Inside Scotland's youth violence, drugs and gang culture epidemic with a leading a criminologist

Criminologist Ross Deuchar presents insights from his research into Scottish gang culture, and makes the case for the courts to apply supportive, problem-solving approaches to the teenagers and young adults affected.

The issue of youth violence and knife crime has recently come to prominence again in Scotland, following a spate of incidents that have hit the headlines. For example, on 5 March 2025, 15-year-old Amen Teklay (an Eritrean refugee) died after being found seriously injured in the St George’s Cross area of Glasgow. Three teenagers were later charged in connection with his death. 

Later, on 17 May 2025, a large group altercation on Irvine Beach in North Ayrshire led to the death of Kayden Moy, a 16-year-old from East Kilbride. Two 17-year-olds and a 14-year-old were later charged with his murder. That same weekend, on Friday 16 May, there was a stabbing at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh, resulting in a 16-year-old being charged with attempted murder.

Calling for action

It was recently announced that First Minister John Swinney will host a summit in a bid to eradicate knife crime, while a ‘march against knife crime’ took place in Glasgow on 22 June to highlight the apparent increase in deaths and serious injuries involving bladed weapons among young men. The march was organised by the family of Kory McCrimmon, who died aged 16 after being stabbed in the east end of Glasgow by a 14-year-old boy in 2024.

There have been reported issues of street gangs and the carrying and use of weapons in Glasgow and the wider west of Scotland for more than 150 years. The Scottish Government has drawn attention to the links between poverty and criminogenic outcomes while also highlighting the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and future offending patterns.

Preventing and mitigating ACEs is regarded as a ‘moral imperative’ by the Scottish Government (Scottish Government, 2025). As result of pioneering ACE-aware and trauma-informed interventions via organisations like the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence and a wide range of third-sector youth and outreach organisations, over the past 15 years there has been a significant decline in the type of territorial gang violence incidents that were once commonplace (Deuchar et al, 2021).

Evolving circumstances

However, the unfortunate re-emergence of knife crime incidents, predominantly in the west of Scotland, has come as no surprise to me. While territorial street violence may indeed have declined, my research has shown me that, over the past decade, the activities associated with gangs in Glasgow city’s districts and suburbs and in wider west of Scotland towns have simply been evolving.

I have published a cluster of research papers and books based on my research into Scottish gang culture and its evolving links with organised crime. In recent years, I have conducted extensive interviews with dozens of young men who were mostly in their teens or early 20s. All of the men had grown up in housing schemes in Glasgow and surrounding west of Scotland towns characterised by widespread unemployment and poverty, and many had experienced abuse, neglect and social disadvantage (ie ACEs) within their family homes.

The young men indicated that, having spent some brief time on the streets engaging in territorial violence as young teenagers, the lure of making easy money had led them to begin supplying drugs. McLean’s research (2019) has suggested that youths in Glasgow and the wider west of Scotland have traditionally sold drugs independently of any other person/group. The young men invariably began by supplying cannabis socially to friends or purchased drugs outright and sold to peers.

However, I found a slight, but significant, change in supply practices had occurred, suggesting young people may now more commonly be selling on behalf of older individuals and being paid a fee, or taking a cut for doing so.

Real insight

During an interview with teenager Cammy, he revealed to me that he “sold drugs for an older guy … I was 13 when I did it”. On many occasions it was drug debt, by getting drugs ‘on tick’ (ie buying supplies from dealers with an agreement to pay later), that resulted in young men unwittingly and, initially at least, unintentionally working for older dealers as a means of paying off what they owed. This meant they became engaged in, or part of, an existing supply chain through debt bondage and bonded labour.

In turn, increased drug dependency combined with accepting drug debt from their own peer group could invariably lead to darker repercussions for these same young men. One other young man, Jason, described to me how he “[sold drugs] for about two to three weeks [but] … I was smokin’ my [own] profit … you’re sittin’ thinkin’ to yourself, my pals will pay me it back [because I would smoke it with them] … no, see once you ‘tick’ them, they’re like that, ‘see you after!’. Never see them again and don’t get the money off them, and then if you don’t have the bill money [my dealer] will say they’re smashin’ you.”

Many other youngsters I interviewed also confirmed that violence most commonly now occurs within the context of drug-related debt bondage.

In previous years, older individuals were not as interested in using youth to sell on their behalf in the west of Scotland. Young people would only have been able to move freely around in their own territories, and housing schemes could comprise as little as 200 yards of housing (see Kintrea et al, 2008). Similarly, each territory would usually have had existing dealers who would use territoriality to make efforts to monopolise their own customer pool through fear and intimidation (Deuchar et al, 2021).

The commodity of youth

However, two factors have impacted upon this process, and as such young men may now increasingly be seen by older dealers as a valuable commodity in drug dealing. One factor alluded to above has been the decline in territorial issues among young people. Young people in Glasgow and the wider west of Scotland can, and do, move about much more freely without fear of assault linked to territorial gang issues.

The second factor has been the rise of social media, through which youngsters can now connect and meet up with other youth, not only of similar ages but from all over the country (Shabir et al, 2014).

The young men I interviewed consistently suggested that many older drug dealers now use them to pick up, transport, store and sell drugs because they are easily exploited and manipulated. Ethan described to me how it worked: “If you were in [scheme name], then you’d probably drop to the areas around [scheme name], so like … basically the areas in a circle surrounding it … basically like a bus timetable.” 

In some cases, young men were forced to store drugs for older dealers, or the risk of violence was prevalent, as Fergus described: “I remember [one] wee guy was refusin’ to [store drugs for the older dealer] … so he got [assaulted]. He was 12, and this guy at 19 was hittin’ him.”

Cammy (referred to earlier) also discussed how he would at times sell drugs on the streets of London while in the city with his dealer: “The guy I did it for, he would go to London. He would drive down and up the same day. I went three times with him … dealin’ [drugs in London streets] for [him]. The guy [is about] 20 year[s] old.”

Crossing county lines

While in England young people are sent out from their own towns with drugs to be sold in provincial markets (known as ‘County Lines’ dealing; see Harding, 2020), the young men I interviewed tended to suggest that drugs are most commonly collected from afar before being brought back to Scotland and sold within or around the home town, village or city.

The transition from territorial street violence to drug dependency and distribution has thus given rise to a ‘skeletal’ form of the County Lines practice known to dominate areas in and around London and other large English cities.

Teenagers without gang associations may therefore be recruited by older males to facilitate drug distribution and, in that process, they find they become exploited and made to be dependent through complicity in crime coupled with debt burdens (McLean, 2019; McLean et al, 2019; Deuchar et al, 2021).

I would suggest that it is predominantly these issues that are giving rise to the apparent recent escalation of knife carrying and violence among our most disadvantaged young men. Carrying a knife for protection against the threat of violence from exploitative older dealers (who themselves may be as young as aged 18-20) is combined with the performance of violence among individuals and their peer group market within the context of debt bondage.

Lessons for the law

These insights provide important implications for solicitors and judges to ensure that they adopt an ACE-aware and trauma-informed approach. When young men appear in court in connection with knife crime, violence and/or drug distribution, the legal profession can and should prioritise a problem-solving approach.

South Lanarkshire Council Justice Social Work recently established an Alcohol and Drug Problem Solving Court (AD PSC). It is the first of its kind in Scotland in that it not only addresses problematic drug or alcohol use specifically, but also seeks to bridge the underlining complexities of substance use by tackling both.

A recent evaluation I conducted with my colleague and fellow criminologist Dr Robert McLean found the discursive and compassionate approach used within the PSC to be of huge benefit in re-engaging service users. The sheriffs we interviewed highlighted that they always tried to talk to the service users directly while in court, and that the generation of compassion and empathy helped to regain trust. One service user described his surprise at the approach being used: “I was quite shocked. You actually stand up and speak to the judge. I’ve never spoke to the judge before.”

Another highlighted the way in which it made him feel supported and more engaged in his rehabilitation journey: “My experiences with sheriffs were ‘yes, sir’ but this guy would talk to you, like ‘how are you feeling?’, ‘do you recognise this was wrong?’ –  it never felt like a judge, but someone who was caring, someone who was actually interested …”

Valuable engagement

The emphasis on sheriffs and judges engaging in dialogue with service users allowed the service users the ability to engage with a criminal justice system that traditionally involves their processing but without their input. It likewise allowed the service user to receive feedback from those in positions of authority that support, encourage and offer appraisal and recognition of their efforts to break negative cycles of behaviour.

In concluding the process, sheriffs and judges imposed action plans which the service users developed in conjunction with the South Lanarkshire Recovery Orientated Justice Service (ROJS) team. They were then referred to relevant statutory and third sector services that supported them in their recovery journeys. An initial four-week review would be set. Thereafter, reviews could be set in accordance with the level of intervention needed.

Youth violence is clearly re-emerging in some of our most disadvantaged communities, triggered by the increasing tendency for young men to use and distribute drugs on behalf of retail-level street dealers – who in turn are most likely manipulated by higher market echelons within organised crime groups. Accordingly, I believe that problem-solving approaches like those used in South Lanarkshire Council need to be mainstreamed in our courts.

Solicitors, advocates and judges have the capacity to draw upon a blended statutory and third sector service provision combined with genuine courtroom dialogue. to provide vulnerable young men with a public health, trauma-informed strategy. Thus initiating recovery-oriented treatment and the prevention of further exploitation. Drawing on research-informed expert witness evidence and insights from case studies like my own may be one important aspect in facilitating this approach.

References

Deuchar, R, McLean, R and Holligan, C (2021) Gangs, Drugs and Youth Adversity: Continuity and Change. Bristol: Policy Press.

Harding, S. (2020) County Lines: Exploitation and drug Dealing among Urban Street Gangs. Bristol University Press.

Kintrea, K., Bannister, J., Pickering, J., Reid, M., & Suzuki, N. (2008) Young People and Territoriality in British Cities. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 6.

McLean, R (2019) Gangs, Drugs and (Dis)Organised Crime. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

McLean, R, Densley, JA and Deuchar, R (2019) ‘Situating gangs within Scotland’s illegal drugs market(s),’ Trends in Organized Crime, 21(2):147-171.

Scottish Government (2025) ‘Psychological trauma and adversity including ACEs’

Shabir, G, Hameed, Y, Safdar, G and Gilani, S (2014) ‘The impact of social media on youth: A case study of

Bahawalpur City,’ Asian Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 3(4):132-151.