Against Youth Violence: A Social Harm Perspective (Studies in Social Harm)

Violence between young people causes untold harm to individuals and communities. In the UK, the way in which ‘youth violence’ is framed by the media and in politics is often unhelpful, inaccurate and counterproductive. We argue that it is more helpful, accurate and constructive to view the problem within the context of other kinds of social harm in young people’s lives. Drawing on a wide range of empirical data, we lay bare numerous and varied forms of social harm in children and young people’s lives. These are significant both in themselves and due to the role they can play in exacerbating the problem of violence. We provide the latest statistics on violence in the UK and outline an innovative conception of social harm, before exploring the connections between the social harms in young people’s lives, their sense of mattering and violence. Lastly, we critique what we consider to be harmful responses to the problem of ‘youth violence’, and conclude by offering a way forward for improving the lives of young people, based on a more equitable distribution of four Rs: resources, recognition, risk and (state) retribution. The book promotes an alternative way of making sense of and addressing this pressing social problem. Front Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Against Youth Violence: A Social Harm Perspective 4 Copyright information 5 Table of contents 6 Series Editors’ Preface 8 List of Figures, Tables and Boxes 11 About the Authors 13 Preface and Acknowledgements 14 Introduction: Against Youth Violence and Against ‘Youth Violence’ 18 A harmful society 18 Why are we ‘against youth violence’? 19 Against youth violence as a reality: we want there to be less violence between young people 20 Against the connotations of ‘youth violence’ as a descriptive label: we want there to be less misconception about young people and violence 22 Against the sensationalization and industrialization of ‘youth violence’: we want there to be less exploitation of young people’s suffering 29 Structure and style 31 1 The Nature and Scale of Interpersonal Violence in Britain 34 Introduction 34 Sources of data: strengths and limitations 35 Police recorded crime 35 Hospital admissions data 36 Crime Survey for England and Wales 36 Interpersonal violence in England and Wales 38 Interpersonal violence in London 43 Conclusion 50 2 Developing an Approach to Social Harm 52 Introduction 52 Why not simply focus on ‘crime’ in children and young people’s lives? 53 From crime to social harm 55 Our approach to social harm 59 Human flourishing 60 Human flourishing as needs fulfilment 60 Human flourishing as subjective well-being 63 Summarizing our approach to social harm 65 Distinguishing ‘social harm’ from (simply) ‘harm’ 66 Structural harm and interpersonal harm 67 Direct and inherent harmfulness 68 Limitations and drawbacks of our approach 69 Conclusion 71 3 The Importance of Mattering in Young People’s Lives 73 Introduction 73 The importance of mattering 74 Black Lives Matter 74 Why is the psycho-social concept of mattering helpful? 75 What does it mean to matter? 75 ‘The terrifying abyss of insignificance’ and the problem of over-entitlement: the experience of not mattering and the desire to matter ‘too much’ 80 The cultural and emotional complexity of mattering 82 The sense of mattering within individual self-narratives 84 An insecure society? Social changes and global processes affecting young people’s sense of mattering in Britain today 86 Conclusion 90 4 Social Harm and Mattering in Young People’s Lives 92 Introduction 92 Poverty and inequality 95 The extent and nature of poverty and inequality affecting young people in Britain today 96 The effects of poverty and inequality on children and young people’s sense of mattering 99 Declining welfare support: under-resourced communities and social care systems 102 Schools and education 106 Provision for those with additional educational needs 106 School exclusions 108 Recruitment, training and support for teachers: the ‘teacher gap’ 110 Students’ and parents’ relationships with school staff 112 Inequalities of harm and mattering in the education system 113 Unemployment and ‘marginal work’ 114 Housing and homelessness 117 Harm and subjectivity, structure and agency 124 Relative prevalence of social harms 129 Conclusion 129 5 Social Harm, Mattering and Violence 132 Introduction 132 The functions of violence and the factors most commonly associated with it 134 The functions of physical interpersonal violence 134 Factors which have the strongest association with violence 136 Social harm, the struggle to matter and the propensity to engage in violence 138 The psychology of mattering and violence 140 Violent escapes from insignificance, agentic impotence, shame and humiliation 140 Potency, domination and recognition in the phenomenology of violence 143 The psycho-social connections between social harm, mattering and violence 144 ‘In search of respect’ and in search of mattering: violence in structurally belittled communities 146 Class and gender, political economy and patriarchy 148 The ‘singular quest for significance’ and the role of violence within complex individual self-narratives 151 Nihilistic violence 154 Peer groups, gangs and ‘violent street worlds’: structural harm and violent assertions of mattering among groups of young people 155 Peer groups, gangs, structural harm and violence 156 Questioning the importance of gangs, stressing the role of ‘violent street worlds’ 160 Applying the concepts of mattering and social harm to gang-related accounts of violence between young people 161 Conclusion 166 6 Harmful Responses to ‘Youth Violence’ 167 Introduction 167 A perennial mythology of youth and violence? 169 Demonize them 171 Why and how is demonization harmful to young people? 172 Connotations of ‘youth’ and ‘youth violence’ 174 Victorian demonologies of youth, crime and violence 176 Victorian conceptions of responsibility and vulnerability, wickedness and weakness 177 The boundaries of Englishness: colonial ideas of savages abroad and at home 179 Pathological families and the pathology of poverty 180 Dangerous youth subcultures and gangs inculcating criminal habits 182 Victorian demonologies in an era of Victorian inequality 183 Today’s perils: ‘Black youth culture’, gangs, knives and ‘troubled families’ 184 Some contemporary drivers of demonization 187 Punish and control them 189 Child and youth imprisonment 191 A succession of court orders and injunctions 194 Gang injunctions 195 Knife Crime Prevention Orders 196 Serious Violence Reduction Orders 197 Consistent problems in this succession of injunctions and court orders 198 Joint enterprise, stop and search and the gangs matrix 199 Joint enterprise 199 Stop and search 201 Gangs Matrix 204 Drugs policy 205 Punishing and controlling responses to violence between young people 206 Save them 208 Remoralize them: fix their characters and remould them into ideal citizens 210 Target the troublesome and enrol them on programmes that ‘work’ 212 Industrialize the problem, commodify those affected by it 214 Sensationalize the issue, particularly if it earns you donations and support 215 Conclusion 217 Conclusion: Towards a Less Harmful Society for Young People 219 Introduction 219 The central arguments of this book: social harm, mattering and violence between young people 220 2030: a near-future dystopia 223 The changes that we need to improve life for Britain’s young people 227 Recognition and resources, risk and retribution 227 Recognition 228 Redistribution of resources 230 Risk 232 (State) retribution 232 Schools and education 233 Exclusions 234 Inclusive education, safeguarding and punitiveness 234 What are schools for? The potential of schools to support their communities 235 Support for young people before and beyond school: early years, children’s social care and youth services 237 Early years 237 Children’s social care 238 Youth services 239 One-to-one support for young people: relationships that make a difference 240 Housing and local communities 242 Employment 243 Criminal justice, youth justice and policing 244 Violence Reduction Units and the public health approach to violence 245 Personal responsibility, proportional demands on services and funding 246 What about personal responsibility? 246 Many of the suggestions in this chapter place hugely unrealistic expectations and demands on important institutions and services 247 All of these changes will be incredibly expensive to the taxpayer 248 Address harm, reduce inequality, enhance care 249 References 258 Index 291 Back Cover 302 For many children and young people, Britain is a harmful society in which to grow up. This book contextualizes the violence that occurs between a small number of young people within a wider perspective on social harm. Aimed at academics, youth workers and policy makers, the book presents a new way to make sense of this pressing social problem. The authors also propose measures to substantially improve the lives of Britain’s young people in areas ranging from the early years to youth services and the criminal justice system.For many children and young people, Britain is a harmful society in which to grow up. This book contextualizes the violence that occurs between a small number of young people within a wider perspective on social harm. Aimed at academics, youth workers and policy makers, the book presents a new way to make sense of this pressing social problem. The authors also propose measures to substantially improve the lives of Britain’s young people in areas ranging from the early years to youth services and the criminal justice system Youth violence dominates headlines and politicians' attention and many organisations invest considerable resources in an attempt to reduce it. This book examines how inequality and social harms drive such violence and highlights key future goals for policymakers, researchers and practitioners.