scholarly journals Peer groups, street gangs and organised crime in the narratives of adolescent male offenders

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-292
Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Ashton ◽  
Anna Bussu
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Adolescent Male ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Street Gangs ◽  
Social Risk Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gang Involvement ◽  
Criminal Exploitation ◽  
Criminal Groups

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how young people who offend with others define delinquent and criminal groups and consider the social risk factors associated with gang membership and criminal exploitation. Design/methodology/approach The sample consisted of 15 young people who were purposively sampled from a group of 14- to 17-year-old males who had been identified as at risk of gang involvement and referred to a community-based programme. Using a social identity framework, a thematic analysis was undertaken to investigate how the participants viewed their role in offending as part of a group. Findings The participants identified peer groups, street gangs and the involvement of adult criminals as distinct categories of offending groups. Unlike prior models for gang involvement, some members of the sample were involved in multiple groups to perform different categories of crime. Importantly, participants displayed an awareness of exploitation and described successful exit strategies from criminal groups. Research limitations/implications Understanding how young people who are involved in delinquent behaviour and offending define gang and group offending. Practical implications The implications for gang and group offending prevention and intervention programmes are discussed. Originality/value The literature on child criminal exploitation and UK drug markets is in its infancy. This paper offers further evidence for the processes of joining and leaving delinquent and criminal groups.

scholarly journals Young people and “county lines”: a contextual and social account

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Elizabeth Wroe
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Young People ◽  
Large City ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
City Region ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Criminal Exploitation

Purpose This paper aims to present an analysis of a “county lines” safeguarding partnership in a large city region of England. A critical analysis of current literature and practice responses to “county lines” is followed by the presentation of an analytical framework that draws on three contextual and social theories of (child) harm. This framework is applied to the partnership work to ask: are the interconnected conditions of criminal exploitation of children via “county lines” understood?; do interventions target the contexts of harm?; and is social and institutional harm acknowledged and addressed? Design/methodology/approach The analytical framework is applied to a data set collected by the author throughout a two-year study of the “county lines” partnership. Qualitative data collected by the author and quantitative data published by the partnership are coded and thematically analysed in NVivo against the analytic framework. Findings Critical tensions are surfaced in the praxis of multi-agency, child welfare responses to “county lines” affected young people. Generalising these findings to the child welfare sector at large, it is proposed that the contextual dynamics of child harm via “county lines” must be understood in a broader sense, including how multi-agency child welfare practices contribute to the harm experienced by young people. Originality/value There are limited peer-reviewed analyses of child welfare responses to “county lines”. This paper contributes to that limited scholarship, extending the analysis by adopting a critical analytic framework to a regional county lines partnership at the juncture of future national, child welfare responses to “county lines”.

US public views toward biosocial risk factors for criminality: a brief report

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Berryessa
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Social Risk Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Views ◽  
Lay Public ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary survey data measuring attitudes of members of the US public on the importance, existence, and potential legal use of biological risk factors for criminality. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from an online sample of US public in conjunction with an experiment not included in this report. Findings Data suggest that the public generally agrees that there are certain biological characteristics that make one more likely to exhibit criminality. The public does not appear to agree on whether or not this type of evidence should be allowed in court, but the large majority of respondents were worried about its potential misuse. Practical implications Social risk factors were generally viewed by respondents as more important to explaining criminality, suggesting that sociological views of crime may be still more prevalent in the lay public. Worries about biosocial risk factor evidence being misused in court have been previously discussed in academic literature, but the public also appears to share these concerns. The public especially worries that this kind of evidence could be used to incorrectly excuse an offender’s behavior, showing that they may be weary of this evidence in court as potential jurors. Attitudes of many members of the public on these issues may be affected by academic disagreement in the criminology community on the importance of these issues. Originality/value Scholars have emphasized the need for discussion on how the US public views biosocial risk factors for criminality. As there are no known data of this type, these data are the first of their kind.

Controlling the Line: Exploitation and Sanctions

County Lines ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 143-178
Author(s):  
Simon Harding
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Street Gangs ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Profit Margins ◽  
Debt Bondage ◽  
Criminal Exploitation ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter investigates how county line managers employ strategic and tactical actions to control their lines to keep them active and thriving: first, through exploitation and; second, via the County Line Control Repertoire, which provides multiple tactical sanctions for county line operatives to control the line. Exploitation by street gangs and organised crime networks is UK-wide. Within county lines, exploitation of both adults and young people is fundamental to all county line business models and is essential to achieving the profit margins making county line models a profitable enterprise. Child criminal exploitation within county lines can include grooming and selection, recruitment, running drug lines, interlay carrying drugs, hiding or carrying weapons, and money laundering. The chapter then considers the role of gender, with detailed insight into the exploitation, intimidation, and violence now ever-present in county lines via issues such as debt bondage.

scholarly journals Social Rejection Sensitivity and its Role in Adolescent Mental Health

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Savannah Minihan ◽  
Cassandra Kwok ◽  
Susanne Schweizer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Rejection Sensitivity ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Emotional Disorder ◽  
Interpretation Bias ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Social Risk Factors ◽  
Bias Modification ◽  
Interpretation Bias Modification

Many socio-emotional disorders first emerge during adolescence, a time characterized by development in social functioning. Social risk factors, such as social rejection sensitivity (SRS), then, may be promising targets for intervention. To explore this, 362 participants (M (SD) age=19.66 (4.8), 63% female) completed a novel social interpretation bias modification task, the ambiguous social scenarios task (ASST). Supporting the importance of SRS in the experience of socio-emotional disorders, SRS partially accounted for variance in the relationship between parental rejection and socio-emotional disorder symptomatology. Moreover, individual differences in SRS accounted for variance in negative interpretation bias change, from before to after the ASST. Individuals with greater SRS showed less change in interpretation bias. SRS appears strongly associated with socio-emotional disorder symptoms in young people. Importantly, SRS was associated with the malleability of negative interpretation bias, which may help account for the mixed findings on the effectiveness of interpretation-bias-modification paradigms in young people.

Report1: Impact of Covid-19 on young people aged 13-24 in the UK- preliminary findings

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liat Levita ◽  
Jilly Gibson Miller ◽  
Todd K. Hartman ◽  
Jamie Murphy ◽  
Mark Shevlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Need For Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Recovery ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented disruption of normal social relationships and activities, which are so important during the teen years and young adulthood, and to education and economic activity worldwide. The impact of this on young people’s mental health and future prospects may affect their need for support and services, and the speed of the nation’s social recovery afterwards. This study focused on the unique challenges facing young people at different points during adolescent development, which spans from the onset of puberty until the mid-twenties. Although this is an immensely challenging time and there is a potential risk for long term trauma, adolescence can be a period of opportunity, where the teenagers’ brain enjoys greater capacity for change. Hence, the focus on young people is key for designing age-specific interventions and public policies, which can offer new strategies for instilling resilience, emotional regulation, and self-control. In fact, adolescents might be assisted to not only cope, but excel, in spite of the challenges imposed by this pandemic. Our work will feed into the larger societal response that utilizes the discoveries about adolescence in the way we raise, teach, and treat young people during this time of crisis. Wave 1 data has already been collected from 2,002 young people aged 13-24, measuring their mental health (anxiety, depression, trauma), family functioning, social networks, and resilience, and social risk-taking at the time of the pandemic. Here we present a preliminary report of our findings, (Report 1). Data collected 21/4/20- 29/4/20 - a month after the lockdown started).

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