This handbook brings together cutting-edge research from key contributors on the rapidly expanding and fast-changing field of UK youth gangs. It examines the contours of the academic debates, describes and explains the origins and evolution of violent street gangs in the UK against a backdrop of globalization, and discusses the factors surrounding the emergence of these gangs in each of the four UK nations and some English regions. It also examines the relationship between gangs and wider issues relating to gender, ethnicity, drug distribution and organised crime. It critically assesses the potential and limitations of 'Public Health' approaches to gang violence reduction and the government's policy responses to violent street gangs in the UK. Providing a broad examination of the latest UK gangs research, with international comparisons, it is essential reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students, in criminology, sociology, social policy and law, policy makers at local and central government level, and practitioners in the fields of law, policing, youth work, social work, housing and workers in dedicated voluntary sector organizations.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part I:  The Evolution of the UK Street Gang
Chapter 2: Theorising Gangs
Chapter 3: Reluctant Gangsters 'Revisited
Chapter 4: County Lines; Dealing in Vulnerability
Part II: International Comparisons
Chapter 5:  US and UK Gangs: Models, Policy and Practice
Chapter 6: Gangs and a Global Sociological Imagination
Chapter 7: Why them?' 'Why then?' 'Why there?': The Political Economy of Gangland
Part III: Nations and Regions
Chapter 8: Gangs, Gang Evolution and Young People's Involvement in Drug Supply and Distribution in Scotland
Chapter 9: Gangs Young People and Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland
Chapter 10: Youth Gangs in Wales
Chapter 11: Gangs in Liverpool: Scouse Soldiers init? Urban Street Gangs on Merseyside
Part IV: Race and Gender
Chapter 12: Supporting young women affected by gang association and county lines
Chapter 13: The alchemy of race and rights': The logic of historicizing the contemporary racialized youth and gang phenomenon
Chapter 14: Race and Gangs: Towards a Black Criminology
Chapter 15: Black Lives Matter in Gang Research
Chapter 16: The Boys
Chapter 17: The Pakistani Muslim Community, Street Gangs & the Heroin Trade
Part V: Gangs and the Justice System
Chapter 18: Policing UK Street Gangs
Chapter 19:  Evidence in Gang-related Prosecutions
Chapter 20: Gangs in Prisons
Chapter 21: County Lines and Prisons
Part VI: Policy and Practice
Chapter 22: The English Street Gang & Government Policy
Chapter 23: Youth Work & Gang Violence Reduction
Chapter 24: Safeguarding, Young People & Gangs
Chapter 25: The Premier League: Breaking the Cycle of Gang Violence
Chapter 26: Using Ex-Gang Members as Peer Youth Workers
Chapter 27: Voices from Gang Affected Communities.