As we bear witness to continued protest and debate over the deaths of black
youth at the hands of would-be protectors, this book challenges current thinking
about serious youth violence, gangs, and their racialization by the media and
the police. Written by an expert with more than fourteen years of field
experience in London, it brings together ethnographic research, theory, and
practice to influence policy. Placing gangs and urban violence in a broader
social and political economic context, Anthony Gunter argues that government
policy and associated funding for anti-gang work is counterproductive, due to
entrenched prejudices. The street gang label is unfairly linked by both the
media and