The 'gang' has become a magical word used to explain away crime, riots, sexual assault, drug dealing and almost every manifestation of violence in our society. Simon Hallsworth's book is a devastating critique: iconoclastic, hard hitting, and amusing. Read it. - Jock Young, John Jay College, City University of New York, USA and author of The Criminological Imagination
Simon Hallsworth's The Gang and Beyond is precisely the sort of boldly brilliant work that criminology badly needs but seldom sees. Strikingly original in its scholarly perspective and in its narrative orientation, this book constitutes an intellectually audacious confrontation with gangs, gang scholarship, and the assumptions that surround them. - Jeff Ferrell, Texas Christian University, USA
Provocative and stimulating, this book provides an emphatic critique of the 'common sense' surrounding youth gangs in the UK and elsewhere. From auto-ethnography to moral outrage at gang talk distortions, Simon Hallsworth provides a personal and powerful indictment of the gang industry within academia, including its convergence with rapidly expanding and inappropriate gang suppression efforts, and its failure to fully understand street culture and street violence. Not to be missed. - Rob White, University of Tasmania, Australia
This book is methodologically creative (e.g. the auto-ethnography), theoretically sophisticated (e.g. the use of Deleuze), and mostly uses good humour to good effect [...] I think it is a must read, it makes an important contribution and I am adding it to my reading list for my students. - Lorcan Byrne, CrimeTalk
This is a timely book. It is bold, contentious, provocative and provides a much needed commentary on the current state of affairs in relation to our understanding of and responses to gangs in the United Kingdom ... Whether you are a 'gang talker' or a 'gang denier', Hallsworth presents a compelling and in parts, acerbic analysis of urban street gangs. - Hannah Smithson, British Journal of Criminology