Full Description
This handbook brings together cutting-edge research from key contributors on the rapidly expanding and fast-changing field of UK youth gangs. It examines the contours of the academic debates, describes and explains the origins and evolution of violent street gangs in the UK against a backdrop of globalization, and discusses the factors surrounding the emergence of these gangs in each of the four UK nations and some English regions. It also examines the relationship between gangs and wider issues relating to gender, ethnicity, drug distribution and organised crime. It critically assesses the potential and limitations of 'Public Health' approaches to gang violence reduction and the government's policy responses to violent street gangs in the UK. Providing a broad examination of the latest UK gangs research, with international comparisons, it is essential reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students, in criminology, sociology, social policy and law, policy makers at local and central government level, and practitioners in the fields of law, policing, youth work, social work, housing and workers in dedicated voluntary sector organizations.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part I: The Evolution of the UK Street Gang.- Chapter 2: Theorising Gangs.- Chapter 3: Reluctant Gangsters 'Revisited.- Chapter 4: County Lines; Dealing in Vulnerability.- Part II: International Comparisons.- Chapter 5: US and UK Gangs: Models, Policy and Practice.- Chapter 6: Gangs and a Global Sociological Imagination.- Chapter 7: Why them?' 'Why then?' 'Why there?': The Political Economy of Gangland.- Part III: Nations and Regions.- Chapter 8: Gangs, Gang Evolution and Young People's Involvement in Drug Supply and Distribution in Scotland.- Chapter 9: Gangs Young People and Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.- Chapter 10: Youth Gangs in Wales.- Chapter 11: Gangs in Liverpool: Scouse Soldiers init? Urban Street Gangs on Merseyside.- Part IV: Race and Gender.- Chapter 12: Supporting young women affected by gang association and county lines.- Chapter 13: The alchemy of race and rights': The logic of historicizing the contemporary racialized youth and gang phenomenon.- Chapter 14: Race and Gangs: Towards a Black Criminology.- Chapter 15: Black Lives Matter in Gang Research.- Chapter 16: The Boys.- Chapter 17: The Pakistani Muslim Community, Street Gangs & the Heroin Trade.- Part V: Gangs and the Justice System.- Chapter 18: Policing UK Street Gangs.- Chapter 19: Evidence in Gang-related Prosecutions.- Chapter 20: Gangs in Prisons.- Chapter 21: County Lines and Prisons.- Part VI: Policy and Practice.- Chapter 22: The English Street Gang & Government Policy.- Chapter 23: Youth Work & Gang Violence Reduction.- Chapter 24: Safeguarding, Young People & Gangs.- Chapter 25: The Premier League: Breaking the Cycle of Gang Violence.- Chapter 26: Using Ex-Gang Members as Peer Youth Workers.- Chapter 27: Voices from Gang Affected Communities.
