Gen Z is not alone: Generation knife crime and the covid-19 epidemic crisis.
Georgia Gouga, PhD
Abstract
Empirical work that examines the profile of young people finds that the generational characteristics of young people currently evolving in violent situations are more complex than the literature would lead an observer to expect. Empirical literature, researchers, and professionals that study the ‘knife crime epidemic’ correspond to symptom clusters that put youth at risk because of various underlying socio-economic issues. The continuum of crisis in Greece and its socio-economic consequences has exposed pre-existing social protection problems and the weaknesses of the welfare state. In the context of the present study, the continuum of crisis can be considered as a framework for understanding and interpreting the actions of social subjects, where the pandemic crisis followed the refugee and the Greek socio-economic debt crisis. The current paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the underlying assumption that according to their generational characteristics young people in Greece exposed to crisis and risk situations, with adverse childhood experiences, learning difficulties, living in poverty, or excluded from school are more likely to be vulnerable to involvement in knife crime. Daily obstacles such as poverty and risk caused by the weakness and sometimes absence of social policy mechanisms are associated with deviant behaviors and ultimately lead young people in Greek society to deviance, trapping into dystopian conditions.