'Getting mad wi' it': risk-seeking by young women'

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In the footsteps of a quiet pioneer: Revisiting Pearl Jephcott’s work on youth leisure in Scotland and Hong Kong

Pearl Jephcott’s (1967) research on Scottish teens, Time of One’s Own, is one of the first sociological studies of leisure in the postwar period. This research is remarkable not only for its emphasis on ‘ordinary’ young people but also for its ambitious and eclectic research design, which incorporates field research, sample surveys and task based participatory methods. The (Re)Imagining Youth team revisited Jephcott’s Scottish research alongside her survey of The Situation of Children and Youth in Hong Kong (1971) as part of a contemporary study of youth leisure and social change. This paper outlines our attempt to reimagine Jephcott’s work for the contemporary context, highlighting the ways in which her method was both a product of its time and ahead of its time

Precarious leisure: (re)imagining youth, transitions and temporality

The precarity of young people’s transitions to work has been a longstanding focus in youth studies. As Furlong and others have demonstrated, processes of social, political and economic restructuring have led to a pronounced instability for young people entering the labour market. While the notion of labour market precarity has gained attention, the ‘contamination’ of precarity into other spheres of life such as leisure has been less developed. This article seeks to extend these debates through interrogation of the concept of ‘leisure precarity’. Drawing on a qualitative study of youth leisure in Glasgow, it argues that temporal anxieties have reframed young people’s experiences and understandings of leisure such that young people have come to fear ‘empty’ or unproductive time. The pressures of juggling work and study, or looking for work, meant that most participants in our research had limited time free for leisure, and temporal rhythms became fragmented between past, present and future. The paper argues that these multiple and contradictory leisure dispositions reveal new forms of individualisation and uncertainty, as well as traditional patterns of inequality, thereby bringing youth transitions into dialogue with the study of precarity in the twenty-first century

Troublesome youth groups, gangs and knife carrying in Scotland

"... the research reported here set out to: Provide an overview of what is known about the nature and extent of youth gang activity and knife carrying in a set of case study locations; Provide an in-depth account of the structures and activities of youth gangs in these settings; Provide an in-depth account of the knife carrying in these settings; Offer a series of recommendations for interventions in these behaviours based on this evidence." - exec. summary

City as lens: (re)imagining youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong

In recent years, a paradox has emerged in the study of youth. On the one hand, in the context of the processes of globalization, neoliberalism and precarity, the patterning of leisure and work for young people is becoming increasingly convergent across time and space. On the other hand, it is clear that young people’s habits and dispositions remain deeply tied to local places, with global processes filtered and refracted through specific cultural contexts. Against this backdrop, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council/Research Grants Council (ESRC/RGC)-funded study of contemporary youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong, this article seeks to explore the role of the city as a mediating lens between global forces and local impacts. Utilizing both historical and contemporary data, the article argues that despite parallels in the impact of global forces on the structure of everyday life and work, young people’s leisure habits remain rooted in the fates and fortunes of their respective cities

Taking Stock of Violence in Scotland

This report seeks to consolidate existing research knowledge about violence in Scotland, broadly defined, drawing on a range of quantitative and qualitative sources. It presents a selective approach to research that reflects key trends in both research and patterns of the phenomenon under review. The report provides an accessible document that brings together relevant information taking stock of the state of violence and violence research over the past ten years, focusing on Scotland, but reflecting wider developments in understanding as a means to inform future research priorities. Topics covered include violence as it relates to: statistical trends, policy context and violence definitions, young people, drugs and alcohol, communities and neighbourhoods, gender, hate crime, workplaces and institutions, and interventions. The Scottish Government commissioned the report but has not exercised editorial control over the contents. The views expressed are entirely those of the authors

Taking Stock of Violence in Scotland

This report seeks to consolidate existing research knowledge about violence in Scotland, broadly defined, drawing on a range of quantitative and qualitative sources. It presents a selective approach to research that reflects key trends in both research and patterns of the phenomenon under review. The report provides an accessible document that brings together relevant information taking stock of the state of violence and violence research over the past ten years, focusing on Scotland, but reflecting wider developments in understanding as a means to inform future research priorities. Topics covered include violence as it relates to: statistical trends, policy context and violence definitions, young people, drugs and alcohol, communities and neighbourhoods, gender, hate crime, workplaces and institutions, and interventions. The Scottish Government commissioned the report but has not exercised editorial control over the contents. The views expressed are entirely those of the authors

Precarious leisure: (re)imagining youth, transitions and temporality

The precarity of young people’s transitions to work has been a longstanding focus in youth studies. As Furlong and others have demonstrated, processes of social, political and economic restructuring have led to a pronounced instability for young people entering the labour market. While the notion of labour market precarity has gained attention, the ‘contamination’ of precarity into other spheres of life such as leisure has been less developed. This article seeks to extend these debates through interrogation of the concept of ‘leisure precarity’. Drawing on a qualitative study of youth leisure in Glasgow, it argues that temporal anxieties have reframed young people’s experiences and understandings of leisure such that young people have come to fear ‘empty’ or unproductive time. The pressures of juggling work and study, or looking for work, meant that most participants in our research had limited time free for leisure, and temporal rhythms became fragmented between past, present and future. The paper argues that these multiple and contradictory leisure dispositions reveal new forms of individualisation and uncertainty, as well as traditional patterns of inequality, thereby bringing youth transitions into dialogue with the study of precarity in the twenty-first century

'Prove me the bam!' Victimisation and agency in the lives of the young women who commit violent offences

This thesis investigates the social meanings attached to violence committed by young women. It challenges dominant discourses on young women's violent offending by describing and analysing the multiple motives and meanings that 21 women in prison gave to their violent behaviour when they were interviewed by the author in 2001. Examination of the criminological literature on women who offend suggests that discourses relating to violent young women fall under four main headings, each of which draws upon an essentialist framework underpinned by fixed dualisms of masculine/feminine and/or victim/agent: female violence as a failure to conform to the feminine (the pathological violent female); female violence as a result of femininity (women as emotional, irrational and 'out of control'); female violence as the result of patriarchy (the cycle of abuse); female violence as the result of women's liberation (equal opportunity violence). The central argument of the analysis of the interview materials is that young women's accounts embody persistent conflicts and tensions, which defy simple classification. These include: ambivalent feelings about their families and their localities; complex attitudes regarding risk and risk-seeking behaviour; contradictory views about the use of violence; and a confused sense of gender identity. Within the interview setting young women attempted to make sense of these contradictions by either (a) challenging the definition of their behaviour as violent by drawing on (sub)cultural norms and values to demonstrate the normalcy of their activities, or (b) challenging the notion that they themselves were violent by attributing their offence to experiences of victimisation and the intoxicating effects of drugs and/or alcohol. Taken together, these findings provide a powerful and sophisticated challenge to essentialist arguments about the emergence of a new breed of 'girl thugs' who simply seek to emulate the violent behaviour of young men. Criminally violent young women are not liberated young women, but young women who are severely constrained by both their material circumstances and attendant ideologies of working-class femininity and kinship. They are not determined by these circumstances, however. By pointing to the risk-seeking nature of young women's violence, the study demonstrates the positive contribution violent behaviour can have in terms of young women's sense of self and self-efficacy. By illustrating the rule- governed nature of much of the violence committed by young women, it challenges images of female offenders as emotional, irrational and 'out of control.' Finally, the thesis questions pathological discourses by demonstrating how young women's violent offending can fulfil both traditional familial and (sub)cultural norms. In short, the study acknowledges that subordination and agency are simultaneously realised in young women's lives, and thereby demonstrates that there is no such thing as the essential violent young woman

Research and Practice in Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Children and Young People Engaging in Offending Behaviour

This study has been undertaken with the main aim of providing an evaluation of the literature on research and practice in relation to the risk assessment and risk management of children and young people engaging in offending behaviours, to be used to inform the RMA’s future work in these fields. The study incorporates two aspects: a review of national and international literature on the practices and processes of risk assessment and risk management of children and young people who engage in offending behaviour, with particular reference to violent offending and sexually harmful behaviour, and a review of current practice in the assessment and management of children and young people at risk of harm and re-offending in Scotland, carried out by means of telephone interviews with academic researchers and practitioners working in statutory and voluntary sectors across Scotland