‘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.

This extensive Research Handbook surveys historical and contemporary patterns within research on the sociology of gender. It clarifies key definitions and examines influential factors such as race, age, and occupation.

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.

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.

Gangs have been heavily pathologized in the last several decades. In comparison to the pioneering Chicago School's work on gangs in the 1920s we have moved away from a humanistic appraisal of and sensitivity toward the phenomenon and have allowed the gang to become a highly plastic folk devil outside of history. This pathologization of the gang has particularly negative consequences for democracy in an age of punishment, cruelty and coercive social control. This is the central thesis of David Brotherton’s new and highly contentious book on street gangs. Drawing on a wealth of highly acclaimed original research, Brotherton explores the socially layered practices of street gangs, including community movements, cultural projects and sites of social resistance. The book also critically reviews gang theory and the geographical trajectories of streets gangs from New York and Puerto Rico to Europe, the Caribbean and South America, as well as state-sponsored reactions and the enabling role of orthodox criminology. In opposition to the dominant gang discourses, Brotherton proposes the development of a critical studies approach to gangs and concludes by making a plea for researchers to engage the gang reflexively, paying attention to the contradictory agency of the gang and what gang members actually tell us. The book is essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of juvenile delinquency, youth studies, deviance, gang studies and cultural criminology.

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.

Adolescents today are demonized by politicians and the media across the world. We are bombarded with assertions of young people's antisocial behavior and gang fighting and the link to depletion of social capital. This book examines the extent to which young people are engaging with the indicators of social capital, as illustrated by a sample group of 16-18 year-olds in the most socially deprived urban areas of Glasgow in Scotland. Ross Deuchar's compelling research reveals the adolescents' views on life in the city, the influence of gang culture and territoriality on their own lives and on the social capital within their communities. The book features the voices of young people, some of them asylum seekers or from ethnic minority backgrounds, who have become disenfranchised by educational failure, unemployment and poverty and also of those who have faced great challenges but have overcome them. The book examines the extent of their civic participation, social networks and levels of reciprocity and trust, and presents case studies of projects and initiatives which are helping to re-engage young people. Here is a book written for all those who work with young people from disadvantaged groups, whether in schools or youth organizations. It will be of particular relevance to academic researchers with an interest in social capital and also to community educationalists and youth leaders, secondary teachers and students who are studying towards qualifications in community education and youth work. The book will also interest people who are concerned with community welfare: politicians, the police, community sports development officers and youth coaches.