Safeguarding, young people and gangs

Isabelle Brodie

Institute of Applied Social Research (IASR)

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Abstract

Safeguarding, Young People and Gangs, Isabelle Brodie explores how safeguarding policy and practice have been applied, and not applied, to the issue of youth violence in gangs and drug trafficking via county lines, and the significance of this for the experience of young people, their families and the professionals who work with them. The chapter places the issue of gangs and county lines within the policy discourse of ‘child exploitation’which has gradually emerged over the past 20 years. It considers the extent to which this discourse serves to promote a safeguarding approach to the children and young people concerned, or whether it has generated a new set of difficulties. It will argue that understanding of this issue in the contexts of the lives of children, young people and their families has been constrained by the nature of the discourses surrounding young people in trouble of various kinds. These include assumptions relating to age, gender, race and ethnicity as well as the ‘blind spots’that exist within the worlds of policy, practice and research conversations. These fissures are deeply rooted, she argues, and have historically been little recognised, far less overcome.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 537-559 (23 pages)

Publication milestones

Published - 18/02/2023

Publication status

Published - 18/02/2023

Publisher

Springer, Japan, India, Australia, Germany, United States, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, China, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Brazil, France, Singapore