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ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between social exclusion, drugs and crime. It begins with a discussion of the social and economic factors which shape the lives of the excluded and the linkages with these and the drugs/crime 'nexus'. The traumatic consequences of these relationships are then explored through discussion of one socially excluded place (a housing estate in the North East of England) where crime and drug abuse thrived, and where the agencies who sought to tackle it felt frustrated and powerless to overcome it.
Introduction
Social exclusion has recently become a central part of Labour politicians' and liberal academics' vocabularies. Initially used 'as a term to describe lack of involvement with the labour market' social exclusion now encompasses 'processes (which) are dynamic and multi-dimensional in nature ... linked not only to unemployment, and/or to low incomes but also to housing conditions, levels of education, and opportunities, health, discrimination, citizenship and integration in the local community' (Warburton, 1998, p. 16).
This article explores the social and economic factors which fundamentally shape the experience of those living in some of Britain's most deprived areas and the manifestations of exclusion on one housing estate in the North-East of England where crime and drug abuse thrived, and where the agencies who sought to tackle it felt frustrated and powerless to overcome it.
The Context
Profound social and economic changes in Britain and across the globe resulting from economic restructuring and de-industrialization (Lash & Urry, 1994) have generated widespread male unemployment and had a devastating impact on some of the poorest communities. We increasingly occupy a world characterized by uncertainty (Giddens, 1991) and `dangerously unequal ways of living, (Safier, 1993, p. 34) where 'about 14 million people-one in four of the British population-live in households with incomes ... below half the national average' (Kempson, 1996, p. 1). 'While most areas have benefited from rising living standards, the poorest neighbourhoods have tended to become more rundown, more prone to crime, and more cut off from the labour marke' (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998, p. 1). These factors shape the life chances of millions of children who, even after poverty, family background and baseline ability are accounted for, suffer additional disadvantage in school performance and employment (Robertson & Symons, 1996).