This report written in 2008 from the Runnymede Trust finds that attempts to label youth violence as a‚ gang problem' may be stopping the police and youth services from taking effective preventative action. This approach also risks criminalising all young people, especially young black men.

The tragic and disturbing patterns of violence between young people are a legitimate cause for concern, but the attribution of this tragic violence to‚ gangs' obscures more than it illuminates and is stopping effective action being taken to tackle the violence.

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