Major new report from UoB on gang-related sexual violence

Two days ago a report, two years in the writing, was released on gang-related sexual violence in England. It was commissioned by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC) and written by researchers working at UoB. I think it's one of the hardest hitting things I've ever read whilst I've done this job, but I'm proud to say that I work for the institution that produced it.

It details both the depth and breadth of sexual abuse that is perpetrated against young girls within the world of gang culture, featuring many hours of interviews with both victims and perpetrators. UoB reported the findings like this.

In addition there was a special report on Newsnight which is currently available on iplayer. The item (which begins 16 minutes into the show and runs for 17 minutes in total) will be accessible for another 5 days. I should also add that it includes strong descriptions of sexual and violent acts.

The full report, which is called "It's wrong...but you get used to it", is available here.

Finally, there are four films made by young people to accompany the report and they're available here.

If you have any questions at all about the research carried out then please do ask.

New report on child sexual abuse

The University of Bedfordshire has helped write a major new report looking at gang-related child sexual abuse in the UK. The report, released today by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC), details how vulnerable children can end up being abused within gang settings and what can be done to help prevent this awful situation continuing. The initial recommendations include effective data sharing and awareness raising of the issue.

The OCC report can be downloaded from here. In addition, there are various interviews and audio clips detailing how the BBC reported the story here.

Finally, you can read UoB's own account of the report's release by having a look here.
If your studies in any way relate to issues of criminology or child protection I do urge you to take a look at what UoB, in some cases your own lecturers, have helped to produce. Thanks.

New report on gang culture in the UK

I know this post will be of interest to you if you're studying youth justice, criminology or the general problem of gang culture. I also know a few of you are looking at choosing gang culture as dissertation topics so this will be definitely be worth taking a look at.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has just published a very readable report called 'Time To Wake Up' on what they feel needs to happen next to alleviate the problem. It's somewhat critical of the approach the police took of rounding up senior gang members after the riots last year, instead of addressing the issue of why people were joining gangs in the first place.

You can find the CSJ website here (have an explore as there's a few interesting pieces) and here is a link to the Today programme discussion that ensued.

John Pitts' 'Spinning the Crisis' lecture

Are you studying criminology? Then this is for you.

John Pitts is one of our best known lecturers at UoB, focussing on youth crime and gangs. A few months ago he gave a lecture on the fall out from the UK riots last year.

Unfortunately I couldn't go on the actual night, but thanks to some bright spark videoing it the whole thing is now on YouTube. I'll be checking back in a week or so to see if the number of views online has increased!
I hope it does as it's an interesting talk.

Series of pieces on London gangs

I was listening to the Today programme this morning and heard a 7 minute piece on gang rivalries in London.

You can listen to it here. I think there's a separate report covering gangs every day this week so I'd recommend  returning to the Today website later in the week (or listening live, of course) to get a round up.

In (sort of) related news, the Government has announced a major new scheme to help 'troubled families'. The Guardian reported the story like this. There's also a quick video about the same story here courtesy of the BBC website.