In this part of the book, we present the insights from our qualitative research fieldwork. In so doing, we revisit the phenomena of street gangs, weapon-carrying and violence in communities in the west of Scotland, more than a decade on from Deuchar’s original work, and explore wider contemporary challenges impacting young people. We begin in this chapter by examining the way a public health approach to violence prevention has been put in place in Scotland over the last 10–15 years and has had a particular focus on addressing the social determinants of gang
complementary insights from practitioners. We examine their views on the continuing issues relating to street-gang culture, weapon-carrying and violence; the longstanding (and, to some extent, re-emerging) issues associated with football bigotry; and the amalgam of newer issues relating to and emerging from social media engagement. Introduction In Chapter 5 we suggested that, by helping to break down territorial barriers, public health interventions have on the one hand helped to reduce street gang violence while at the same time allowing increased social mobility and
with those of contemporary young people and adults who have been involved in these issues in and around Glasgow, makes the book unique. In its pages, readers will learn more about the extent to which issues relating to street gangs and weapon-carrying/use have changed in the west of Scotland, as well as the more contemporary challenges. In particular, readers will gain insight into the nature and impact of gang intervention programmes and initiatives in and around Glasgow, and the impact of the public health approach that has been adopted there (see discussion in
valid, as this official geographic emphasis triangulates with independent academic research and previous research funded by the Scottish Government on the subject of weapon-carrying ( Scottish Government, 2018 ). In the latter source, the narrative is positive; it describes a ‘substantial long-term reduction in the handling of offensive weapons over the past decade’ (Scottish Government, p 3), supported by community perceptions and emergency hospital admissions (see also Batchelor et al, 2019 ). Weapon-carrying, signals and triggers Based on police recorded
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.
noted that a diminution in weapon-carrying did not bring a broader decline in violence, indicating that perhaps changes in criminal law leading to intensified sanctions, such as immediate and significant prison sentences for weapon-carrying, may have impacted this specific behaviour. Like other criminologists, we recognised that official statistics inevitably underestimate the actual levels of crime due to underreporting combined with insufficient witnesses to prosecute suspects. This chapter, by introducing the concept of ‘signals’, helped to elaborate why readiness
drug consumption, supply and organised crime As we made initial reference to in Chapter 2 , in this part of our fieldwork we focused specifically on accessing those young people who had had recent experience of gang culture, weapon-carrying, drug use, drug distribution or wider forms of anti-social activity, and/or who lived in specific neighbourhoods impacted by these issues. We were initially keen to meet and conduct semi-structured interviews with young men and women between the ages of 14–18, but also were open to having discussions with some young people
, 2008 ; Deuchar, 2009a , 2009b , 2018 ). Although his parents divorced when Joe was young, he continued to have contact with his father and arguably lived in the shadow of his tough-guy image. Accordingly, the combined impact of poverty, lack of opportunity, difficult family life and the experience of being bullied and victimised when he first arrived in the scheme evidently heightened Joe’s propensity towards weapon-carrying and violence as masculine identity markers. As Hallsworth (2011 , p 189) has argued, within the context of deprived and stigmatised