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AN EXPLORATION INTO WHANGANUI GANG IDENTITY By PATCHING UP THE DIFFERENCES: AN EXPLORATION INTO WHANGANUI GANG IDENTITY by Feona Jessica Sayles A thesis submitted to the faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy January 2021 Copyright © Feona Jessica Sayles 2020 All Rights Reserved i ABSTRACT The District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Act 2009 (‘Gang Insignia Act 2009’) came into force in 2009 and prohibited the ‘display’ of ‘gang insignia’ within ‘specified areas’ of the Whanganui District. The purported aim of the legislation was to reduce intimidation of the public and confrontations between gangs. There was no requirement for intent on the part of the wearer of the insignia. This made the Whanganui gang insignia ban unique in terms of criminal law as it maintained that harm was inflicted due to group identity rather than specific conduct. This raises the question of how an identity can be constructed so that it is considered capable of causing criminal harm. To address this question, this research looked at the ways in which the media contributed to the construction of gang identity during the period of 2004 to 2013. This was achieved through (1) a content analysis of reports from three print newspapers and two online newspapers, (2) a content analysis of reader interactions with the reports, and (3) a textual analysis of two print newspapers. The research was guided by moral panic theory so looked for ways in which the events related to stages or elements of moral panic. The focus of the moral panic was also expanded so as to explore the overall context operating at the particular time. It was found that the events did correspond to a moral panic model and that whilst the panic was triggered by key occurrences of gang violence, the underlying motive for the panic could be attributed to racial tensions, penal populism, and the use of a terrorist frame. Whilst this research focuses on the construction of gang identity, the techniques used by the media can be applicable to other group identities. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 0 CHAPTER ONE: CONTEXT OF THE WHANGANUI ‘GANG PROBLEM’ .................................. 25 1.1 Whanganui History ..................................................................................................................... 25 1.2 Road to the legislation ................................................................................................................ 34 1.3 Why was this law considered controversial? .............................................................................. 38 1.4 Whanganui Demographics .......................................................................................................... 50 1.5 Whanganui Gangs ....................................................................................................................... 52 1.6 Whanganui offending and Gang Offending ................................................................................ 59 1.7 Gang violence ............................................................................................................................. 64 1.8 Fear of gangs ............................................................................................................................... 67 1.9 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER TWO: GANGS, FEAR OF GANGS, AND GANG VIOLENCE: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ...................................................................................................................................... 72 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 72 2.2 Identity ........................................................................................................................................ 73 2.3 Defining gangs ............................................................................................................................ 84 2.4 Gang violence ............................................................................................................................. 98 2.5 Fear of crime and gangs ............................................................................................................ 106 2.6 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 115 CHAPTER THREE: MORAL PANICS AND THE MEDIA ............................................................ 119 3.1 Moral panic ............................................................................................................................... 120 3.2 The news media ........................................................................................................................ 142 3.3 Media coverage of crime .......................................................................................................... 153 3.4 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 155 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODS ......................................................................................................... 157 4.1 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 157 4.2 Methods .................................................................................................................................... 159 4.2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 159 4.2.2 Sample ................................................................................................................................ 162 iii 4.2.3 Procedures and measures ................................................................................................... 174 CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS ............................................................................................................. 191 5.1 Overview of results ................................................................................................................... 191 5.2 Volume and characteristics of articles ...................................................................................... 192 5.3 Topic ......................................................................................................................................... 204 5.5 Reader Comments ..................................................................................................................... 252 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 283 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 324 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 330 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Reasons for feeling unsafe in Whanganui Table 1.1 Rankings of responses for reasons for feeling unsafe in the Wanganui Community Views Survey 2009-2011* Table 4.1 Number of articles accessed and total for final coding Table 4.2 Coding variable for content analysis Table 4.3 Results of inter-coder reliability analysis Table 5.1 Number (%) of times the term gang appeared in headlines by year Table 5.2 The number (%) of total articles and words by newspaper Table 5.3 The number (%) of articles, and number of words per newspaper and year Table 5.4 The number (%) of articles by type and newspaper Table 5.5 Dates and headlines for Wanganui Chronicle article January – June 2005 Table 5.6 The number (%) of articles by topic and year Table 5.7 The number (%) of articles by topic and newspaper (percent is by newspaper) Table 5.8 Breakdown of topic by newspaper for each year Table 5.9 The prominence (page number and photo) of coverage by topic Table 5.10 The number (%) of articles by topic and valence Table 5.11 The number (%) of articles for topic and source Table 5.12 The number (%) of articles for topic and responses Table 5.13 The prominence (number of times source appeared on a page number and number of times source was used in articles where term gang was 1 in headline) of coverage by source 1 Table 5.14 The number (%) of articles for newspaper and source v Table 5.15 Types of reactions, positions, support according to responses
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