Youth in Crisis? : 'Gangs', Territoriality and Violence

ISBN-13: 9781843927525 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 248 str.

Opis

Few issues attract greater concern and censure than those that surround youth 'gangs'. Paradoxically, youth researchers have conventionally been reluctant to even use the term 'gang' but, more recently, such reluctance has receded. Indeed, it is increasingly claimed that - in particular urban 'territories' - youth gangs are commonplace, some young people are deeply immersed in violence and the carrying and use of weapons (particularly knives and firearms) is routine. Furthermore, populist discourse and media reporting even imply that 'crisis' conditions afflict identifiable groups of young people in urban locales. Alongside such concern and censure, contemporary policy formation and practice developments are placing greater emphasis upon strategies and modes of intervention ostensibly designed to 'break the cycle' and, it is claimed, offset young people's progress towards involvement in 'gang' activity and/or serious organised adult crime. Comprising a series of essays from leading national and international researchers, this book subjects such claims to rigorous critical scrutiny. It provides a challenging and authoritative account of complex questions pertaining to urban youth identities, crime and social order. This book: locates the question of 'gangs' in both historical and contemporary contexts; engages a spectrum of theoretical perspectives and analytical positions; presents and analyses cutting-edge empirical research; and addresses a range of previously neglected questions, including those pertaining to girls, young women and 'gangs'. The volume provides a vital resource for researchers, educators, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in key questions facing criminology, sociology and social policy.

Spis treści

1. Perpetual Novelty: Youth, Modernity and Historical Amnesia  2. Youth Gangs and Late-Victorian Society  3. 'It's Just an Area – Everybody Represents It': Exploring Young People's Territorial Behaviour in British Cities  4. Collateral Damage: Territory and Policing in an English Gang City  5. Place, Territory and Young People's Identity in the 'New' Northern Ireland  6. Beyond Dichotomy: Towards and Explanation of Young Women's Involvement in Violent Street Gangs  7. In Search of the 'Shemale' Gangster  8. Young People and 'Weaponisation'  9. Mercenary Territory: Are Youth Gangs Really a Problem?  10. Gangland Britain: Realities, Fantasies and Industry  11. Gangs and Transnationalism

O autorze

Barry Goldson holds the Charles Booth Chair of Social Science at the University of Liverpool where he was previously Professor of Criminology and Social Policy. He is the founding editor of Youth Justice: An International Journal.