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

by Barry Goldson (Editor)

Overview

Few issues attract greater concern and censure than those that surround youth 'gangs'. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843927525
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/08/2011
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

'Goldson’s collection is the first in the UK to systematically and critically expose the "crisis discourses", amnesia and minimal knowledge that routinely surround the burgeoning "gang control industry." Anyone seriously interested in becoming better informed about the relations between young people and violence should read this book first.'
-Professor John Muncie, The Open University

'Youth in Crisis provides both a comprehensive and wide ranging discussion of young people, identity and territoriality. It is about the interplay between youth identity, young people’s social networks, and popular panics over youth gangs. The writers in this collection deepen our understanding of the historical and contemporary dynamics surrounding youth subcultures and social groupings. They argue for a more complex and nuanced approach to the often impoverished public debate on the nature of youth gangs and violence. Youth in Crisis is a cutting-edge collection written by a group of internationally distinguished authors. I thoroughly recommend the book.'
-Professor Chris Cunneen, The Cairns Institute, James Cook University

'...[provides] a much-needed critical foundation for developing further theoretical and empirical research in this highly fraught area.'

'Taken as a whole, the collection is broad in range, lucid in structure and rich in content; and it deserves to be widely read and debated.'

'Stylistically, the book is very well laid-out, accessible and readable, with chapters succinct, to-the-point and rich in data and literature....the collection will serve as both a handy introduction to the canon for those new to the field and to stimulate further debate and research.'
-Alistair Fraser, University of Hong Kong, in the British Journal of Criminology, vol 52 iss 1

From the Publisher