Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the Inner City

Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the Inner City offers an interpretive account of juvenile delinquency within the modern inner city, an environment which is characterized by a long history of social deprivation and high rates of crime. A wide range of topics are explored, such as young people's motivation for, frequency of, and attitudes towards, a variety of illegal behaviors, such as street robbery, burglary, theft, drug use, drug selling and violence. Why do young people commit these offences? Who do they commit them against? How do they feel afterwards? This book attempts to answer these important theoretical questions, utilizing ethnographic research collected over a seven year period and based around the London inner city borough of Lambeth.

'It is satisfying to have the opportunity to read a book where the voice and experience of the author is central to the narrative and yet so finely balanced with the voices of the researched. Sanders manages here to maintain this balance throughout the book, simultaneously providing the reader with a rich and deep ethnographic research project and a well-constructed narrative of youth offending. This can be considered a valuable contribution to the methodology of youth research as well as criminological and sociological understandings of youth culture and youth crime.' - Peter Rogers, University of Manchester'A vibrant empirical research project, one which I feel is a valuable addition to any literature collection on youth culture and youth crime and has more to offer in the wider understanding of case study research as both a strategy and method.'- Sociology, Book Reviews"Despite the length of the book, it is very readable. It questions perceptions of youth crime in the inner city and makes some timely suggestions as to what might be done to reduce, in particular, drug and acquisitive crime" Judith Mortimore, Thames View Sept 08', 'It is satisfying to have the opportunity to read a book where the voice and experience of the author is central to the narrative and yet so finely balanced with the voices of the researched. Sanders manages here to maintain this balance throughout the book, simultaneously providing the reader with a rich and deep ethnographic research project and a well-constructed narrative of youth offending. This can be considered a valuable contribution to the methodology of youth research as well as criminological and sociological understandings of youth culture and youth crime.' - Peter Rogers, University of Manchester'A vibrant empirical research project, one which I feel is a valuable addition to any literature collection on youth culture and youth crime and has more to offer in the wider understanding of case study research as both a strategy and method.'- Sociology, Book Reviews"Despite the length of the book, it is very readable. It questions perceptions of youth crime in the inner city and makes some timely suggestions as to what might be done to reduce, in particular, drug and acquisitive crime" Judith Mortimore, Thames View Sept 08'

Bill Sanders was born and raised in southern California, and pursued his graduate degrees at Cambridge University and the University of London. His interests primarily include topics related to youth crime, such as street gangs, drug use and 'informal' street economies. He is currently employed as a street ethnographer at Columbia University researching a project funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse about young ketamine injectors on the streets of New York City.