Background

Not all groups of children are gangs and not all group offending should be characterised as gang related. Nevertheless, urban street gangs are a social reality that criminal justice agencies need to understand and address. Gang members are part of a complex social subsystem which has its own norms and values. Undertaking assaults and other crimes are often strategic actions which build or maintain ‘rep’; being willing to use violence and commit crimes can facilitate progress up the gang hierarchy and open up earning opportunities, possibly within more serious organised crime.

Urban street gangs are closely associated with drug dealing, and in recent years with ‘county lines’ operations which transport drugs, weapons and money from cities to smaller towns. County lines involves exploitation of, sometimes very young, children who are used as mules and are in exceptional danger as they can be away from home in the company of serious criminals for extended periods.

Find out more about child criminal exploitation

Key statistics are as follows:

• based upon data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2017, it was estimated that:
  • 27,000 children (10-17 years) in England identified as a member of a street gang
  • 313,000 children knew someone they would define as a street gang member
  • 33,000 children were a sibling of a gang member
  • 34,000 children were either a known gang member or knew a gang member and had been the victim of violent crime in the past 12 months
• a survey of teenage children in 2023 found that children were four to five times more likely to be victims of violence if they had been in a gang (63 per cent).

Summary of the evidence

Children’s backgrounds and characteristics

Criminal gangs target children who are vulnerable, with combinations of risk factors accelerating the risk of gang involvement. Children who have suffered abuse, neglect and trauma in the home, and/or have parents and carers with substance misuse problems, are more likely to become involved with urban street gangs. Similarly, children with special educational needs, with mental health problems, who have been bullied, have care experience, and/or have been excluded from school are more likely to become involved. A neighbourhood environment characterised by poverty, high crime and social disorder is a further risk factor for gang involvement.

Gangs offer many attractions to vulnerable children – friendship, meaning, purpose and belonging, protection and security, money and gifts, fun and excitement, and even sexual opportunities. But gang membership is associated with elevated risks of criminalisation, poor educational attainment, denial of future employment opportunities, and exploitation, injury and death. Gang-associated girls are as affected as boys but are often underreported because of a focus upon boys and young men.

The need for a multi-agency approach

County lines operations have moved to the country and expanded over recent years. Responses to County Lines have often been patchy and poorly coordinated, and the importance of multi-agency approaches is clearly illustrated, involving criminal justice, welfare and educational agencies, with a strong understanding of roles and responsibilities. The need for more effective data and information sharing between external agencies has been highlighted within research studies, as has the need for improved appropriate representation of services within practitioner meetings.

A lack of significant positive relationships between children and practitioners has been found to be a barrier to successful multi-agency intervention, which has been linked to insufficient resources for the staffing levels required to support the building of meaningful relationships.

In the video below, produced by the Wales Violence Prevention Unit, a Youth Worker in South Wales talks about her work in helping people caught up in gangs.

Disclaimer: an external platform has been used to host this video. Recommendations for further viewing may appear at the end of the video and are beyond our control.

The importance of community engagement

The importance of engaging local communities is also evident within research studies, helping to maximise credibility and capacity through the use of local resources and interventions, and the integration of community members, particularly gang-involved and gang-affected children. It has been stressed that responses need to come from every corner of society, and that more needs to be done to enhance prosocial relationships for young people within communities, as well as educating people about the warning signs and what to do.

Evidence-informed approaches and interventions

Evidence-informed interventions to tackle gang membership and gang activity exist at the individual and community level. Much of the evidence base stems from the USA, and caution is needed in applying those findings to England and Wales.

The most promising comprehensive approach is the public health model combined with focused deterrence policing (‘pulling levers’) pioneered by Ceasefire in Boston USA, and adapted by the Glasgow Violence Reduction Unit. The public health model treats violence as a transmissible infection. Breaking the viral transmission – tit for tat attacks – through multi-agency community mobilisation rather than simply police ‘crackdowns’ alone is the key to success. An evaluation of the first British public health project in Glasgow estimated that weapons-carrying and violent offending were halved in the intervention group compared to a comparison cohort.

The school programme Growing against Gangs and Violence was developed to increase resilience to gang recruitment in a London borough. An evaluation of the programme reported that children who had attended sessions were more positive about the police, and less likely to adhere to the ‘street code’ of no informing to authorities and resolving conflicts through fighting. There is also some evidence that the well-targeted use of gang injunctions can be a useful means of reducing gang involvement, and its associated harms. An evaluation in Merseyside found that gang injunctions were associated with significant falls in offending (a 70 per cent reduction) and other harms over a three-year follow-up period.

A US study of Family-Focused Therapy (FFT) demonstrated that the intervention is effective with those at risk of becoming involved with urban street gangs. FFT participants had fewer arrests and charges than those receiving service-as-usual. The needs to be tailored towards the British context, and it is welcome that the Youth Endowment Fund has announced an FFT pilot in the London Borough of Redbridge.

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Last updated: 19 July 2024