I read a feature earlier this year in this very magazine that investigated the gang problem in inner-city Birmingham (YPN, 4-10 January 2006, p14). The piece illustrated just how bad a gang situation can get. It got me thinking about whether or not we have a gang problem nationwide.
Where I live in west London we definitely don't. We have some menacing behaviour around here, but this is quite rare. Still, you wouldn't know this was the case if you heard some local residents talk. Many mistake groups of young people for organised gangs.
First off, it is natural for young people to hang around in groups. Round here people call these groups "clicks" (cliques). Although we have some in-fighting, the cliques live in the same area, come from the same family and they went to school or grew up together.
This, of course, is not the same as a gang. A gang is an organised group of people who adhere to the gang's expectations. They deliberately partake in serious crime. The distinction between the two is crucial. A clique is a more natural state of affairs, easier to manage by the police, parents, the community and local authorities; most of the time they don't need any managing at all. Gangs, on the other hand, are premeditated and dangerous.
Perhaps some professionals are talking up the gang problem to make themselves feel important. If society insinuates to young people that they are in gangs when they aren't, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our young people will become paranoid, suspecting that everyone else is in a gang except them, and then feel obliged to join one for their own safety.
As for intervening in gang activity, this has to be approached with a clear understanding of how they operate and their culture. Many interventions only take into consideration the normal influence of social deprivation but often fail to tackle more complex, external influences like music. This is why so many programmes of intervention ultimately fail. The cruder, more aggressive hip-hop figures are fuelling the growth of gangs and giving them affirmation. Unless there is a strong and uniform response to this aspect of our culture, I fear that the gang problem could grow.
- Shaun Bailey runs MyGeneration, a charity that helps young people and their families, and is a research fellow for the Centre for Young Policy Studies, shaun.bailey@haymarket.com.
