News

Anti-gang strategy unevidenced and contradictory

Friday, 20 December 2013

Jon Shute and Juanjo Medina argue in a comment piece on our website that the government's 'Ending gang and youth violence' strategy is a 'shameful and appalling' waste of taxpayers' money.

They write:

'In... the era of austerity, £10 million of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on initiatives that have not been described or evaluated, and where grandiose success claims are made despite precisely no evidence of understanding or achievement.

'Seen in these terms, the coalition’s use of the term ‘gang’ can only be seen as a convenient rhetorical label for inciting public fear, scapegoating structural abandonment of and justifying increased controls over marginal populations, and for further stigmatising entire communities.'

You can read the full piece here.


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