A SENIOR lecturer in crime and justice has just written a book on his studies of the ethnic bad’ teenage population growing up in East London neighbourhoods. Dr Anthony Gunter’s Growing Up Bad looks at the experiences of youngsters aged 13 to 21
A SENIOR lecturer in crime and justice has just written a book on his studies of the ethnic bad’ teenage population growing up in East London neighbourhoods.
Dr Anthony Gunter’s Growing Up Bad, published on February 4, looks at the experiences of black, white and mixed-race youngsters aged 13 to 21, including home life, school, ethnicity and gender.
It is a rare insight into the lives of youth in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring Hackney, Newham and Waltham Forest, based on revealing interviews he has carries out.
Its title is actually a play on the word bad,’ which means being cool’ in modern East End slang.
“The East End is an amazing place for most young people,” said Dr Gunter, former youth worker now lecturing in Applied Criminology at the University of East London.
“I wanted to present another side to the youth, one that was different from the general portrayal of stigmatised and marginalised young black men.
“Most are not murderers or gun-touting drug dealers.”
Growing Up Bad is his portrait of camaraderie, music, fashion and laughing with friends or, as the young people would say, catchin’ joke’. It highlights the East End as “a creative hub for young people.”
Dr Gunter sees East London as a vibrant mix of people and energy, the birthplace of important contemporary musical forms such as Drum and Bass and Rave culture.
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