Dying to Belong an In-Depth Review of Street Gangs in Britain a Policy Report by the Gangs Working Group

Breakthrough Breakthrough Britain Britain Dying to Belong: An In(depth Review of Street Gangs in Britain “It is imperative that as a society we act now to stem the tide of gang culture and violence. Young people should not be dying on the Dying to streets of our great cities. This report and the recommendations contained within it offer hope to those communities devastated by gang violence. The policies cannot be implemented soon enough. Belong Now is the time to act.” An In-depth Review of Street Gangs in Britain Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Preface to Dying to Belong A Policy Report by the Gangs Working Group £20.00 Chaired by Simon Antrobus The Centre for Social Justice The Centre for Social Justice 9 Westminster Palace Gardens February 2009 Artillery Row London SW1P 1RL www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk About the Centre for Social Justice The Centre for Social Justice aims to put social justice at the heart of British politics. Our policy development is rooted in the wisdom of those working to tackle Britain’s deepest social problems and the experience of those whose lives have been affected by poverty. Our working groups are non-partisan, comprising prominent academics, practitioners and policy makers who have expertise in the relevant fields. We consult nationally and internationally, especially with charities and social enterprises, who are the the champions of the welfare society. In addition to policy development, the CSJ has built an alliance of poverty fighting organisations that reverse social breakdown and transform communities. We believe that the surest way the Government can reverse social breakdown and poverty is to enable such individuals, communities and voluntary groups to help themselves. The CSJ was founded by Iain Duncan Smith in 2004, as the fulfilment of a promise made to Janice Dobbie, whose son had recently died from a drug overdose just after he was released from prison. Chairman: Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP Executive Director: Philippa Stroud Breakthrough Britain: Dying to Belong © The Centre for Social Justice, 2009 Published by the Centre for Social Justice, 9 Westminster Palace Gardens, Artillery Row, SW1P 1RL www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk ISBN: 978-0-955699979 Designed by SoapBox, www.soapboxcommunications.co.uk This report represents the views of the Working Group as a whole and does not reflect at every point the individual opinion of each and every Working Group member. 2 Contents Preface by Iain Duncan Smith 9 Chairman’s Foreword 11 Glossary 13 Members of the Gangs Working Group 15 Executive Summary 19 Introduction 35 PART I: State of the Nation 39 Chapter 1: Identifying the subject - towards a standardised definition 39 1.1 ‘Gangs’ versus ‘delinquent youth 40 groups’ – the discourse Defining the Gang 40 Missing the point - the Delinquent Youth Group 41 The role of perception 43 Wannabe groups 43 Living up to the name – a self-fulfilling prophecy? 44 1.2 ‘Reluctant Gangsters’ 45 1.3 A complex concept - refining the definition 46 1.4 The definition 48 The street gang 49 Chapter 2: The scale and nature of gang culture in Britain today 50 2.1 Gang and gang membership 51 Evidence from self reporting surveys 51 Evidence from specific gang assessments 52 London 53 Glasgow 55 Manchester 55 Liverpool 56 Birmingham 57 Spreading past the core cities 57 2.2 Criminal identity 58 Wide ranging criminality 59 The role of violence and the use of weapons 60 Drugs 66 3 2.3 What impact does gang membership have on individual offending? 66 2.4 Is the situation getting worse? 67 The role of the media – spreading moral panic 67 Unreliable crime statistics 69 Gang and weapon violence on the up 71 Chapter 3: Profiling gang members 72 3.1 Age 72 3.2 Gender 73 3.3 Ethnicity 76 3.4 Education 78 Chapter 4: The emergence of the modern gang 80 4.1 The widening of the socio-economic divide 81 The global city 82 The changing nature of the labour market 83 Social housing – incubating social breakdown 84 4.2 The London context – the arrival of the ‘Yardies’ 85 4.3 Territorialism: from drugs to postcodes 86 4.4 Values – self-worth and the street code 88 4.5 The rise of the young soldiers 89 4.6 Glamorising the gangster life 91 Disadvantaged, disenfranchised and impressionable 92 Chapter 5: The alternative family and the ‘alpha’ male 94 5.1 The new family 94 Domestic violence – fear and violence as learnt behaviour 95 5.2 Living in the jungle 96 5.3 ‘Decent’ versus ‘street’ 97 5.4 The ‘Alpha’ male – fatherlessness and masculinity 98 Chapter 6: Conclusion 101 PART II: The Myth of the Quick Fix 103 Chapter 1: Introduction 103 Chapter 2: Penal populism – deeds over needs 105 2.1 Missing the point with knife crime 105 2.2 The real impact of the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) 107 Chapter 3: Misunderstanding the problem and neglecting the solution 110 4 3.1 Sitting in ivory towers 110 3.2 Forgetting the lives inside 111 3.3 Restricting the third sector 112 Chapter 4: Failing to protect communities 115 4.1 Communities in fear 115 4.2 Policing without consent 116 Chapter 5: Failing to intervene early – the disconnect between statutory agencies 121 5.1 Slipping through the net 121 Chapter 6: Conclusion 125 PART III: Policy Recommendations 127 Chapter 1: Immediate action – enough is enough 128 1.1 Objectives 128 1.2 Learning from existing models 129 The Boston Gun Project and Operation Ceasefire, Boston, USA 129 Matrix Gun Crime Team, Merseyside Police, Merseyside, UK 134 Operation Staysafe, Merseyside Police and Liverpool City Council, Merseyside, UK 137 Violence Reduction Unit, Strathclyde Police, Strathclyde, UK 139 Hammersmith and Fulham Street Outreach Service, London, UK 142 1.3 Policy recommendations 143 Language, leadership and prioritisation 143 Defining and understanding the problem 145 Adopting a standardised definition 145 Understanding the problem – research and analysis 145 A Specialist Gang Unit (Gang Prevention Unit) 147 Independent consultants 147 Gang Prevention Zones 147 A specialist multi-agency response 148 Local authority responsibility – leading on the gang prevention strategy 149 The requirement of a serious case review and full public response 149 A new multi-agency model to tackle gangs 149 Independent Advisory Group (IAG) 151 Training 151 5 Effective deployment of resources 152 Cross-border collaboration 153 The model: a multi-pronged approach 153 Delivering a clear and direct message that the violence must stop 154 and support is available Enforcement 155 Identifying high impact players and establishing a nominals list 155 The ‘call-in’ 155 ‘Pulling levers’ 160 Stop and search, knife arches and ‘sweeps’ 161 Putting communities first – regaining control of the streets 162 Intervention 167 Personalised intervention programmes 169 Hospital-based intervention 170 Mediation Plus 171 Resettlement 172 Drug and Alcohol Treatment 173 Early intervention for siblings of known gang members 173 Summarising the model 174 1.4 Conclusion and summary of Policy recommendations 175 Chapter 2: Building bridges between police and community 177 2.1 Objectives 177 2.2 Policy recommendations 178 Using the third sector to break down barriers between police and young people 178 Police training 178 Workshops 178 Regular positive police contact with young people 179 Police in schools 181 Safer Schools Partnerships 182 Volunteer Police Cadets (VPC) 185 2.3 Conclusion and summary of policy recommendations 187 Chapter 3: Prevention – investing in the next generation 189 3.1 Objectives 189 3.2 Policy recommendations 190 6 Early intervention 190 Supporting and strengthening the family 190 Recognising the signs of potential gang involvement 192 Modelling positive behaviour 193 Mentoring 195 The cost of delay 198 Youth Provision and diversion 198 Reviewing and amending current youth provision 199 Outsourcing the delivery of youth programmes 199 Not just something to do – meaningful engagement of young people 202 The right person with the right skills 203 A long-term investment 204 Education 205 Engaging young people and raising aspirations 205 Tackling exclusion and truanting 208 Outsourcing the provision of alternative education 209 Delivery of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons by third sector organisations 209 ‘Nothing stops a bullet like a job’ 210 Commissioning effective welfare to work agencies 211 Local authority and primary care trust provision of work experience 211 Making funds available for entrepreneurial young people 211 Community engagement and ownership 212 Community capacity building 213 Empowering and supporting 214 community action 3.3 Conclusion and summary of policy recommendations 215 Appendix 1: List of figures 218 Appendix 2: List of case studies 219 Bibliography 220 Special Thanks 225 7 Preface Iain Duncan Smith I established the Centre for Social Justice to find new and effective approaches to tackling poverty and social exclusion, to champion the cause of our most disadvantaged communities and the generations left behind without aspiration or hope. Breakthrough Britain is a blueprint for doing just that. Identifying five key pathways to poverty – family breakdown, economic dependency and worklessness, educational failure, addiction and personal indebtedness – and highlighting the fundamental role played by the third sector in transforming lives, the report makes over 190 policy recommendations to reverse social breakdown. I commissioned this report on street gangs because I had become concerned about the chaotic nature of the approach to what was often glibly referred to as gang violence. I and others at the CSJ felt that we needed to better understand what was really happening on our streets, otherwise we as a society stood in danger of losing yet another generation as they plunged through violence and criminality to hopelessness and despair. Britain’s gangs are the product of these pathways and are found in our most deprived and marginalised communities.

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