CRITICAL REFLECTION

Student ID ………U1240147……………………………………………. Word count……3,589…………………

Module code and title ……ED2000 Research Method and Design……………………………………………………………………………….. Name of Tutor …………Estelle Martin……………………… …… ...….………………………………………

Reflect on your experiences in carrying out this assignment and complete the statements below.

1. In the process of doing the assignment I learned…

Different methods of conducting research

2. What I found most difficult was…

Finding relevant readings

3. I think the strength of this submission is…

Completing the purposes and aims

4. Feed forward – in future I will focus on the following areas in order to progress…

Readings

5. What feedback from previous assignments have you found helpful in completing this work …

Referencing

ED2000 Research Method and Design

My research proposal will examine why do young people leave and join gang activity in Britain.
The connection between youth and criminal is recognised in the society, the government and media both initiatives both reflecting the supposed trouble that young people do to the society. The Home office has stated that they will be funding £18m to prevent youth from getting involved in the life of offence (Home Office, 2011). In addition to this £4m will be invested to prevent in knife crime and also other crimes (Home Office, 2011). The data of crime highlight’s and illustrates the problem that are caused by gangs in Britain, and it also proposes the research why youth’s leave and join gangs would be valuable exploring. The developments outlining the problems that young people are causing in gangs has lead me to my research title ‘An investigation on why young people join and leave gangs in London’. I would like to find out why young people join gangs and desist therefore my proposal will look at the following questions;
1. Why do young people get involved in gang activity?
2. Why do young people join and then desist from crime activity?
3. Is gang culture common amongst females or males?
This research I will be conducting will be will be exploring the key issues which are significant in young people join and then leave gangs in London in order to try and highlight where interventions could be put forward and putting into place or could be implemented. The potential users for my research are youth offending staff and also youth that have previously been involved in gangs. The key themes that will be discussed will be education, employment, gender, family, areas in London such as postcodes, and also lack of opportunities that young people may have in London. All the themes that I will be researching will help me to give an explanation of why young people get involved in gangs, although employment, education, family values an lack of opportunities may also provide myself with an insight in why young people leave gangs after a while. I have been motivated to take this research because in today’s society it is the youth in gangs that are being blame for a broken society David Cameron blames ‘gang culture’ for creating a broken society (Guardian, 2011). There is a reason why young people in London join gangs my research will find out why youth join gangs.
The meaning of a ‘gang’ is a problem missing clarity amongst many researchers state that “There is little, if any, consensus as to what constitutes a gang and who is a gang member” (Ball & Curry 1996, cited in Sense et al 2001, p.106). The definitional matters around gangs are difficult as there is no universal meaning exists with “…many experts finding a fault with nearly every definition” (Esbensen et al 2001, p.106). The experts have found no meaning of a ‘gang’ and the experts who have found a meaning have found something wrong with the definition however (Thrasher, 1963) has found an encompassing definition of a gang:
“The gang is an interstitial group originally formed