This critical textbook looks beyond the immediate data on knife crime to try and make sense of what is a global phenomenon. Yet it especially explores why the UK in particular has become so preoccupied by this form of interpersonal, often youthful, violence. The book explores knife crime in its global and historical context and examines crime patterns including the “second wave” of knife crime in Britain. It then incorporates new empirical data to explore key themes including: police responses, popular narratives, and the various interests benefiting from the 'knife crime industry'. It captures the “voices” of those impacted by knife crime including young people, community leaders, and youth work practitioners. Drawing on criminology, sociology, cultural studies and history, the book argues that the problem is firmly located at the intersection of a series of concerns about class, race, gender and generation that are a product of British history and its global past. It seeks to trace the several roots of the contemporary knife crime 'epidemic', ultimately to propose newer and alternative strategies for responding to it. It encourages a critical engagement with this subject, with the inclusion of some learning exercises for undergraduate students and above in the the social sciences, whilst also speaking to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.

Focusing on the policy approaches of Conservative governments since 2015, this book examines key social policy areas including education, health, housing, employment, children and young people, and more. Respected social policy researchers explore the degree to which the positions and policies of recent Conservative governments have differed from the previous Coalition government (2010–15). They consider the extent to which austerity has continued and the influence of other policy emphases, such as a ‘levelling up’ agenda. Reflecting on the rapid changes of Prime Minister, they compare the themes of the Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak administrations, critically examine the impacts of the external shocks of Brexit and COVID-19, and the changing patterns of public expenditure.

We explore why the idea of the criminal class came into being. Starting with garrotters lurking in dark Victorian alleyways, the fiend Jack the Ripper stalking London’s streets to the menace of violent gangs, the ‘Scuttlers’, Peaky Blinders, and Liverpool’s High Rip, all the way through to 1970s joyriders, 1990s ravers, and the modern drug trade that brings guns and knives to our streets. It describes the actions taken to control the hard-core group – increasingly harsh punishments, executions, floggings, long prison sentences and the ways that society learns about crime, dangerous areas, and the people who habitually offend against society. How do we know what dangers apparently lurk in the inner cities? What part did the newspapers, authors and social investigators play in sensationalising some crimes, and were they right to do so? The book compares real-life criminals (and their lives) with fictional accounts, such as the Artful Dodger, Pinkie in Brighton Rock, and the scenes that social investigators such as Henry Mayhew dragged back from the criminal rookeries to entertain and frighten respectable people. Perhaps most importantly, the book shows which groups have been targeted as the criminal classes, particularly the young, as well as ethnic and racial minorities, and concludes by asking, “Who are the new criminal classes likely to be?“

"The main thrust of this book is to deliver a major critique of materialist and rationalist explanations of social and cultural forms, but the in the process Sahlins has given us a much stronger statement of the centrality of symbols in human affairs than have many of our 'practicing' symbolic anthropologists. He demonstrates that symbols enter all phases of social life: those which we tend to regard as strictly pragmatic, or based on concerns with material need or advantage, as well as those which we tend to view as purely symbolic, such as ideology, ritual, myth, moral codes, and the like. . . ."—Robert McKinley, Reviews in Anthropology

Handbook of Gun Violence covers a variety of subjects and disciplines related to gun violence research. The first section provides an updated overview of the prevalence of gun violence, including a dedicated section to the surge in violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second section covers biopsychosocial risk and protective factors for violence, including genetics, psychopathology, neurocognitive function, and community influences. The last section reviews options for Gun violence prevention and intervention, including treatments for youth delinquency and violence and antisocial behavior. - Examines the biological risk and protective factors for violence in youth and adults - Presents research on childhood and adulthood psychopathology, neurocognitive function, and personality traits as it relates to risky behavior and violence - Reviews evidence-based interventions for antisocial behavior and violence in both men and women

The Second Edition of this best-selling text provides a fully revised and up-to-date critical analysis of a wide range of issues surrounding young people, disorder and crime. How and why have certain aspects of young people's behaviour come to be perceived as 'anti-social' and 'criminal'? Are young people now more of a threat than ever before? How can we make sense of New Labour's youth justice reforms? Is the youth justice system soft on crime? Are young people more in need of protection than disciplinary punishment? To develop a comprehensive criminology of youth the book deliberately moves.

Shades of Deviance is a turbo-driven guide to crime and deviance. It offers politically engaged, thought-provoking and accessibly written accounts of a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts. This updated and revised edition is designed to be essential reading for general readers, undergraduate students in the fields of criminology and sociology, and those preparing to embark on degree courses in these fields. Written by field-leading experts from across the globe and designed for those who want a clear and exciting introduction to the complex areas of crime and deviance, this book provides short overviews of a wide range of social problems, harms and criminal acts, offering a series of cutting-edge and critical treatments of issues such as war and terrorism, incels and the alt-right, ecocide, trolling, hate crime and chemsex. A guide is also given to further readings and films to develop the reader’s understanding of these issues. This new edition has been fully revised and extended, with new entries on robot sex, protest, child soldiers, online abuse, cybercrime, drug trafficking, gangs and weapon use. Shades of Deviance encourages readers to critically reconsider their ideas about what is right and wrong, about what is socially harmful and which problems we should focus our attention on. It offers careful analysis and reasoned explanation of complex issues in a world in which sensationalist headlines, anxiety and fear about crime permeate our lives. Read it to be prepared for some of the key debates shaping the world to come.