Paul Andell

• Associate Professor at University of Suffolk

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...

This chapter, Theorising Gangs, Paul Andell and David James set out to answer a number of questions. If, for example, different groups of young people, involved in similar types of offending in different places, describe themselves differently, should we call them all ‘gangs’. And, can we accept that what the young people say about the gang, or ind...

Paul Andell argues that the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a White police officer, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) highlights the current crisis in criminal and social justice. He notes that in the US public demonstrations were met with attempts, by the now defeated President Trump, deploying active duty troops under the 1807 Insurrectio...

Voices from gang-affected communities, Paul Andell observes that although, as the Children’s Society Look Closer campaign, (2021) notes, everyone has a role to play in protecting children and vulnerable young people from abuse and exploitation, statutory partnerships like Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs and Crime and Disorder Partnerships have been...

Book Chapter, International Handbook of Critical Gang Studies.

Purpose County lines involving the exploitation of vulnerable children and young people by gangs have been described as a bigger threat than the exploitation exposed by the Rotherham scandal ( The Times , 27 November 2017). The purpose of this paper is to explain the contingencies and drivers informing gang identities in the irregular economy of dr...

The chapter explores the macro and micro structural contexts that impact on neighbourhood practices that in some spaces have resulted as new drug distribution networks called County lines. The chapter also identifies some of the cultural factors that can reinforce gang identities such as Grime music clips and the amplified responses to these cultur...

The chapter explains the choice of research design and the methodological framework employed in the research for this monograph. It begins with a discussion of the dimensions of the research problem, explores the value of quantitative and qualitative approaches in researching gangs, and then describes the methods of data collection and analysis emp...

This chapter uses an observation of a book launch and a critique of popular punitive ideas to further explore some of the drivers and contingencies which affect UK gang policy-making. This includes the processes by which, ideas about gangs, which often flow from broader beliefs about the nature of the social world, find their way into policies abou...

The chapter presents the findings of empirical research commissioned by a police service in a northern county at a time of gang denial. The data collected clearly demonstrated that groups, which accorded with the definition of youth gangs in Dying To Belong (A relatively durable, predominantly street based group of young people who (1) see themselv...

The chapter explores the UK Gangs Thesis debate between Pitts and Hallsworth in terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology in order to propose a more nuanced treatise in thinking about gangs, that of critical-realism. The chapter further analyses the use of Bordieu in analysing gangs (Pitts 2011; Harding 2014) and argues that this type of anal...

The chapter uses empirical research conducted in an inner London Borough (South Borough) to produce evidence-led policy recommendations for the formulation of a local gangs strategy at a time when national policy had accepted the existence of gangs in the UK. The research set out to capture the views of different voluntary groups and statutory prof...

The thesis presented in this monograph argues that on the one hand our approach towards UK gangs must not become too comfortable with the pre-suppositions of knowledge (particularly from other places and countries), however, on the other hand to agree that our knowledge of gangs is socially constructed and fallible does not mean we cannot have rati...

The chapter argues that there has been recent significant changes in the distribution methods of crack and heroin in the UK involving English Gangs. These changes in local distribution mechanisms known as “County lines” prompts questions regarding the degree of organisation and the divisions of labour involved in new distribution networks in UK cra...

The chapter utilises Kingdon’s Agendas, alternatives, and public policies to illustrate some of the different influences involved in policy making. An analysis of policy transfer is utilised to explain aspects of agenda setting resulting in gang call-ins. The chapter uses an ethnographic vignette from an observed gang call-into capture the moments...

This book examines the current debate about UK street gangs termed the ‘UK Gang Thesis’ debate. It argues that policy formations in the UK aimed at addressing street gangs preceding and succeeding the English riots of 2011 have encompassed positions of both gang denial and gang blame. The policy pendulum of denial and blame raises questions about w...

This article describes a Rapid Assessment Exercise commissioned by a local authority to inform an evidence-based multi-agency response to the involvement of vulnerable children and younger adolescents in illicit drug trafficking. The research was commissioned by a local authority in an English County Town, The researchers analysed relevant quantita...