Don't label youth groups 'gangs' - report » Central Government » 24dash.com

Youths who hang around committing crime and anti-social behaviour should not be described as gangs, the Youth Justice Board said today.

Using the term to describe groups of youths was "inappropriate" and could actually make their activities worse, a major study on gangs suggested.

Instead of the phrase "gang-related" the report used the term "group-related", although it declined to coin a new definition of what constituted a gang.

"Recently there has been a noticeable trend towards referring to groups of young people indiscriminately as gangs," said the 200-page study.

"This is not appropriate and it could exacerbate the extent and seriousness of group-related offending or create problems where none previously existed.

"Juvenile gangs do exist in some urban areas, but most young people involved in group offending do not belong to gangs, even if others label them in this way."

It went on: "Many young people interviewed for this study resented the way in which the term had come to be used to describe any group of young people involved in anti-social behaviour.

"They felt adults attached the label to them simply on the basis that they were young and met in a group, assuming that crime was their main purpose for meeting.

"In fact, the label conjured up an image with which they might not want to be associated, even where they were involved in offending - not least because in some cases they knew from their own local experience what real gangs were and several of the young women in particular had suffered at their hands."

However, others could find the gang image "seductive" on the back of gangster movies and "gangsta"-style black music, it added.

Professionals working in youth crime, such as Youth Offending Team staff, were also concerned about indiscriminate use of the term "gang", said the study.

"Some echoed the concerns ... that this would encourage young people who offended in groups to become involved in more serious crimes."

It recommended giving schools more information about when a child had become a victim of crime outside school, or when a family member had been released from jail.

Expertise of foster parents and care home staff also should be drawn on urgently, it said.

Chris Stanley of crime reduction charity Nacro said: "The YJB is right to highlight the fact that although a lot of young people who offend do so in groups, that does not mean that they are part of a gang.

"The confusion over this distinction simply leads to the glamorisation of gang membership and increased fear amongst young people.

"Although there is clear evidence that gangs exist, they are still relatively rare and tend to be run by older people involved in the drugs trade.

"Young people need increased opportunities to get engaged with mainstream activities, alternative activities to keep them from offending, and intensive work for those who are offending."

Joyce Moseley, chief executive of Rainer, a charity which offers help and support to young people, said: "The findings of this research are absolutely echoed by what we are told by young people and our experience working in communities across the country.

"Like all young people, those involved in gangs look for leaders and aspire to be like those in their local community who are successful and respected.

"If the only role model available to them is the local drug dealer with the flash car and the other trappings of wealth then we have a real problem.

"This problem can only be tackled within the community and by the community.

"Across the country local people give up their time to work alongside our staff to tackle these problems head on.

"Volunteers give up their time through mentoring schemes, through coaching sports activities or through attending police stations in the middle of the night when parents can't or won't be there.

"We know from the schemes that Rainer runs, that sometimes those volunteers are the only responsible adult in a young person's life who is not paid to be there.

"The trust that that builds and the challenge to what can seem like the only alternative is invaluable.

"These types of schemes, involving volunteers alongside professional staff are essential if we are going to tackle gang culture in the long term."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "The public would surely hope for more positive and practical measures to address the soaring levels of violent crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets than quibbling over terminology.

"The public are not bothered about what people who commit crime and anti-social behaviour are called - they just want the Government to start taking action against them."

Kathy Evans, Policy Director, at The Children's Society, said: "The Youth Justice Board's report is a powerful reminder that the relationship between young people, gangs and weapons cannot be pigeon-holed, stereotyped or packed into simplistic soundbites.

"The Children's Society strongly supports the report's demand for greater investment in tackling root causes by building relationships at both the community and family level, with peer group support and the prevention of early victimisation. 

"Setting clear boundaries and sanctions for children is vital, but it is not appropriate or effective to respond to a child with the full weight of the law while they are still at such a formative stage of development.

"Children are more than twice as likely as any other age group to be victims of crime, of previously unreported abuse and neglect, and within the youth justice system you are likely to find those most in need of support.

"Our own research on the experience of black young people in trouble with the law, called Just Justice(1), showed that none of the young people in the study trusted the authorities, and particularly the police, to protect them. Young people in the study overwhelmingly reported that they would rather turn to their friends and family to help them when in need, and to take justice into their own hands if crimes were committed against them.

"The Children's Society urges the Government to take on board the Youth Justice Board's call for a greater focus on developing positive interventions that promote personal safety and encourage youth participation, not exclusion, within communities.'

Copyright Press Association 2007

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