Violent Night: Urban Leisure and Contemporary Culture

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Why have our night-time cities become war zones This is the time and place when cities are taken over by young men in search of alcohol, drugs, another club or a fight. Current public policy has patently failed to keep on top of the new trends in both consumption and destruction which make urban centers no-go areas. Presenting an original approach, Violent Night uses powerful insider accounts to uncover the underlying causes of both sanctioned, professional male violence and criminal acts. Interviews with the police, private security personnel, gangsters and the victims of violence reveal the complex emotions that surround both the perpetration and resolution of crime. Violent Night shows that a new approach is needed to successfully rehabilitate a culture struggling and failing to deal with escalating violent crime.

Reviews

'Violent Night fizzes and crackles on every page as a picture emerges of the insecurity, instrumentalism, competition and anxiety that now characterises what it means to be young in Britain. It is a powerful antidote to any lingering Romantic notions about the meaning and rate of violence in our society. I cannot recommend it more highly.' Professor David Wilson, Centre for Criminological Research and Practice, University of Central England, Birmingham 'Violent Night lifts the lid off Britain's night-time economy, exposing a brutal world of excessive alcohol consumption and hedonistic self-expression. It is a book that will make uncomfortable reading for those who dreamt of a sophisticated nocturnal cafe society, but are now waking up to the reality of city centres awash with so-called 'binge drinkers' and a rising tide of random violence.' Keith Hayward, University of Kent 'Winlow and Hall provide a strikingly original theoretical argument about the impact of the shift from traditional manufacturing to consumerist, service and leisure industries on mental health, violence, criminality and social well being.' Professor Kevin Stenson, Middlesex University 'This is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone wishing to grasp the problems and possibilities facing young adults today,' Sandra Walklate, Liverpool University, 'This book is timely and engagingly written and will appeal to students of criminology and sociology alike.' Dr Megan Todd, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen

Author Bio

Simon Winlow is Lecturer in Sociology, University of York. Steve Hall is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Northumbria University.