Can Professional Interventions Contribute to an Escalation in Cases of Youth Violence?Considering the Impact of the Shift from Informal to Formal Youth Support on an Inner City Housing Estate

James Alexander

doi:10.1177/1473225421990758

Abstract

Youth violence is on the increase across many UK cities and although national trends, such as more networked entrepreneurial drug dealing, are contributing to the spread of such incidents, localised community environments play a significant role in the development of violent youth cultures. Based on a 4-year ethnographic study, this article explores how the shift from a resident led, relationship-based interaction, to a more professionalised evidenced-based intervention model, increased the risk of young people getting involved in youth violence. Efforts to address youth violence should consider including more relational informal support networks, alongside more specialist interventions.

Highlights

The paper considers the impact that a shift from informal resident led to professional youth support, through the commissioning of a series of youth violence interventions, had on reciprocal intergenerational relationships and informal social control processes on a South London housing estate
Summary The above was an attempt to explore some of the localised dynamics that help create the space for a deviant and violent form of youth street culture to develop
The project was limited to one neighbourhood, the time frame in which the research took place allowed it to compare the impacts that different localised situations had on two separate groups of young people

Summary

Introduction

The research site is demographically typical of many of the housing estates within London, having a relatively diverse population, with 27% of the residents of Black African origin, 18% of Black Caribbean origin, 18% were White British, 7% were Portuguese, and 6% of other White backgrounds (Lambeth Living, 2012). The estate had thriving resident networks which organised holiday play schemes, youth clubs, free legal workshops, mother and toddler groups and elderly lunches. Much of this had fallen by the wayside, and by the time the local authority deemed it necessary to take action, the residents committee struggled to get 10 members to attend its meetings. The research site has been an increasingly significant contributor to these statistics, with local young people being involved in at least 15 stabbings, and nine shootings, both as victims and perpetrators, over the past decade

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Discussion

Conclusion