Youth in the UK: 99 problems but the gang ain ' t one?Hannah Smithson Rob Ralphs
Article information:To cite this document: Hannah Smithson Rob Ralphs , (2016),"Youth in the UK: 99 problems but the gang ain ' t one?", Safer Communities, Vol. 15 Iss 1 pp. 11 -23 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.(2016),"Towards an intersectional model of desistance for black offenders", Safer Communities, Vol. 15 Iss 1 pp. 24-32 http:// dx.(2016),"Managing offenders: establishing the impact of incarceration and what works in Singapore", Safer Communities, Vol. 15 Iss 1 pp. 33-48 http://dx.Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:368933 []
For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.
AbstractPurpose -At a time when youth gangs and gang policy feature significantly in the discourse on UK youth, it is judicious to critique the framework and evidence upon which these policy developments have originated. The political focus on gangs was heightened, in part, by the English riots in 2011. The reaction to the riots was a "concerted all-out war on gangs" and led to the development of the national Ending Gangs and Youth Violence (EGYV) strategy. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -The authors use Manchester as a case study to illustrate what the they argue to be the misplaced focus of the current EGYV strategy and provide a detailed critique of the strategy to date. Findings -The paper suggests that government funded gang interventions are currently bereft of a "what works" approach and should only be implemented when the authors have significantly developed the knowledge and understanding of gangs in a local context. Originality/value -The paper calls for a stronger evidence based policy approach to tackling gangs.