WHR: This is certainly not confined to the African and Caribbean community. There is increasingly violent crime – gun and knife – in places like Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. In Manchester, there are clearly a lot of African and Caribbean people but there is a preponderance of white people and the gang turf war is primarily among white people in Manchester, as it is in Liverpool and Glasgow too. So the phenomenon is spreading and impacting all groups of people. Having said that, it is undeniably having a significant effect upon the African and Caribbean community.
CT: You mentioned briefly the lure of gangs. What are you hearing back from the young people you work with about the attractiveness of joining a gang?
WHR: Gang crime is symptomatic of dysfunctional families. Where you have a dysfunctional family it is natural that a young person will seek an escape from that dysfunctionality and pursue a functional space where they can find a sense of belonging and identity. And that is often in some sort of a community that is synonymous to a home.
Gangs are in one sense synonymous to a family because they appear to replace that dysfunctionality within the home. They appear to provide young people with a sense of protection, and they appear to give shape or identity to an individual. They certainly give a false sense of purpose.
Some young people are attracted to the gangs because these desires are not being fulfilled within the home, and so there is a replacement issue here. You replace dysfunctionality with apparent functionality, a lack of protection for apparent protection, a lack of identity for apparent identity. So I can understand why young people feel a gang is a good place. It is secure, at least for the time being, until they are asked to pick up a gun.
CT: Do those living in areas where gangs are an issue fear being approached by gangs and having to join, even if they don’t want to?
WHR: I think there are a lot of scared young people out there who are deeply concerned about gangs. And there are also those who are deeply concerned about saying no to gangs, because as I understand it, if you say no to some gang members there are personal consequences to your rejection, and possible family consequences. So young people clearly are afraid to say no to gangs.
But at the same time there is an attraction about them and an apparent glamour. If you are not a gang member you hear how exciting the lifestyle is and about the possibility of making a substantial amount of money, driving flash cars and wearing good clothing. It’s interesting that a lot of gang members come from not only dysfunctional families but from poor families as well.
Within the context of a gang clearly they have access to things that their parents were not able to provide for them.
CT: Does that perceived glamour stem from the high-status image of gangs within certain areas of rap music culture?
WHR: I certainly think that the music culture has contributed to the glamour and given the impression that whatever you want, you can get it in a gang immediately. I certainly think that the music industry has contributed to this notion of ‘I want, therefore I get - and I get quickly’. The factors that contribute to this phenomenon are, however, very multifaceted and complex so I wouldn’t want to put the blame on just one particular space or genre, but I certainly think that the music industry has had a part to play.
