Current research
Black male youth, friendships and the gang
A three-year action research study examining early intervention programmes aimed preventing -Black boys - excluded or in danger of being excluded from full time education - drifting into serious youth violence. This research project was undertaken in East London in conjunction with schools and Third Sector Community groups.
The Mayor’s Mentoring Programme
The Mayor of London’s Mentoring Project – is a £1.3 million Greater London Authority (GLA) funded and UEL led project, aimed at preventing serious youth violence and gang-related crime across seven priority London boroughs. Up to 1,000 adult volunteers are being trained to deliver targeted mentoring to African/Caribbean and mixed heritage boys and adolescents; identified as being at-risk of offending and wider social exclusion. The project is being delivered through a consortium of Third Sector partner agencies operating in Hackney, Waltham Forest, Haringey, Brent, Southwark, Lambeth and Croydon. Our evaluation research and performance review of this initiative will look to inform service delivery as well as measure and assess its impact on the young men’s lives.
Youth Crime Prevention Practice & Neighbourhood Policing: A Study of two adjoining East London Neighbourhoods
Many of the national and local government initiatives aimed at tackling youth exclusion are based on early intervention with 'at risk' children and young people to steer them away from crime by engaging with multi-agency programmes. There is concern that these initiatives, in tandem with the introduction of Safer Neighbourhood policing teams, ultimately fail to address the structural inequalities that drive social exclusion and youth crime.
This research project employed ethnographic research techniques to evaluate and examine youth crime prevention practice and local residents’ perceptions and satisfaction with policing in two adjoining deprived East London neighbourhoods.
