“Governed by the streets”: the importance of streetworkers’ perspectives on factors influencing their clients’ engagement in crime or violence

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines youth violence prevention streetworkers’ perspectives on the causes of their clients’ engagement in crime and violence. This study draws on in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with 37 streetworkers (SWs) in a large city in the northeastern region of the United States. As ‘street-level’ bureaucrats (SLBs; Lipsky 2010), SWs serve as liaisons between public agencies and their high-risk youth clients who need support, resources, and assistance. We find that SWs report three primary factors that influence their clients to engage in crime and violence, namely that youth are: 1) socialized into a culture of survival; 2) influenced by gangs; 3) reacting to exposure to trauma. We employ Lipsky (2010) and Anderson (1999) as our theoretical framework to further understand these findings and how they may affect SWs’ interactions with their clients. Lastly, we discuss our findings in the context of existing scholarship and present policy and program recommendations.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth violence prevention
• street outreach workers or streetworkers
• factors influencing youth engagement in crime and violence
• trauma exposure

Disclosure statement

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.