Overview

The aim of this book is to present the findings from two years of research undertaken in London and the south-east of England focussing on the evolution of urban street gangs and their involvement with changing drug markets. The reason for the study was to explore widely reported but under-researched changes in the presentation of street gangs and drug markets; their apparent movement from traditional inner-city locations to suburban/provincial settings; to help explain the alarming rise in violence linked to these phenomenon; and to better understand these emerging trends and their interconnectivity.

Since the year 2000, UK urban street gangs have grown in number, in visibility and in prominence, evolving into a significant presence in some urban areas. In recent years they have further rapidly evolved through the development and expansion of county lines drug supply networks and now exhibit a presence in non-metropolitan areas. The impact of county lines and changes to drug markets are further evidenced by Dame Carol Black (Black, 2020) in her wide-ranging Review of Drugs report.

County lines drug supply networks, or simply ‘county lines’ as we now commonly refer to them, are a recently evolved model of drug distribution in the UK involving the transportation and distribution of drugs from urban metropolitan centres to provincial, local or rural towns.

Concomitant with both these phenomena has been the steady development of social media and information technology with its continuing impact upon all aspects of social life.

I propose that all three phenomena; the evolution of street gangs, the evolution of drug markets and the evolution of social media, all converge and interact to influence, shape, alter and promote adaptive opportunities for criminal activity. The focus here is to consider how these elements converge in the process known as ‘county lines’ drug distribution networks.

Structure

The Introduction sets out how this research study was conducted, detailing the number, type and characteristics of the various respondents. The terminology around CLs can vary from one scholar to another so the terms used in this study are set out here. The methodological challenges of the research are discussed here including ethics, limitations, negotiating access and the usefulness of participant observation.