Crime, anti-social behaviour and schools in Britain: are all schools ‘at risk’?

The paper takes a critical look at the discourse and empirical evidence about crime, anti-social behaviour and schools in Britain. It draw on a range of sources primarily from an edited collection (Hayden and Martin, 2011, Crime, Anti-Social Behaviour and Schools, Palgrave). This book includes research on young people’s experiences of victimisation in and around schools; weapons carrying and ‘gang’ membership and how this connects to perceptions of safety. The paper argues that too much of the debate about crime, anti-social behaviour and schools ignores the patterns of inequality that help to generate and sustain these problems, thereby contributing to a more generalised state of fear about the safety of young people. Further, it is argued that this in turn has allowed for the development of initiatives that have a strong potential to criminalise young people without keeping them safe.