Crime In The East End Summary

Lush life although stated in the title to be about the entirety of the UK focuses mainly upon the East End of London. It is the third of Dick Hobbs books in which also are on the topic of crime In the East End. The book looks to explain the reasons as to why crime has emerged and the factors in which impacts this, for example social changes are often as a result of economic and political factors for example an economic crash.

The book gives an insight into the life of criminals through anecdotes which see Hobbs listening in and speaking to those who live in the lifestyle of organised crime. Aspects of these stories he shares are interesting and give a different perspective to the understanding of the criminals, however they begin to become

Hobbs goes on to talk about where he grew up and the fact that in his area crime was an integral part of life, whether you experienced it passively or were actively apart of it as a lifestyle. His upbringing could explain the tone of the book and why he is so pro criminal. “My concern is primarily with deviance as an everyday feature of life, an activity that is integral to urban existence.”

Despite the many downfalls of the book, it does have some saving graces, for example the patterns Hobbs draws upon within the book give the reader an understanding of the UK during the 20th century. The book explains how American culture and TV played apart in shaping crime in the East end, “American cultural products have been enormously influential on the imaginary construction of organised

An interesting feature of the book is the insight Hobbs gives us into the government and their obliviousness toward organised crime itself and how ill equipped they really were to deal with the threat that it posed, the book states that elements of criminal organisation existed long before the term “organised crime” itself actually emerged.

Chapter two goes onto depict the reaction of law enforcement to crime and arguably their overreaction, very quickly many branches of the police force and other government branches appeared for example the RCS. It is further expanded later in the chapter, when it goes on to speak about the further developments of crime forces, and the book then goes on to talk about the long attempts to create a global front vs the drug trade organised crime. Not only does Hobbs look at the benefits and the growth of crime units, he also explains their inefficiencies. “The SOCA adopted a number of explicitly American inspired approaches, in order to target the 130 “Mr Bigs” of UK crime. With over 4000 staff and a budget of more than £400