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.
Robbery can be planned or spontaneous and is a typically short, chaotic crime that is comparatively under-researched. This book transports the reader to the streets and focuses on the real-life narratives and motivations of the youth gang members and adult organized criminals immersed in this form of violence.
Uniquely focusing on robberies involving drug dealers and users, this book considers the material and emotional gains and losses to offenders and victims, and offers policy recommendations to reduce occurrences of this common crime.
Depending on their dynamics, neighbourhoods may serve to contain or exacerbate youth violence. This book uses fascinating ethnographic and interview data to explore the disappearance of localised relationships in a South London housing estate. Through a comparative analysis of the experiences of different generations, James Alexander considers the impact of both wider socio-economic developments, and the gradual move from neighbourly to professional support for young people.
As well as evaluating the effectiveness of youth work programmes, he considers how the actions of neighbours and the decisions of policymakers influence how supported young people feel, and consequently, their vulnerability to criminal influences.
Boys and young men have been previously overlooked in domestic violence and abuse policy and practice, particularly in the case of boys who are criminalised and labelled as gang-involved by the time they reach their teens.
Jade Levell offers radical and important insights into how boys in this context navigate their journey to manhood with the constant presence of violence in their lives, in addition to poverty and racial marginalisation. Of equal interest to academics and front-line practitioners, the book highlights the narratives of these young men and makes practice recommendations for supporting these ‘hidden victims’.
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.
Over recent years, social movements formed in response to European neoliberal austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. This is the first book to bridge the gap between social movement studies and research on direct democracy. It draws on social movement theory to understand the nature of popular mobilisation in referendums.
Co-authored by one of the world’s leading authorities on social movements, the book uses unique case studies such as the referendum on independence in Scotland, the consultations on independence in Catalonia, the Italian referendum on water, the referendum on the Troika proposals in Greece and the referendum on the debt repayment in Iceland, to illustrate the ways the social movements that formed as a consequence of the 2008 financial crash have affected the referendums’ dynamic and results. It also addresses the way in which participation from below has had a transformative impact on the organisational strategies and framing practices used in the campaigns.
Looking at general issues of democracy, as well as the political effects of neoliberalism, this topical book is ideally suited to understand the reasons for the Brexit result and will be read by a wide audience interested in social movements, referendums and democratic innovation.
below). Wider youth work and sports-oriented initiatives have also been important means of promoting the prevention of and desistance from gang violence in Glasgow ( Deuchar, 2009a , 2013 ). To date, there has been very little in the way of robust, formal evaluations of violence prevention and reduction initiatives spearheaded by the SVRU or schools, and youth and community organisations in the west of Scotland. However, as we alluded to in Chapter 2 and as Goodall et al (2016 , p 865–6) highlight, ‘levels of violence, and in particular homicide, serious
social inequality) that often cause weapon-carrying, gang membership and violence have in many ways remained unchallenged. Arguably, these prevailing underlying structural challenges have contributed to the recent title Scotland has gained as ‘drug capital of Europe’ (for further discussion, see Chapter 3 ). Accordingly, the focus of this book is to revisit the phenomena of gangs, weapon-carrying and violence in Glasgow and its surrounding communities, more than a decade on from Deuchar’s (2009a) original fieldwork there. We explore – through insights gained from
Chapter 3 , it is undeniable that the intense gaze placed upon the Glasgow conurbation by the adoption of the public health model by the SVRU and partner organisations had an immediate impact on levels of violence. However, whether such changes can be sustained remains to be seen. Indeed, violence in Glasgow is still among the highest in the UK and Europe ( Scottish Government, 2019b ). In addition, the last decade has seen a spate of gun-related incidents, resulting in a number of high-profile gangland executions, perhaps most notably the assassination of Kevin
In this chapter, we critically examine recent statistical trends relating to the general issues of violent criminality and offensive weapon-handling in Scotland. We also provide a brief history of street gangs in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, from their roots in sectarian rivalry to the territorial and recreational focus adopted in the post-industrial era. We examine how knife crime has traditionally been a defining feature of street gangs in Glasgow and of street-oriented violence governed by expectations around masculine honour. Insights into the recorded motivations for knife-carrying and gang violence among young people are explored, drawing from previous research as well as the emerging evidence suggesting that gangs may have evolved in the west of Scotland. The chapter concludes by outlining the methodological approaches that we drew upon for the current study, detailing the sampling methods, access arrangements, geographical locations, ethical protocols and data analysis methods used.
Rates of crime, especially those against the person and, to a lesser degree, vandalism have historically (1950–84) been considerably higher in Scotland than, for instance, in Sweden, which shares many of its population characteristics (McClintock and Wikström, 1990). It may be that feelings of shame and stigmatism among lower-working-class youth cultural groups are greater in areas of Scotland, and through gang membership and activity these feelings are transformed into pride and solidarity (Moran 2015). The youth street gang, Moran (2015) proposes, offers an esprit de corps through expressive violence and symbolic praxis factors that ward off threats such as injury and prison; possibly this phenomenon that transforms shame into pride helps to explain higher rates of violence in parts of Scotland with heightened criminality and youth gangs.
