Policy Denial of New Gang Cities

Abstract

The chapter presents the findings of empirical research commissioned by a police service in a northern county at a time of gang denial. The data collected clearly demonstrated that groups, which accorded with the definition of youth gangs in Dying To Belong (A relatively durable, predominantly street based group of young people who (1) see themselves (and are seen by others) as a discernable group, (2) engage in a range of criminal activity and violence, (3) identify with or lay claim over territory, (4) have some form of identifiable structural feature, and (5) are in conflict with other similar gangs) (CSJ in Dying to belong: An in-depth review of street gangs in Britain. Author, London, UK, 2009), existed and were active in the area. However, the regional multi-agency group tasked with addressing serious youth group offending in the research area at that time had little choice but to effectively disregard the research findings in favour of the dominant policy approach of the Youth Justice Board (YJB). At that time the YJB favoured a more idealistic approach, which discouraged the use of the term “gangs” as it feared that by labelling groups in this way young people would be encouraged to participate in gang culture, (Young et al. 2007). The chapter considers the connections made between theory and policy by the YJB in defining gangs and the impact this had for local practice. It is interesting to note that in 2018 subsequently 9 years following the disregarded research which identified significant gang activity and identified youth pedagogical practices to ameliorate harm the Home office awarded “The County” £1,121,395, for a youth intervention project to target vulnerable young people or those linked with gangs, while other measures planned focus on employing key-workers and engaging communities to reduce gang related violence.