Exploring Urban Youth Culture Outside Of The Gang Paradigm

‘On-road’ is a complex term used by young people to describe street-based subculture and a general way of being. Featuring the voices of young people, this collection explores how race, class and gender dynamics shape this aspect of youth culture. With young people on-road often becoming criminalised due to interlocking structural inequalities, this book looks beyond concerns about gangs and presents empirical research from scholars and activists who work with and study the social lives of young people. It addresses the concerns of practitioners, policy makers and scholars by analysing aspects and misinterpretations of the shifting realities of young people’s urban life.

'On-road' is a complex term used by young people to describe street-based subculture and a general way of being. Featuring the voices of young people, this collection explores how race, class and gender dynamics shape this aspect of youth culture. With young people on-road often becoming criminalised due to interlocking structural inequalities, this book looks beyond concerns about gangs and presents empirical research from scholars and activists who work with and study the social lives of young people. It addresses the concerns of practitioners, policy makers and scholars by analysing aspects and misinterpretations of the shifting realities of young people's urban life.

‘On-road’ is a complex term used by young people to describe street-based subculture and a general way of being. Featuring the voices of young people, this collection explores how race, class and gender dynamics shape this aspect of youth culture. With young people on-road often becoming criminalised due to interlocking structural inequalities, this book looks beyond concerns about gangs and presents empirical research from scholars and activists who work with and study the social lives of young people. It addresses the concerns of practitioners, policy makers and scholars by analysing aspects and misinterpretations of the shifting realities of young people’s urban life.

A cutting-edge study grounded in a new feminist arts-based research and intervention tool, this book propounds an effective new methodology for social research and fundamental human engagement.

Despite nearly a century of scholarly inquiry into street gangs and youth subcultures, no single work systematically reflects on comparative international experiences with gangs. Gangs and Youth Subcultures takes up this challenge. Kayleen Hazlehurst and Cameron Hazlehurst argue that theories of gang behavior in immigrant communities and the influence of transnational crime syndicates are better tested in more than one host society. Similar phenomena would be better understood if placed in a comparative context. To this purpose, the editors assembled expert scholars and policy advisers from North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australasia. Gangs and Youth Subcultures lays the ground-work for an explanation of why gangs continue to grow in strength and influence, and why they have spread to remote locations. This book will interest scholars and teachers of criminology and sociology, justice system administrators, as well as law enforcement officers and youth workers internationally.

Previously overlooked in domestic violence and abuse policy and practice, Jade Levell offers radical insights into the lives of young boys in DVA-affected households. Showing how boys in this context navigate their journey to manhood, including gang involvement, the book makes practice recommendations for supporting these ‘hidden victims’.

Described by the National Crime Agency as a ‘significant threat’, county lines involve gangs recruiting vulnerable youth to sell drugs in provincial areas. This phenomenon has impacted local drug markets, increasing criminal activity and violence. Exploring how county lines evolve, Harding reveals extensive criminal exploitation and control in the daily ‘grind’ to sell drugs. Drawing upon extensive interviews and case studies, this timely book gives voice to users and dealers, providing an in-depth analysis of techniques, relationships and ‘trapping’. With county lines now a critical issue for policing and government, this is an invaluable contribution to literature on gangs, youth violence and drugs.

This book challenges current thinking about youth violence and gangs, and their racialisation by the media and the police. It highlights how the street gang label is unfairly linked to Black (and urban) youth street-based lifestyles/cultures and friendship groups.