The Palgrave Handbook of Youth Gangs in the UK [Hardcover]

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 governments 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.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 Peoples 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: Supportinls*