Includes bibliographical references and index.

As we bear witness to continued protest and debate over the deaths of black youth at the hands of would-be protectors, this book challenges current thinking about serious youth violence, gangs, and their racialisation by the media and the police. Written by an expert with more than fourteen years of field experience in London, it brings together ethnographic research, theory, and practice to influence policy. Placing gangs and urban violence in a broader social and political economic context, Anthony Gunter argues that government policy and associated funding for anti-gang work is counterproductive, due to entrenched prejudices.