Credit: Cultura Creative via Adobe Stock.

31 July 2025

By Jon Swain and Brendan King

In this post we report on an ethnographic study exploring the lives of a group of young Black, Asian and minority ethnic (‘BAME’) men in London (King and Swain 2025), drawing on our wider work on masculinities (King 2022; King and Swain 2022). We highlight the often-contrasting roles and power dynamics experienced by these men between ‘the street’ and the home. In particular, we note how much they loved and respected their mothers, set against the derogatory attitudes they often appeared to hold towards other women. Our research suggests that policy is missing a trick in not better recognising, and working with, these mothers in countering the pull of violent and misogynistic street cultures. (more…)

23 May 2012

By Jenny Parkes

Home Office statistics show that 40% of the young people brought before the courts following the August riots were on free school meals; more than a third had been recently excluded from school and two-thirds had a special educational need.  Fewer than one in five of those arrested were gang-affiliated. The vast majority – 90% – were male.

These statistics chime with our findings on young people and neighbourhood risk.

(more…)