Flexible cultural repertoires: Young men avoiding offending and victimization in township areas of Cape Town

Abstract

Despite extensive studies of street culture and the risks of offending and victimization in urban marginalized areas, little is known about the role of cultural repertoires for variation in victimization risks among young men not involved in crime. Based on two ethnographic studies, conducted independently of the authors in neighbouring township areas of Cape Town, we offer insights into patterns of victimization among young men not involved in crime who live and attend school in the townships. Young men who perform decent cultural repertoires are highly exposed to victimization due to their moral rejection of crime-involved youth. Young men who perform flexible cultural repertoires, by incorporating and shifting between gang and decent repertoires, experience low victimization due to their adaptation to crime-involved youth. Findings emphasize the importance of detailed investigations of the way varying cultural repertoires, in particularly heterogeneous flexible repertoires, influence offending and victimization patterns among young men in high-risk settings.