This chapter reflects on how the young people’s culture evolved after the commissioning of professional interventions. First, the text charts the development and entrenchment of a violent and criminogenic street culture, where class A drug dealing and knife carrying became commonplace. Discussions of street culture by Fraser (2013), Harding (2014), Ilan (2012) and Sandberg (2008, 2012) are used to show how young people’s actions become habitus, allowing young people to understand how to act and capital, helping young people gain street status. Then, drawing on the work of Andell and Pitts (2018), Densley (2013) and Whittaker et al (2018), the chapter considers the interplay between where the young people hang out and the broader developments that saw them move from primarily selling cannabis to dealing crack and heroin. This increased the risk of violence, leading to a situation where almost everyone felt the need to carry a knife for their protection.

The chapter uses an example of a barbeque organized by the young people to highlight the change in the culture. The difference was palpable, whereas the party described in the previous chapter was largely uneventful; this time, the young men used the barbeque to sell drugs and take advantage of intoxicated young girls, with the night only ending after shots were fired. This incident is used to explore the implications of the loss of informal supervision and reflects on the risks young girls face in spaces of embedded violent street culture, where predatory sexual activity is taken for granted.

The chapter concludes by reflecting on how the failure to find a hybrid support system where professionals and residents worked alongside each other to support the young people ultimately left those whom both groups wanted to help more vulnerable and at increased risk of exposure to serious youth violence.

The emergence of street culture

While the residents and those involved in providing services were in conflict, the young people’s reputation was getting more notorious. Opportunistic crimes such as street robbery were accompanied by more organized thefts from people advertising on sites such as gumtree and low level street dealing.