‘Internet Beef’ – Making sense of Social Media, Gangs and Youth Violence Within West Midlands, England
The West Midlands has seen a rise in gang related violence which has given the region the label of the ‘gun crime capital’ of the United Kingdom for three consecutive years. One of the arguments presented by youth work professionals, criminal justice agencies and policymakers alike suggest that social media is a reason to explain the rise in violence within the region.
As social media has become an integral part in the lives of young people within the UK, those that are involved or subscribe to street gangs are increasingly using online platforms to communicate. Music videos in particular have been used for decades by artists to express, communicate and tell stories of lived experiences. However, with the development of social media networks such as MySpace (created in 2003), Facebook, a text, video and image sharing network (2004), YouTube (2005), Twitter (2006) Instagram, an image sharing platform (2010) Snapchat (2011) the way and the speed in which young people upload, observe and respond to conflicts online is overlooked. Therefore, if current gang research is suggesting that the rise of violence within inner cities is linked to young people’s use of social media, then this sets the context and the need for further investigation. Moreover, as Birmingham specifically has a history of gangs since the late 1800’s this research is hoped to build on work that has already been conducted at BCU (Rahman 2016; 2017; 2019), to give a fresh perspective of street gangs in this region and how they have evolved in this new technological era.
This study will be beneficial for youth work practitioners, community safety, law enforcement and for future academic inquiry. The aim of the research is to generate insights into the role social media plays in relation to gangs and youth violence within the West Midlands.
The objective(s) of this research is to:
1. Investigate the meaning and extent of gangs and youth violence within the context of social media
2. Identify the precursors of violence within gangs in the context of social media
3. Establish structural factors that facilitate social media and youth violence
4. To ascertain how and to what extent social media is meaningful within youth cultures and violence.
Articles
Pinkney, C. and Robinson-Edwards, S. (2018). Gangs, music and the mediatisation of crime: expressions, violations and validations. Safer Communities, 17(2), pp.103-118.
Pinkney, C., Robinson-Edwards, S., Glynn, M. (2018) On Road Youth Work: Inside England’s Gun Crime Capital. Youth and Policy. Available at: www.youthandpolicy,org [Accessed 25 October 2018].
Robinson-Edwards, S., and Pinkney, C. (2018) "Black men, religiosity and desistance: exploring Islam, desistance and identity", Safer Communities, Vol. 17 Issue: 1, pp. 47-67.
Book Chapter
Irwin-Rogers, K., Densley, J., and Pinkney, C. (2018). Gang violence and social media. ‘in’ The Routledge International Handbook of Human Aggression: Current Issues and Perspectives. Routledge.
Research Report (External)
Irwin-Rogers, K., and Pinkney, C. (2017). Social Media as a Catalyst and Trigger for Youth Violence. Catch 22. Available at: https://www.catch-22.org.uk/social-media-as-a-catalyst-and-trigger-for-youth-violence/
National Youth Agency (2019). Responding to Youth Violence through Youth Work. National Youth Agency. Available at: https://nya.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Responding-to-Youth-Violence-Through-Youth-Work-final.pdf
