A 26-month Economic and Social Research Council-funded study, Youth Gangs in an English City, which covered six "gang areas" of an unidentified city, found that "well-resourced, purpose-built facilities for young people" remained "empty and underused", with young people refusing to frequent them "due to fear of harassment or even drive-by shootings from rival gangs".
The investigation, published in Journal of Youth Studies, found that young people are often labelled as gang members because of where they live or where they go, including "certain youth and community buildings".
Authors Robert Ralphs, Juanjo Medina and Judith Aldridge from the University of Manchester said "police employed similar strategies to those of rival gangs when evaluating whether someone was a gang member, most often based on being seen in the company of known gang members".
The report cites cases of non-gang members being excluded from youth facilities, community events and schools because they were wrongly identified as gang members.
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