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

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.

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.

Youth in Crisis by Barry Goldson 1. Perpetual Novelty: Youth, Modernity and Historical Amnesia by Geoffrey Pearson 2. Youth Gangs and Late-Victorian Society by Andrew Davies 3. 'It's just an area - everybody represents it': Exploring Young People's Territorial Behaviour in British Cities by Keith Kintrea, Jon Bennister and Jon Pickering 4. Collateral Damage: Territory and Policing in an English Gang City by Judith Aldridge, Robert Ralphs and Juanjo Medina 5. Place, Territory and Young People's Identity in the 'New' Northern Ireland by Siobhán McAlister, Phil Scraton and Deena Haydon 6. Beyond Dichotomy: Towards and Explanation of Young Women's Involvement in Violent Street Gangs by Susan A. Batchelor 7. In Search of the 'Shemale' Gangster by Tara Young 8. Young People and 'Weaponisation' by Peter Squires 9. Mercenary Territory: Are Youth Gangs Really a Problem? by John Pitts 10. Gangland Britain: Realities, Fantasies and Industry by Simon Hallsworth 11. Gangs and Transnationalism by Rob White