Black girls navigate the physical and emotional landscape of the neighbourhood: Normalized violence and strategic agency

Bernard, Claudia A. and Carlile, Anna. 2021. Black girls navigate the physical and emotional landscape of the neighbourhood: Normalized violence and strategic agency. Qualitative Social Work, 20(3), pp. 866-883. ISSN 1473-3250 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This article considers how young Black women living in gang-affected neighbourhoods in an urban area in England, UK navigate their safety in public and private spaces, and how these spaces overlap and intersect. Drawing on a project with 18 participants aged 14–19, the research seeks to understand how the participants inhabit, navigate and strategize for their safety through their narratives of life and survival in an unsafe neighbourhood. Findings indicate that they experience sexual harassment in public spaces and gang-associated sexual and physical violence as common, accepted aspects of their everyday realities, from as young as 12. The narratives suggest that participants navigate complex friendship groups to protect each other and their families through tight codes of trust, secrecy, privacy and conflict-management strategies. This article seeks to bring attention to how young women utilize their agency to illuminate the coping strategies they draw on to navigate their physical environments. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for interventions.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020920341

Keywords:

Peer-on-peer violence, navigating safe spaces, coping strategies, gang-associated sexual violence

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies
Social, Therapeutic & Community Engagement (STaCS)

Dates:

DateEvent
May 2021Published
3 May 2020Published Online
25 March 2020Accepted

Item ID:

28410

Date Deposited:

06 May 2020 10:55

Last Modified:

10 Jun 2021 05:57

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28410

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