Existing research on young people has tended to ignore the different ways in which young people get by, grow up and make transitions to adulthood in areas labelled as socially excluded.

This study focuses on one particularly deprived area. It explores how young people from the same place, facing the same limited opportunities and with similar socio-economic backgrounds, follow diverse routes into early adulthood, with strikingly different results. Using in-depth qualitative accounts, the report stresses the importance of understanding the way that moving from school-to-work, housing issues and family relationships interact with young people’s experience of criminal activities and drug use.