(Re)thinking 'Gangs'
In response to the increasing number of teenage murders in London and elsewhere since early 2007, the attention of the media, politicians, policymakers and institutions working with young people have focused on ‘the gang' as a key feature of contemporary urban youth identities, and as an emergent social crisis.
Nevertheless, despite - or perhaps because of - the heightened profile of ‘the gang', it remains true that we actually know very little about ‘gangs' in the UK: about how ‘a gang' might be defined or understood, about what being in ‘a gang' means, even whether there are ‘gangs' in any accepted sociological or criminological sense at all.
Runnymede's Perspectives paper, (Re)thinking 'Gangs', an attempt to take a step back from the current furore, and to reflect on what ‘the gang' is and what the consequences are of ‘thinking gangs' in this particular moment.
