The Lost Boyz

A Dark Side of Graffiti

Rollins, Justin

• Publisher: Waterside Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781904380672
• eBook ISBN: 9781908162243
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

A rare first-hand account of disaffected youth. Contains countless lessons for young people who might be attracted to crime (and anyone involved with them socially or professionally). Aged just fourteen and using the name 'Sevens', the author went from being a bullied child to leader of the Warriorz, a group of London street kids involved in graffiti-tagging and other crimes including a series of violent encounters. Eventually given a substantial custodial sentence for an attack with a meat cleaver on the London Underground, Justin Rollins became determined to steer other young people away from such a life. The Lost Boyz tells the story of his descent into a form of madness in which self-destruction, anger, wanton behaviour and fear lie at the core. Not before has a book taken the reader so far inside the minds of troubled youths as the author and his companions—some of whom did not survive or also ended up in prison—gradually realise that there is no easy escape from their chaotic lifestyle. Their need to gain respect from and stay credible with each other stems from offending, alienation, living on the margins of society and crazy behaviour—all of which serve as barriers to rejoining the normal world and going straight. The book contains countless lessons for young people who might be attracted to crime just as it does for anyone interested in youth offending, gang culture, criminology, mental health issues or that period of modern English social History when the unofficial decoration of walls, fences, trains and buses became a telling symbol of disaffected youth.

Index

Symbols

706 32, 34, 47, 51, 108

999 136

A

abuse

abusive behaviour 89

screaming abuse 58

accident and emergency 90

actual bodily harm (ABH) 73

adapting 150

adrenalin 25, 93, 109

alcohol 54, 60, 62, 72, 80, 82, 85, 86, 90, 100, 108, 111, 112, 113, 123, 126, 152, 156

spirits 78

alcoholism 60, 62, 65, 90

alleyways 77, 83, 93, 95, 108, 125

ambition

lack of ambition 89

anger 123, 147, 156, 158

annoying people 57

anxiety 55, 89, 120, 130, 135, 137, 141, 153, 158

arrest 45, 82, 83, 95, 114, 115, 117, 133, 154

arson 25

Asians 98, 110, 115, 126

Asian-looking 109, 114, 144

assault 31

assessment 150

association 137, 151

B

bad

bad influence 91

badness 47

Baf/Bafler 34, 35

bag of bones 119

bail 45, 47, 111, 129, 132...

Table of contents

• Copyright and Publication Details
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• About the author
• In memory of
• Born and Bred
• Going Off the Rails
• The Railway Children
• Runaways and Robberies
• Mind Games
• Porridge and On the Buses
• The House of Horrors
• Warriorz Come Out to Play
• When Morden Became a War Zone
• One Too Many Psychopaths
• Rich Pickings in the Smoky City
• Come Home Joe
• Once We Were Warriorz
• The Train to Hell
• Persistent Young Offenders
• Crazy Buster and the Bully Boys
• Loony Bin Number One ....
• Self-harmer Central
• Epilogue
• Index
• Waterside Press: Putting justice into words
• Also by Justin Rollins