Tara Young

Tara Young, Senior Research Fellow

Tara graduated from the University of Bristol with a First Class degree in Sociology and completed a Master's degree in Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She joined London Metropolitan University as Research Fellow in January 2004 after three years with the Mannheim Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Tara is working towards a PhD by publication. Tara is an expert in qualitative research. She has long standing experience of developing and managing research projects and specialises in social research with ‘hard to reach’ and ‘vulnerable groups,’ Examples of Tara’s research work includes exploring gang membership, the displacement of drug related crime in Camden and improving life opportunities for young people. Over the last 6 years Tara has been researching gang membership in the UK. Her work on gangs (with Prof. Simon Hallsworth) has influenced policy at local and national levels.

Contact t.young@londonmet.ac.uk

Interests:

Groups delinquency, youth, gender and violence

Publications

Books

Newburn, T., & Shiner, M., with Tara Young (2005) Dealing with Disaffection: Young people, mentoring and social inclusion. Willan Publishing. ISBN-10: 1-843920-65-4

Book Chapters

Young, T. (2011) ‘In Search of the ‘Shemale’ Gangster’ in Barry Goldson (ed.) Youth in Crisis? Gangs, Territoriality and Violence. Rout ledge. ISBN: 978-1-84392-751-8
Young, T & Hallsworth, S. (2011) ‘Children and young people as young victims of violent crime and violent offenders’ in Barter, C (eds) Children Behaving Badly? Exploring Peer Violence between Children and Young people. London: Blackwell Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-0-470-69440-4
Hallsworth, S & Young, T. (2010) Street Collectives and Group Delinquency: Social Disorganization, Subcultures and Beyond in Eugene McLaughlin and Tim Newburn Sage Handbook of Criminology, Sage Publications Inc. ISBN-13:978-1-4129-2038-4
Hallsworth, S. & Young, T. (2009), ‘Working with Gangs and Other Delinquent Groups’, in Geldard, K. (Ed.) Practical Interventions for Young People at Risk. Sage Publications ISBN: 9781847875624

Peer reviewed articles

Young, T (2009) Girls and Gangs: ‘She-male’ Gangsters in the UK? Youth Justice, Vol. (9) No.3. 224-238 ISSN: 1473-2254
Hallsworth, S. & Young, T. (2008) Crime and silence: `Death and life are in the power of the tongue' (Proverbs 18:21) Theoretical Criminology 2008 12: 131-152. ISSN: 1362-4806
Hallsworth, S. & Young, T. (2008) Gang Talk and Gang Talkers: A Critique, Crime, Media, Culture. Vol. (4), No. 2, August, 2008. 175-195 ISSN: 1741-6590
Hallsworth, S. & Young, T. (2005) On Gangs and Guns: a critique and a warning. ChildRIGHT, October CR220
Hallsworth, S., & Young, T. (2004) Understanding Collective Delinquency. Criminal Justice Matters No.55 Spring, 2004.

Practitioner Reports

Young, T. and Hallsworth, S. (2010) Establishing the Reality of Gangs in Brent: A Report for Brent Community Safety Partnership.
Young, T. (2009) Improving Life Opportunities for Young People in Enfield, Enfield Scrutiny Commission
Young, T., Fitzgerald, M., Hallsworth, S. & Joseph, I. (2007) Groups, Gangs and Weapons: A Report for the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales.
Young, T., Hallsworth, S, Jackson, E. & Lindsey, J. (2006) Crime Displacement in Kings Cross: A report for Camden Community Safety Partnership.
Young, T. (2006) Ealing: A Borough Profile: A Crime and Community Safety Report for Ealing Metropolitan Police Service and Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD10). (in house publication)
Hallsworth, S., & Young, T. (2005) Urban Collectives: gangs and other groups, Metropolitan Police Service and Government Office for London (in house publication)
Shiner, M., Young, T., Newburn, T., & Groben, S. (2004) Mentoring Disaffected Young People: An Evaluation of Mentoring Plus. Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Conference Presentations

Young, T. (2009) Life 'On Road' - Young People, Gangs and Victimisation in the UK. American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November, 2009
Young, T. (2009) ‘Girls and the Gang’ British Society of Criminology Conference, Glamorgan, June 2009
Young, T. (2008) ‘Life on Road’: Violence and victimisation. 8th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology Edinburgh 2008, 2nd - 5th September
Young, T. (2007) ‘Gang talk and Gang Talkers’, Middlesex University
Young, T., & Hallsworth, S. (2006) ‘Punitive Culture and the Social Uses of the Gang’, British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Glasgow.
Young, T., and Hallsworth, S. (2005) ‘Silence in an Ecology of Fear’ The International Cultural Criminology Conference, London
Young, T (2005) ‘Girls and the Gang’, British Society Criminology Annual Conference, Leeds.
Young, T. & Hallsworth, S. (2005) ‘Punitive Culture and the Social Uses of the Gang’ Eurogang Network Annual Conference, Onnati, Spain.
Hallsworth, S & Young, T. (2005) ‘Knife Use and Gang Culture in the UK: Reflections on the Evidence’, Infolog Conference, London.
Hallsworth, S & Young, T. (2004) ‘Group Delinquency in the UK: Provisional findings’ Eurogang Network Conference, Albany, USA
Young, T & Groben, S. (2003) ‘Tales of Forty Mentors: an insider view of the mentoring relationship’ Youth Justice Board, International Mentoring Conference, London.
Shiner, M., Young, T., & Groben, S. (2002) ‘A Marriage Made in Heaven: Psychosocial approaches to working with young offenders’ British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Keele University

Practitioner presentations

Young, T. (2009) Girls and the Gang: A presentation for the Network Alliance, October, 2009
Young, T. (2008) Understanding Organised Crime and Gang Culture, Wandsworth Children’s Services, March, 2008

Media Appearances