Gangs are a contemporary criminological issue in Britain, dominating media and policy discourses around youth delinquency. This research utilises a qualitative approach to identify the impact of gangs on the Probation Service in Manchester. The relationship between Probation Officers and the Probation Service is mediated by complex power dynamics. The Probation Service has recast its role as powerful enforcer of punitive sanctions. The implications of this for Probation Officers is on the one hand, an increase in 'symbolic' power through increasingly coercive working practices and discourse whilst representing decreasing professionalization and autonomy and a lack of identification with new service values. Therefore, the reality of Probation work is characterised by a perceived reduction in power. This is mirrored in the gang experience. Gang members perceive themselves as powerful within the confines of the gang and neighbourhood, by adopting masculinised performances of identity but individual gang members are also powerless through their exclusion and alienation from mainstream society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:496216 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Hanley, Natalia Kate |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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