Full Description
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.
Comprizing 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 analyzes cutting-edge empirical research
addresses a range of previously neglected questions, including those pertaining to girls, young women and 'gangs'.
Youth in Crisis? provides a vital resource for researchers, educators, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in key questions facing criminology, sociology and social policy.
Contents
1. Perpetual Novelty: Youth, Modernity and Historical Amnesia 2. Youth Gangs and Late-Victorian Society3. 'It's Just an Area - Everybody Represents It': Exploring Young People's Territorial Behaviour in British Cities4. Collateral Damage: Territory and Policing in an English Gang City5. Place, Territory and Young People's Identity in the 'New' Northern Ireland6. Beyond Dichotomy: Towards and Explanation of Young Women's Involvement in Violent Street Gangs7. 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
