The research focuses upon the gangs, serious youth violence and the manner in which the police as well as the media subject them to racialism in the twenty-first century Britain. Youth violence refers to the violence committed by young people of 25 years within the public/community space. The changing pattern in the lifestyles of individuals has not only brought about changes in the pattern of victimizations and crime but also within the police services and beyond. (Crawford & Evans, 2017). A ‘gang’ may be defined as a ‘relatively durable’ young people who are mainly characterized by young people are perceived to be a noticeable group that is involved in violence and criminal activity. They are also considered as a group that are in conflict with each other or other similar groups.
The reasons behind serious youth violence may be attributed to the degree of exposure to violence within the family, influence of peer group or impact of a community on the offenders etc. Majority of the police work is hasty in nature that mainly focuses on incidents rather than being strategic and practical. There have not been adequate efforts to shift policing towards a more sustainable and effective approach in order to reduce crime and maintain order.
Traditionally, the police departments have been supporting the law enforcement approach to control crime that is achieved through emergency response, random patrols, arrest, punishments, convictions that persists to govern the modern policing activities. The emergence of institutionalism racism in the criminal justice system in UK has been on a rise since 2012 portraying an unfair criminal justice system. The media emphasized on the disparities that are being formed in the retention and recruitment in the police service, in the ‘stop and search’ method and the most in the accessibility of victims to justice against racist violence (Eck & Weisburd, 2015).
It is pertinent to address such disparities to ensure a better life of the people especially, the minority ethnic communities in the community, thus reinstating their confidence and trust in the criminal justice system of the country. However, such measures are not adequate to prevent the racial inequalities that are persisting in the society with respect to policing, prisons, crimes and resettlements. Although this approach is effective in reducing crime rates but it is equally imperative to adopt the right tactics, as merely relying on patrol in crime hotspots might not be sufficient to deter crimes and maintain order.
The establishment of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Trident in 1998 and the development of the Manchester Action against Guns and Gangs (MAAGGs) in 2001 have conferred responsibilities upon the criminal justice teams and police to respond to the gangs. As the ‘gang’ is represented as weapon-enabled (gun and knife) criminal conduct and the commission of serious violent offenses. Further, the communities have a significant role to play as one of the crime reduction initiatives, commonly known as community policing and this concept of community policing is acceptable in the UK. Community policing provides reassurance to the public and enhances confidence in the police. However, the extent to which community policing succeeds in ensuring sustained crime reductions is still ambiguous (Brinkmann, 2014).
Most often several reports on gang-related crimes and youth violence makes headlines throughout the national and local newspapers as well as media outlets. As a result, almost all the reported incidents regarding youth violence, which included either a gun or a knife, taking place within the multi-ethnic urban locations of Britain, were automatically considered to have been committed by the menace of street gangs. The legitimacy of the police is pertinent to determine whether there is willingness in people to co-operate with the police that are usually evident from providing intelligence and reporting incidents, or acting as witness exhibiting compliance with law (Gill et al., 2014).
The globalization of goods and services, the rapidly growing of new kinds of communication, increasing income inequality and the division of communities and families have given rise to new risks, threats and criminal opportunities. Therefore, it has become equally important to possess knowledge about the extent to which crime can cross regional, local and national boundaries. The considerable challenges that the police faces in this 21st century while deterring crimes and include working effectively across regional, local and national borders, involvement with increasingly diverse communities and the citizens by connecting to them through social media, etc.
The issue pertaining to urban crime can be traced back to the early 1970s where there were conflict relating to black youth and ‘colored’ immigration. These racial themes and crime were amplified and strengthened within the consciousness of the nation through the history of police-black youth conflicts, taking place since decades (Brinkmann, 2014).
The rationale of this research is to comprehend the racism that the youths and gangs especially those belonging to ethnic background are subjected to due media and and the protectors of crime itself. Since its inception, the police have a primary obligation to detect and prevent crime in UK with the sole objective to preserve public peace and order. Majority of news reports portrays that crimes and violence committed by young boys and men as a part of negative news value whereas stories about social issues like health and education are not reported as frequently as the crimes involving youths are reported (Huq, Jackson & Trinkner, 2016).
The focus of crime analysis is required to be shifted to identification of persistent problems and reacting to or anticipating events or incidents from tracking the movements of known offenders. Majority of the crime news include murders, gun and knife, violent crime that involves black young boys and men in the headlines while they hardly provide sufficient information about the reasons that led to the commissions of such crimes. Moreover, the youths involved in knife and gun crimes are automatically related to gangs even if the police fail to establish any such connections.
The aims of the research are as follows:
The research question for this proposal has been identified with the help of the topics that was available in the university library summons. While learning about the crimes and disorders that are taking place in the UK in the 21st century, the most noticeable topic was the approach about the current gangs, youth violence and their racialization by the police and media. Panneerselvam (2014) states that given the significant role played by police in deterring criminals from committing crimes ensuring a fair criminal justice system, it is surprising to learn how the gang activities and violence is unfairly linked with the black urban or youths belonging to racial background by both the media and the protector of crimes.
Research methodology refers to the methodical approach for the researcher to settle on the most appropriate research methodologies on the basis of research and objectives of the research. The assortment of a suitable research methodology enables the researcher to finish the research accurately. Research methodology focuses on relating, anticipating and exploring a specific research experience. In regards to this research, the researcher talks about the significant role that police plays in reducing crimes and disorder in the UK during in this 21st century. The most appropriate research methodology that the researcher has used in this research is that of secondary research methodology (Panneerselvam, 2014).
For this research, the secondary research methodology has been used which has enabled to include information in the research by discovering areas of interest without the need to go through the process of collecting data on his own with respect to this topic. The secondary data sources includes books, articles or journals that enables the researcher to gather information about the concerned topic and secondary data sources provides assurance to the researcher that the information received is authentic and completely reliable.
This is considered a fundamental method that is used to complete any research project. The data collection method is the preparation and the group of data collection, which are used as assistance to the researcher to complete the research study successfully without any hindrance. According to Matthews and Ross (2014), an improper data collection method may lead to impediments that would not enable the researcher to complete the research project. Such complications may also arise when the researcher obtains excess information than is necessary, it can be used in the research only if such information is expressed in an appropriate manner with the help of the appropriate research approach as well as an appropriate data collection method.
The most appropriate data collection method used for this research would be secondary data collection method. Secondary data refers to the data that has already been collected by someone else using primary research. Panneerselvam (2014) states that this method is usually used as it include sources and information that already prevails and has not only been collected but also used by other researchers to conduct their research project. Secondary data sources usually construe, describe comments, summarize as well as emphasizes primary sources. It further includes books, movie reviews, journals, articles, magazines and newspaper articles that are used for researches more than the primary sources.
The sole purpose of using the secondary data collection method is that it has an element of assurance for secondary data comprises summed up description of the sources that has been already been used by the former researchers. Secondary data may be qualitative or quantitative and the use of this data is visible while completing a research in the form of both descriptive and explanatory research approach.
Further, McMillan and Schumacher (2014) states that the other reason for using secondary data sources is that it is less time consuming than the primary data sources and saves expenses as it require fewer requirements, thus, enabling the researcher to conduct prolongs researches and studies. The qualitative data aims at endowing the researcher with detailed and complete description that is recommended to be applicable at the time of commencement of the research. However, if the subject of the research is related with numerical, quantitative data methodology would be the most appropriate methodology to conduct the research.
In this research study, secondary data sources have been used to finish the research. The use of secondary data sources had enabled the researcher to use several books, articles, journals and legislations while carrying out the research study. In regards to the data analysis process that the researcher shall use for carrying out this research, secondary data sources method shall be the most appropriate data analysis procedure. Further, in order to complete the research project, the use of qualitative data analysis shall be considered useful, in particular, while working with the basic data collection that is related to the concerned research topic.
This data collection method has enabled the researcher to collect data information as per its relevancy with the topic of the research. This data analysis procedure is an effective process, as it shall enable the researcher to demonstrate a meaningful, reflective and critical analysis between the inclusive data and research for achieving the objectives and aims of the research topic. Further, while using the secondary data sources the research ensures that the data analyzed is based on reliability and validity. The research ensures consistency with respect to the results while conducting the research. The secondary research approach is used to ensure that the aims and objectives of the research study is achieved successfully without any hindrances. Thus, it can be rightly said that the secondary qualitative research discloses the truth about the issues that are examined by the researcher, given that it is based on unstructured forms.
In this research study, the researcher used the qualitative method of data collection for examining the different approaches that police in UK adopts to deter crimes and maintain social peace and order in the 21st century. As discussed earlier, while using the qualitative secondary data collection to conduct the research, it is important to make sure that the evidences, facts and other relevant information that the researcher would collect are statutorily valid, reliable and accurate.
Despite being the most effective and appropriate method of conducting this present research, secondary data sources has its own limitations. Neuman (2016) states that in every research, the researcher had faced certain limitations that acted as impediments while conducting the research; the researcher faced certain limitations while conducting research on the relevant research topic. The factors that acted as impediments in conducting a research using the secondary data sources are budget, time and accessibility.
As mentioned earlier, that the researcher has ensured that while conducting the research, the information used within is reliable and legally valid. In other words, secondary data sources has been chosen as the appropriate data collection method for the research because the data or information obtained are already discovered as well as used by the other researchers in their respective researches which assures certainty and authenticity. However, Neuman (2016) argues that the limitation of this form of research method is the lack of certainty or specificity itself. The information either does not provide specific information about the relevant research topic, giving rise to doubts about the quality of the information source.
The other issues related to secondary data sources is budget or the expenses that are to be incurred to obtain the sources. For instance, in order to have access to any online books, journals, it becomes mandatory to subscribe to the particular website otherwise the researcher is unable to access that particular book or journal. Likewise, some governmental or any official websites require authorization to access the information available on those sites or have insufficient information until the researcher has authorized accessibility to such sites. Similarly, in order to obtain additional information about the relevant topic, the researcher would have to purchase the books or magazines, which may be worth of high price and may not fit within the budget of the researcher. This may lead to presentation of insufficient information regarding the research topic in the research project.
Further, the other essential limitation refers to the accessibility to such secondary data sources. Accessibility also refers to the language barrier that may result while conducting the research using the secondary sources. For instance, if the researcher selects the data or information of one particular researcher that has great relevancy with the research topic but the information is available in a language other than English, it might hinder the data collection process that is used to complete the research project.
While conducting any research project, the researcher is required to maintain certain ethical issues. According to Flick (2015), it is imperative that the researcher ensures that the secondary sources used in the research should be authentic and reliable by nature. Although Silverman (2016) states that using the secondary data sources imply the data or information that is already discovered and used by previous researchers in their research project, it is usually reliable.
However, Kumar (2014) argues that such secondary data sources are subjected to manipulation given that researchers often do not acknowledge the works done by other authors, which is used in the research project. The content of the data or the information is often changed and amended without the consent of the authorize person of such data or information, thus, demonstrating lack of certainty and authenticity.
In this research study, the researcher ensured that the information or data used are only for academic purposes and not for commercial purposes. Stage and Manning (2015) argues that often researchers uses the data or information that belonged to some other researcher as his own for monetary gains. Therefore, the researcher ensured that the research project is completed using the secondary sources that is both authentic and reliable.
Reference list
Brinkmann, S. (2014). Interview. In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 1008-1010). Springer New York.
Choy, L. T. (2014). The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), 99-104.
Crawford, A., & Evans, K. (2017). Crime prevention and community safety (pp. 797-824). Oxford University Press.
Eck, J. E., & Weisburd, D. L. (2015). Crime places in crime theory.
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.
Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., Vitter, Z., & Bennett, T. (2014). Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 399-428.
Huq, A. Z., Jackson, J., & Trinkner, R. (2016). Legitimating practices: Revisiting the predicates of police legitimacy. British Journal of Criminology, azw037.
Kumar, R. (2014). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.
Matthews, B., & Ross, L. (2014). Research methods. Pearson Higher Ed.
McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2014). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Pearson Higher Ed.
Nagin, D. S., Solow, R. M., & Lum, C. (2015). Deterrence, criminal opportunities, and police. Criminology, 53(1), 74-100.
Neuman, W. L. (2016). Understanding research. Pearson.
Panneerselvam, R. (2014). Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
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