities.
“Community cohesion in crisis?” will be of interest to academics, policy makers, practitioners and students in the fields of human and urban geography, urban studies, sociology, politics, governance, social policy, criminology and housing studies.
Some 30 years after Glasgow turned towards regeneration, indicators of its built environment, its health, its economic performance and its quality of life remain below UK averages. This interdisciplinary study examines the ongoing transformation of Glasgow as it transitioned from a de-industrial to a post-industrial city during the 20th and 21st centuries. Looking at the diverse issues of urban policy, regeneration and economic and social change, it considers the evolving lived experiences of Glaswegians.
Contributors explore the actions required to secure the gains of regeneration and create an economically competitive, socially just and sustainable city, establishing a theory that moves beyond post-industrialism and serves as a model for similar cities globally.
In recent years there has been significant negative attention towards young British male Muslims, who are perceived to be increasingly dangerous and criminal. However, very little is known about those who offend, as few studies have attempted to understand their lived experience.
After spending four years with a group of young British Pakistani Muslim men who were involved in a range of offending behaviours, Qasim gained unique first-hand insight into their multifaceted lives. In this book he unwraps their lives, taking into account their socio-economic situation, the make-up of their community, cultural and religious influences which impacted on them and their involvement in crime. He explores their identities and explains what role, if any, religion and Pakistani culture play in their criminal behaviour.
With a focus on the apparent link with gun crime and drug dealing, this important book exposes the complex nature of the young men’s pathways into crime.
This interdisciplinary collection charts the experiences of young people in places of spatial marginality around the world, dismantling the privileging of urban youth, urban locations and urban ways of life in youth studies and beyond.
Expert authors investigate different dimensions of spatiality including citizenship, materiality and belonging, and develop new understandings of the complex relationships between place, history, politics and education. From Australia to India, Myanmar to Sweden, and the UK to Central America, international examples from both the Global South and North help to illuminate wider issues of intergenerational change, social mobility and identity.
By exploring young lives beyond city, this book establishes different ways of thinking from a position of spatial marginality.
Gang violence is on the increase in certain neighbourhoods. There is an urgent need for a fresh perspective that offers insight into gang structure, organisation and offending behaviour to explain this increase.
Using the findings from an extensive ethnographic study of local residents, professionals and gang members in south London, and drawing on his vast experience and knowledge of the field, Simon Harding proposes a unique theoretical perspective on survival in violent street gangs. He applies Bourdieu’s principles of social field analysis and habitus to gangs, establishing them as a social arena of competition where actors struggle for distinction and survival, striving to become ‘players in the game’ in the ‘casino of life’. Success is determined by accruing and retaining playing chips – street capital.
Harding’s dramatic and compelling insights depict gang life as one of constant flux, where players jostle for position, reputation, status and distinction. This perspective offers new evidence to the field that will help academics, students, practitioners and policy makers to understand the dynamics of gang behaviour and the associated risks of violence and offending.
Simon Harding is currently a senior lecturer in criminology at Middlesex University, UK. He draws on 25 years of experience in research, public policy and project delivery as a crime reduction and community safety practitioner.
been so prevalent in the inner-city areas of Glasgow in the 1930s had relocated to the new housing schemes, with a particular emphasis on territorial divisions emerging in communities such as Easterhouse on the eastern periphery of Glasgow ( Deuchar, 2009a , 2016 ). Alongside reports of a new proliferation of Glasgow gangs in the late 1960s, ethnographic research carried out by James Patrick (1973) identified the presence of numerous territorial gangs in Glasgow’s east end that were centred primarily on violence. For young Glaswegian boys, the lure of the gang
In this opening chapter, we begin by setting the stage for the remainder of the book by outlining the context for our research and by considering its unique contribution. Following this, we explore the ‘international turn’ that gave rise to the emergence of European gang research and how UK scholars remained resistant to the ‘gang’ label for a number of years. We delve into the great UK gang debate that has often been characterised by a subculture–gang division, as well as the recent empirical insights that provide overwhelming evidence that the street gang is a real and (in some contexts) growing phenomenon in several parts of the country. We draw attention to recent issues of concern in England and Wales where 2018–19 was a watershed period for street violence. We examine the nature of the government’s ‘Serious Violence Strategy’, the emerging focus on adopting a ‘public health’ approach to violence reduction and prevention, and how Glasgow, located in the west of Scotland, has increasingly been drawn upon as a site of interest in this regard.
In recent years, much political and media attention has been placed on the issues of knife crime and violence across the UK (and particularly in its capital city, London). There has also been a great deal of emphasis on the recognised need for a public health approach to tackling these issues, and an ever-growing interest in Glasgow and the wider west of Scotland’s transitional journey in relation to street gangs and knife crime. Given this, we believe that this book is extremely timely.
