Sinead Gormally

Somewhere between distrust and dependence: young people, the police and anti-social behaviour management within marginalised communities

Recent concerns in the UK about youth disaffection, anti-social behaviour and gang culture have led to an increase in pre-emptive intervention strategies focused on the policing of groups of young people. This article explores the literature on youth/police relationships and the evidence that suggests that preventive police strategies may have weakened these relationships and may also have had a negative impact on youth engagement in the law enforcement process. The article reports on the outcomes of a small-scale qualitative study conducted in two socially deprived communities in Glasgow (Scotlands largest city). The researchers gathered interview data from young people, police officers, youth workers and local community residents as a means of exploring the current relationship between young people and the police and the way in which local people view this relationship. The findings illustrate the existence of a localised cyclical relationship of mistrust alongside more ambivalent views by the local residents, youth and police. While resentful of police practices in general, young people and residents welcomed the prospect of a procedurally just police force to protect them; police officers valued the opportunity to uphold community safety, but still projected some cynical and stereotypical views. The article concludes with suggested implications for policy, practice and research.

Emancipatory Praxis: A Social-Justice Approach to Equality Work

This chapter will explore the concepts of social justice and equality when working with young people and within community development practice. Although justice in itself is a contested notion (Capeheart and Milovanovic 2007), this chapter acknowledges it is closely interlinked with human rights and equality. Social justice is further about identifying and attempting to address structural disadvantage, discrimination and inequality by refocusing on process, participation and collective rights. Utilizing practice-based examples which have supported the promotion and facilitation of consciousness-raising and the practical skills used to challenge identified injustices, we attempt to refocus on the reasons we work alongside those who are often the most silenced within societies. This chapter draws on the value base of equality and social justice in youth work and community development practices (Smith 2002, Davies 2005, Young 2006, Jeffs and Smith 2010, Taylor 2010) in order to support, defend and rearticulate a social and democratic purpose for emancipatory practice. In promoting reflective discussion, it is our intention to examine contemporary practices and the extent to which they raise consciousness among young people and community members.

Socially Just, Radical Alternatives for Education and Youth Work Practice

Challenging dominant discourses in neoliberal marketized societies about working with disconnected young people, this book argues that alternative, radical approaches to formal and informal education are necessary to challenge repressive practices, and to help build a more equal, socially-just society.

Service provider difficulties in operationalising coercive control

We examined perspectives of social workers, police officers, and specialist domestic abuse practitioners about their perceived ability and organizational readiness to respond effectively to incidents of coercive and controlling behavior. Interviews revealed intervention and risk assessment strategies structured around an outdated, maladaptive concept of domestic abuse as an unambiguous and violent event and frontline services that lacked appreciation of the power dynamics inherent in controlling relationships. The analysis demonstrates how lack of definitional clarity around nonphysical domestic abuse can increase the use of discretion by frontline services and, by extension, increase the discounting of coercive control by pressured frontline officers.

Re-Imagining Ways of Working with Young People in Education and Youth Work

This volume seeks to create sparks of re-imagining in its readers to advance and to challenge the status quo. It synthesizes historical, contemporary and comparative material highlighted by each of the contributors to this book in order to present radical alternative ways of thinking about policy and practice, and ways of working towards meeting young people’s needs. More specifically, these alternatives will incorporate the most beneficial elements from each of the preceding discussions, including possibilities for democratizing ways of working with young people. We aim to develop an overarching reframing of how we think about working with young people considered disconnected in England in more humanistic ways. Whilst the focus is largely England, we believe this reframing has the potential to transfer more broadly to other cultural contexts.

The Case for Re-Imagining Ways of Working with Young People in Education and Youth Work

The key aim of this book is to address what the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2013) described as a youth ‘crisis’, which played out in the media in the aftermath of violent disturbances in parts of England in August 2011. This ‘event’ — the ‘riots’ — offers an opportunity to use divergent lenses to critique the hegemonic discourse presented for consumption. The ‘riots’ could be read as insurrection, challenging the mainstream media and political discourse of ‘moral panic’ (Cohen 2002, Cooper 2012) and allowing for a different gaze to unsettle the seemingly self-evident: not least, the recognition that those engaged in the events were not exclusively young or of one gender, ethnicity or class, as populist constructions were challenged (Guardian/LSE 2011).

The Complexities, Contradictions and Consequences of Being ‘Anti-social’ in Northern Ireland

Anti-social behaviour as a concept has numerous complexities. The definitional slippages and lack of clarity often lead to a range of contextually specific consequences. Although Northern Ireland is in the process of working through and moving away from its violent past, there are times where informal justice responses are still used. The most extreme consequence of being deemed as behaving in an anti-social manner in this context is being physically attacked by a paramilitary grouping.1 This complex phenomenon will be questioned and analysed within this chapter.

‘They know what you are going through’: a service response to young people who have experienced the impact of domestic abuse

Riverside Womens Aid offers a specialised youth service for young people who have experienced or been affected by domestic abuse in one town in Scotland. This article discusses findings from a research evaluation that examined the advantages of participating in this service. The experiences of young people and youth workers involved showed a commitment to youth work values and methods that contributed to support and helped reduce feelings of isolation. The findings suggested that one-to-one support and group work sessions brought benefits in establishing empathy and generating positive experiences. This helped the young people to better understand domestic abuse and to feel safe and confident about working through their feelings and making new friends. Analysis also suggested that young people valued the services provided by qualified and experienced Womens Aid youth workers, which they perceived as different from other youth work services. The arguments for this kind of specialist service were compelling, yet analysis highlighted a need for caution in order to avoid creating dependency. There were also calls for improved communication and understanding among partner agencies involved in work with young people.