Youth Gangs in the UK

How different are they from their American counterparts?

Judith Aldridge, Juanjo Medina, Robert RalphsUniversity of Manchester, UK

Outline: comparisons to US gangs

1. Context and background

2. Prevalence

3. History & evolution

4. Structure, organisation, drug dealing

5. Culture

6. Ethnicity

7. Violence

Context

UK: objections to gang research Create moral panics

Demonise young people ‘ASBOs’ ‘Hoodies’

Stigmatise young people, communities

Reinforce, glorify, perpetuate, even ‘create’ gangs

Nothing new to see here: in UK, groups are the same as we’ve been seeing/studying for decades

Top headlines in Guardian newspaper search ‘Turf war among drug gangs blamed as

youth, 17, dies after shooting’

‘Drug gangs rampant in top Dublin youth jail’

‘Youths pick chic Paris mall for gang rumble’

‘Gang chased youth, 16, and stabbed him to death, court told’

References to ‘youth’ ‘gangs’ in Guardian newspaper

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1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Academic papers with ‘youth/street gangs’ and UK, Britain, England

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

UK: Why we persist

Use of term ‘gang’ in UK not new

Must remedy predominant focus in research, police & journalistic accounts on ethnic minority youth

Must balance journalistic accounts that glorify gangs

Policy transfer from USA NOW occurring

Demystify gangs

Challenge overly punitive official responses: schools, government, police

Context: conclusion

Discussion about gangs is ‘newer’

Different research ‘history’ (focus more on youth subcultures, not gangs)

More wariness/fear of the label by academics, policy makers But actual use of the term increasing in the

last five years particularly

Prevalence

Prevalence YOCJS: (10-19 year olds)

3% in street gangs, group existed 3m or more, group commits crime together

NEW-ADAM: (arrestees 17 and over) 4% in a gang with name and territory

Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime (13 year olds) 3.5% of 13 year old in a gang with a name & special saying or

sign

Communities that Care (11 – 17 year olds) 4% in London in a gang with a name and a territory

Staying Safe Study (14 schools in south of England) 3.9% in an ‘offending gang’

Prevalence: conclusion

Difficult to say because of variations in measurement, samples, age groups BUT:

Possibly broadly similar to US Nevertheless, undoubtedly lots of very

interesting differences, but research isn’t quite there yet to disentangle them

Some comparative research currently under way

YOGEC: Research design and methods

ESRC funded ethnographic study: 2 years fieldwork

3 neighbourhoods in large English city

Group Characteristics; Drug use and dealing; Violence; Ethnicity; Gender; Community relations; and Lifecourse (onset and desistance)

100+ interviews - gang ‘members’, ‘associates’ (friends, girlfriends, relatives), key informants (e.g. police, youth workers, local government)

9 focus groups - non-gang involved young people, parents, & representatives of community/statutory agencies

History

History RC gangs going back 2 decades, even 100+ years

In Inner West we documented history going back to 80s and early 90s Predominantly ethnic minority youth Drawn to informal economy for standard of living above basic

survival Specialist drugs gangs operating open drugs markets In pyramid structures, dealing heroin & crack

By late 90s until now: Open to closed markets (mobile phones, police crackdowns) Heroin and crack to cannabis Gang coordinated to individual dealing Greater to lesser earnings

Combined with legitimate income sources

History: conclusion

Likely very similar history of gangs

RC was unusual in this specialist ‘drugs gangs’ status in the UK Evidence anecdotal, police

In a similar way, American has research identified these specialist ‘drugs gangs’ in some cities (e.g. Chicago)

But like the UK, in the US, specialist drugs gangs are rare even if drug dealing is common

Structure, organisation,

drug dealing

Structure, organisation, drug dealing

Little evidence of hierarchy in these same gangs No evidence that X and Y were ‘leaders’ or ‘running’ this gang In contrast to heroin in cocaine the vast majority of the dealing we

identified was cannabis Most dealing not gang co-ordinated – sold individually, 2/3s Individuals kept all their own profits No evidence of dealers being paid a wage at the lower levels

(though this did happen with ‘runners’, though nothing like at this level)

Members do not live extravagantly, more concerned with status No "card-carrying" members, loose affiliation

But this view amongst police ‘new’, does it arise as a result of our report? In all our research, referred to clear affiliations

Structure, organisation, drug dealing: conclusion Probably very similar for most US youth gangs

Specialist (e.g. drugs) youth gangs in US are the exception rather than the rule True of UK too

Exception: we found one specialist girl gang – highly organised, shared profits from illegal activities, role differentiated - got the job done, did so without violence or the threat of it But! Key members of group were sisters/relatives of

highly involved male gang members, group virtually disbanded now

Culture

Culture Gang ‘joining’ probably not that useful a term

No recruitment Consistent with the formation of neighbourhood and school

friendship groups To ‘join’ more about developing different kinds of relationships with

existing contacts Self-protection, labelling and taking advantage of illegal

opportunities define the ‘difference’

Cultural identifiers No initiation rituals (though ‘proving oneself’ sometimes discussed) Few/no identifiers like colours, tattoos, hand signs Few ‘codes of conduct’ (though a few are patchily referred to and

almost always betrayed) Few/no organised meetings Some of these things may be changing – especially through social

networking sites (e.g. MySpace)

Culture: conclusion

The process of ‘joining’ is probably very similar to the US The idea of ‘joining’ in both US and UK based

on stereotyped media image

US likely to have more rituals and cultural signifiers Even though there are signs this is changing

Ethnicity

Media & political discourse around gangs and race Strong media & political tendency to present

black community as responsible for gang problems:

Tony Blair, April 2007:

“The black community – the vast majority of whom in these communities are decent, law-abiding people horrified at what is happening – need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids.”

Ethnicity

NEW-ADAM: Majority of gang members are white

Edinburgh Study on Youth Transitions and Crime: 94.3% of the sample were white and so were the overwhelming majority of gang members

Offending Crime and Justice Survey (2004): there is little to suggest ethnic differences or a particular over-representation of young black males in gangs

YOGEC: in predominantly white areas, we found gangs were mostly white; in areas with the highest concentration of black ethnic minorities, we found gangs that were mostly black

Ethnicity: surprise! Areas with higher ethnic (black) population received media and

policy attention Police claimed not to use race as defining criteria, but do! Whilst: much more gun violence there (reflects police priorities)

But white gangs also used guns! Thus greater vulnerability of black youth to discriminatory,

aggressive, intrusive policing White areas complained of ‘discriminatory neglect’!

Black community leaders: stuck Recognised gun/gang violence in their communities

(empowering?) But drawbacks to ‘racialising’ the gang problem

negative stereotypes about black people, ‘suspect’ community, allows for simplistic explanations, legitimisation of inadequate interventions, police harassment

Ethnicity: conclusion

Immigration history, ethnic make-up very different UK: shorter, less (8%), different groups

Indian sub-continent, Caribbean and Africa US: longer, more (~ 30+%)

Hispanic/Latino & Black American

UK less geographically segregated Highest ethnic minority areas in RC still mostly white We do not have racial ghettos (by definition)

Gangs arise in areas of deprivation, and their ethnic composition reflects the composition of the neighbourhoods that spawn them

Violence

How different is contextof violence in the US and UK? In relation to gun crime & homicide:

US > UK St Louis > Research City

BUT!

Research City ~ St Louis

Firearm violence in Research City

Firearm violence for last 20 years relatively high in RC for the British context

Disproportionately concentrated in Inner West

Victims and perpetrators often/mostly gang affiliated

Violence in RC gangs Gangs did not ‘specialise’ in violence, generally tried to avoid it

But! Violence symbolically and rhetorically important Potential often present; references to, memories of, violence

Idea of ‘trigger happy’ gangster motivated to protect reputation Alternate conflict resolution strategies employed

Conflict within gangs as important as conflict between gangs More ‘important’ day-to-day About: business, friendships, romantic relationships,

family – same for most of us Jealousy and debt recovery were key – came up over and

over – generally, these are likely within not between gangs

Violence and drugs markets

Violence was linked to drug sales, but not disputes over markets/customers Instead, ‘taxing’ other dealers (same &

different gangs) Played role in gang members arming

themselves

Even in the hey-day of Inner West specialist drugs gangs, conflict only rarely about drugs markets

Unacknowledged trauma

References to violence, and exposure to violence as victims, perpetrators and witnesses was part of everyday conversation and growing up

Ex-girlfriend of key gang member explains: ‘There was that many shootings at the time that it was

just normal, it was sad and everything, but then a couple of days later you would have forgotten about it and somebody else would have been shot’ (30 year old woman)

Interview with female gang member, sister of male gang member I lost the plot when I seen that poor – when I seen

that poor boy got shot dead, and in front of me. I could have took that bullet, it could have been me dead. I had the Regional Crime Squad, I had the Murder Squad at me door. Do you know what I mean? I was getting phone calls – shit myself. I thought, “I’ve gotta get the fuck out of the city. I’ve gotta get away.” And I couldn’t cope with what I’d seen, and I cracked up and went to me doctor’s. The police weren’t interested, they just wanted to get me statement, I told them to sling it. Do you know what I mean? Went to me doctor’s, told him, you know um, “I’ve seen someone shot.” And he said, “Well you shouldn’t put yourself in them situations, should you?”

Violence

Different gangs, different violence Inner West: having, holding, accessing, using

guns all important re: gang status Far West: valued the masculinity of physical

fights (being ‘handy’) as opposed to ‘cowardly’ resort to guns

But access to guns (‘real’ and ‘replica’) common across all gangs/research sites

Sources of violence Most violence emanated from interpersonal disputes

often about friends, family and romantic relationships

Not linked to disputes about drug markets Jealousy and debt motivated a considerable degree

of within-gang conflict

Association (by blood or company) to other gang members was a ‘risk factor’ for bullying and victimisation By other gangs, by police

‘Unsolved’ violence (esp. murders) by police resulted in violent ‘vendettas’ among these gangs (‘crime as social control’) Glorified in plethora of recent journalistic books

Violence: conclusion

Suspect many similarities Research in UK early days But lack of connection between violence and

drugs markets consistent

Our focus on ‘within gang’ conflict not discussed widely in the US Does not necessarily point to cross-national

differences Could be our research focus.

Conclusions

Gangs in Research City

Not well-organised profit making hierarchical criminal enterprises with an interest on franchising themselves and active recruitment

But “bunch of kids with guns”, small minority older members involved in more serious money-making criminal activities

Cultural identity as ‘gang’ not as institutionalised as in the US

Drug sales now mostly individual activity, not controlled by the gang, although sometimes involving some cooperation and division of labour

Any questions?