Does the UK have a gang problem? Justify your answer.

Street culture is very popular, as seen from the style of dress and typical rap music that is copied and incorporated by young people who see it as a way of life. It is not surprising then that they wish to replicate on the street what they feel is part of their culture. However a variety of sub-cultures are in existence yet we do not stereotype the ones that listen to rock music or wear all black as knife wielding, gun shooting, criminals. On the other hand, street culture is associated more with lower class poverty stricken groups and sub-cultural theorists argue that certain groups in society have values and attitudes that are conducive to crime and violence, that is, the street sub-culture. The need for economic dependence, protection, respect and status governs the street culture, and according to Social Disorganisation Theory, in the poorest zones of the city these forms of behaviour become the cultural norm and transmit from generation to generation, allowing children to grow up with the idea that gang participation is normal and possibilities of success through the gang and the ravage effects are a normal consequence of life. If the UK believes that it has a problem now with the issue of gangs, it will become progressively worse as this sub-culture grows and normalises and becomes part of mainstream society in the way that the Crips and the Bloods terrorise the streets of Los Angeles.

Frederick Thrasher confirmed the work of those in the Chicago School, finding that the gang neighbourhoods were those of single-parent families, of low education, and consisting of mainly welfare cases. This enables these gangs to become a youth's reference group where main values, beliefs, and goals are formed and, in a sense, also became a family, offering a sense of belonging and self-esteem. For many joining a gang is due to the fact that the gang is an acceptable substitute for a family and offers a sense of belonging that many lack. It offers security and protection that some do not have at home and ironically the fear of a gang makes them seek out affiliation to a gang in order to be safe. If their local area has a multitude of gangs, then rather be at the mercy of all, it is certainly logical to have the back up of one and have one less gang to worry about. In this sense the UK’s gang problem will forever increase as more people feel the need to join a gang in the hope of staying safe in their community. With the appalling gang initiation rites, (that could involve acting out acts of violence against ones own family in order to demonstrate loyalty to the gang), and the ever increasing acts of violence that being in a gang requires, the UK gang problem could become as devastating as the US.  

On the other hand, if we contrast the United Kingdom with the United States, one can argue that the gang problem in the UK is relatively minor and cannot be perceived as a real problem. However it could be that the UK is just on a much smaller scale in comparison, and eventually we will be on par with our cousins across the pond. Guns can be just as easily obtainable in the UK as they are in the US and many youngsters in urban communities know how to be in possession of one. From recent statistics we can see that 70 youngsters died at the hands of gangs in the UK in 2008, and the police have identified more than a 170 street gangs in London alone. This may be minimal in comparison with the US statistics but it is essentially equivalent if we take into account the immense size of the US cities. So could the UK problem ever get to the same extent as the US?. We have gangs that control territories using violence in order to maximise their profits from the drugs trade, members that carry knives is customary and those that carry guns are the start of the norm. Furthermore, ASBO’s are badges of honour for the younger generation and prison sentences are even more revered and respected. It parallels with LA's infamous South Central district in the early 1980's, “right about the time that the gang problem exploded onto the streets to be followed by three decades of bloodshed.” Seemingly, the gang problem in the UK is becoming more of an epidemic as children are afraid to walk to school for fear of walking across a gang territory.

In complete contrast, it can be argued that this fear of the gang and the violence it portrays is completely unjustified. There is very little criminological research on gangs in the UK. In particular, there is a severe lack of knowledge that deciphers any difference between gang members and non-gang members from similar social backgrounds. This apparent lack of empirical data allows for people to create and elaborate on their own fears and unwarranted opinions. There is no established gang research tradition in the UK and attempts to apply American gang theory to the UK resulted in the discovery of street corner societies as mentioned earlier. The lack of definition to what constitutes a gang means that these groups of youths can not be analysed in the gang context. The police consider a gang to be a “group of professional criminals involved in extortion, drug dealing, robbery and dealing stolen or counterfeit goods”. However, this definition is contested among academics yet regardless of the differing definitions, gang membership in the UK is no more then 3-7 per cent of the youthful population. This could be contributed to the fact that urban violence is not completely contributed to by gangs alone, but other factors such as individual violent criminals not involved with gangs and violence committed by gang members but are not actually gang related. These acts are portrayed by the police and the media as gang related due to the drug related scenario or the weapons used, but invariably it is no more then two offenders committing the offence. Consequently, using these acts as proof of empirical data is misguided and fictitious.

The media do have a tendency to label a mass of different situation as gang related in order to sell papers and create hype about Britain’s streets of today. However, urban violence is mainly connected with volatile peer groups where “crime and delinquency is not intrinsic” to the group as it is of the gang as it is typically defined today. It could be argued here that the concept of the gang is being taken too literally and the members of these groups who commit criminal acts and who carry knives, (even if only for protection) are still just as unmanageable as the real gangs who terrorise the neighbourhoods. The same can be said for ‘organised crime groups’ which incorrectly flag the label of ‘gang’ by both the media and higher levels of authorities. Politicians often use these ‘epidemics’ to their advantage as a basis of their policies to increase their votes. By taking the ‘gang’ and making it so much more of a threat, they increase the fear of crime and therefore aim to increase the public support in their party when there aims are to tackle these fears. The idea that ‘postcode wars’ are a new phenomenon, to promote the fear of gangs, is completely absurd as history shows us that straying outside your territory in working class areas is evident well before this current obsession with ‘turf wars’. From this we can argue that the UK does not have a problem with gangs, but it can’t be argued that it doesn’t have a problem with volatile groups of youths, which surely in essence are the same delinquent nature as that of the gangs.         

However, this idea that they are one and the same is the concept that the media take to apply the gang label to almost any group that causes social disquiet. This overly sensationalises a substantial amount of unsupported claims and stories, adding to the unnecessary propaganda already in force. This causes the small amount of actual gangs that are in existence and are a slight concern, into a huge problem for the UK. Subsequently, it eventually publicises gangs so that young children feel drawn to the ‘glamour’ and therefore, the unjustified dilemma of the gang does in fact become a huge needless problem. In addition to the media, Merton’s strain theory explains also how youths find themselves drawn to the life of gang culture. There is a gap between cultural goals and structural constraints which gives rise to status frustration as they cannot get status in mainstream society and feel that joining a gang gives them this respect that they cannot otherwise achieve. The concept of differential opportunity whereby there is more then one way in society to achieve success means that through differential association, that is, associating with a gang, one is far more likely to do the things that a gang does in order to achieve success, namely drugs. Therefore with the media publicising and sensationalising gangs, the music glamorising gangs, and the lack of any other route available to the youths of poverty induced neighbourhoods, then the gang problem in the UK is likely to be like that of the US in the near future. It can be stated that although the problem is exaggerated now, it could become as dire as control agents make it out to be in quite a short space of time.

The attention that the gang has received has led to the mistaken conclusion that it alone is the problem and main cause of urban violence and thus the solution is suppressing the gang. This fails to acknowledge the fact that “poverty, diminishing welfare and collapse of social systems” is among the main problems of the UK rather then suggesting that the gang is the problem. The use of the word ‘gang’ is used with reference to collectively describe the problem of street violence. It has only negative connotations and consequently provides a ready made ‘suitable enemy’ that is excluded form the normal ‘good’ society, with members seen as outsiders and dangerous. There is a reaction formation among the gang because of this, inverting middle-class values to strike back at this stereotypical prejudice image and the system that has let them down.  It can be argued therefore that the UK does have a gang problem, with reference to the limitations fixed on lower level working class areas, but it can also be argued that the gang is not a problem but it is the youths with seemingly no prospects and opportunities available to them that are the real problem the UK should tackle.

The gang is merely a way in which authorities can clamp down on youths on the street who act anti-socially and make nuisances of themselves. Taking the idea of volatile peer groups and turning them into fear-provoking gangs, when realistically they have an intermittent and occasional relationship to crime and violence whereas the gang has a far more intimate one and thus deserves the reputation it has. The problem with gangs is that the people who are victimised are normally within the same neighbourhood, and the same class of people, who may never report their plight for hatred of the police and for fear of reprisal from the gang itself and therefore the true extent of the gang is never fully realised. The media get a whisper of a murder where a man who may be involved with drugs is shot, and suddenly there is a gang war, but the actual victims of the gangs never get their story across and thus the problem of the gang in the UK can be perceived as much worse. The gang still moves hidden under a smokescreen, “Gangs don't hang around street corners where you can see them - they're much more sophisticated that that”, their full extent can never be recognised and this is what makes them a problem for the UK.

        In conclusion, these is some evidence from national newspapers and government reports that the number of gangs and gang members in the UK is increasing, with reports of street gangs involved in serious violent offences and interviews with young children confirming that they know how to obtain a gun. However, this is quite a stereotypical image which alerts us to the fact that there is a severe lack of criminological research on gangs within the UK. The US research should not be used to analyse the UK context as the two are very different. Labelling groups of youths as gangs also aids in escalating the problem of the gang as they are being pushed towards a life of crime by becoming resentful towards the society that labels them anti-social and therefore a gang. Shadow Home Secretary says the label does not matter, “The public are not bothered about what people who commit crime and anti-social behaviour are called.” But something must be done to counter the appeal of gang culture in the UK. However, if the only role model available to children in deprived areas is the local drug dealer with the luxurious car and money flowing from his pockets then the gang problem will continue to worsen as legitimate means of succeeding will become redundant. Finally, I believe that the UK does have a gang problem that possibly only those in the areas where gangs reside can possibly know the full extent of the terror that this brings.

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