Young People in Deprived Areas of Britain Join Gangs Because They Feel Disconnected from Society - Essay Example

Young people in deprived areas of Britain join gangs because they feel disconnected from society. Gang culture in Britain is on rise for many years. A lot of incidents have been reported to media where teenage boys and girls were found involved in gangs representing knife and weapon culture over the decade. Britain is known as one of the best economies in the world that provide invaluable opportunities to all. The recent developments in violent activities, especially the emergence of young gangs, have raised the concern about the society that was supposed to be one of the peaceful societies in the world. The dilemma of the hour is that the gang culture represented by youth today is outrageous. Its associated violence is chaotic and repercussions on the whole society are proving highly chronic. Over the decade, the gang culture in the UK is on rise at an exponential rate. Continuous lack of interest and failure to recognize the intensity of the gang culture by national and local governments have help entrenched the gang culture to the most disadvantaged areas of Britain whose repercussions to the whole society have been greatly underestimated by the authorities so far. The statistics on gang culture in Britain show that about 6% of the youth itself report to be involved in gangs while police in London and Strathclyde have identified the existence of 171 and 170 gangs respectively. The gang culture has spread so widely that about 600-700 young children alone in London Borough of Waltham Forest are directly involved in gangs with affecting 8100 people through firearms, knife stabbing, murder and drugs. It has been reported that the shootings in two advantaged cities like Liverpool and Manchester are 60% gang related while the under 16 children admitted to hospital because of gang related incidents, have increased up to 89% in recent 5 years. The statistics show such a horrendous picture of the youth in Britain involved in gangs or gang related incidents that seem to have great repercussions on the society (Antrobus 2009). This is more threatening that the pattern of gangster organizations is shifting from old age groups to young ones aged between 12 to 18. The dilemma of the hour is that such ratio shows that Britain is heading toward a violent society where young boys and girls are getting involved in aggressive activities especially killings, gun point snatching, territoriality, sexual harassment, rapes, looting etc. The reasons why young people come to join the gangs are multifarious. But the most evident reasons are the sense of deprivation, alienation and disconnection from the rest of society that these young people experience. If we take Manchester as a case study, we realize that on one side, it is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK economically and the second most visited city in the UK but the bleaker side of the picture has been ignored. Whatever has been the success of Manchester; its rewards have not been distributed to all. Many communities feel disconnected from rest of the society because they are not getting the status they feel capable of. Educational failure, deprivation and family breakdowns are producing distorted personalities that come in contact with guns, gangs, murders, unemployment and an ultimate downfall of the whole society. Every tenth young person in Manchester is no more getting any training, education or employment while total unemployment has increased up to 30% in the last decade (Smith 2007). The British prime minister is not ready to accept that the riots, murders and increased gangs’ dissemination in the Britain are because of poverty. He believes that the people in the deprived areas have most been effected by these gangs so far and “if poverty has something to do with riots then that insults the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this.” But the reality is the denial of any link between increased number of gangs and poverty is wrong. The recent boost in unemployment, less funding for the poor and deprived areas, cuts in significant benefits and rapid decline in public budgets have helped worsen the situation of people. The people in deprived areas think that they have been disconnected from rest of the society in achieving the necessities of life. The IPPR analysis shows that unemployment in youth has proved one of the most viewed reasons for rioting in many areas of the UK. The areas that are most effected with gangster activities have been reported to have higher unemployment rates than the national average. Hackney that is the most affected area is reported to have unemployment of 34 percent that is almost double of the national unemployment rate in the UK. The IPPR analysis also reports that the educational levels in the residents of affected areas have been found unexpectedly low. The results indicate that a great number of the residents have been found with no or below average qualifications. The researches at Bristol affirm the same. They explain that the average sample of 16 years young indicate that people who belong to richer families are more entitled to the professions of doctor and lawyers while who come of poorer families choose professions that of engineers or nurses. This speaks of the disparity between the have and have not areas toward which the government is not paying attention. That’s why young people of the deprived areas when do not find enough opportunities they turn into gangs who earn money for living and identity by looting, snatching, murdering, sexual harassment and drug trafficking (‘Responding to the riots’, n.d.). A report of the Guardian also provides a comprehensive analysis that most of the suspects involved in gangs have been mapped to come of deprived areas. About 41 percent of suspects live in 10 percent of the most disadvantaged areas of the UK while 66 percent of the areas in the country are getting poorer from 2007-2010 survey revealed (Singleton 2011). House of Commons state that poverty and deprivation also have an impact on the family relationship that ultimately leads to affiliation with gangs on part of young people. Children living in deprived areas have psychological stress because of the parents who find it difficult to fulfil the needs of their young ones. This ultimately enforces the young people to join gangs so that they may find opportunities of work, affiliation, friendship, recognition and respect that is absent from the family (as cited in Fitch, 2009). It is very important to note about the incentives offered by the gangs that enable these young people to join and form subcultures parallel to the contemporary society. Gangs provide an alternative refuge, a sense of support and belonging that the society fails to provide. It is the class difference or inequality produced by the society that forces the young working class people to join these gangs for fulfilling their needs of hedonism, consumption, irresponsibility and leisure. Hopkins Burke (2005) states that delinquency takes place due to the inexistence of legitimate opportunities which leads the young people to join gangs so that they can develop a solution with those who face same problems but this definitely includes illegitimate opportunities and ways (as cited in Cox, 2011). Turner et al (2006) did a study on respondents involved in gangs and he concluded that fear of crime has been one of the leading factor for joining the gangs. The gangs do not attack the person who belongs to a group of gang and studies indicate that most of the people that join gangs come from the inner city deprived areas where the young people have been attacked by a gang and the incidence of crime were much higher against the young people. The 2006 offending, crime and justice survey states that 85 percent of the young people carry knives or weapons due to the fear factor. They think that they can pick a fight or be attacked by a gang (as cited in Antrobus, 2009). Other factors that force the young people to join gangs are the families. Poverty stricken families ask their children to join gangs so that they can earn by themselves either by illegal ways as they cannot provide enough facilities to their children. Harsh parenting also has psychological impact for involvement in aggressive behaviours. When young people do not get the required sense of protection and care from the family, they seek such factors in outside groups that deviate them from the right direction. In addition to that, lack of diversionary activities has been another important factor so far for young people’s involvement in gang activities. Inexistence of alternatives and positive activities let the children wander in the streets where they come into contact with gangs and peer groups who help in boosting anti-social behaviour and negative trends. Deprived areas lack in alternative options for youth. This ultimately helps them to join gangs for excitement and adventure that is available in every street corner (Fitch 2009). Another alarming factor in the whole scenario is the involvement of the girls in the gangs. Although 90 percent members of a gang are males but the number of girls in the gangs are rising day by day according to the surveys. Some join the gangs as an adventure while many girls are raped and become part of the gangs to be used sexually for the entire group. They are also used as prostitutes by the gangs. These girls also work as drug traffickers for the group as the police do not suspect young girls much. Involvement of girls in the gangs is for different reasons. Some join as a part of adventure while others are forced to do because of the poor conditions of the family as they can earn well using their bodies. There is no doubt that the gang culture has risen exponentially in Britain and these infringing gangs are threatening the whole fabric of society, but the need of the hour is to tackle this mounting mania so that the youth can be re-tracked for the well being of the whole society. Preventive measures are needed to take so that murders, lootings, drug trafficking and sexual harassment can be avoided. The government of the UK has devoted 4 million pounds for the years 2011-2013 to prevent the gangs from mushrooming. It is necessary to use that money for the well being of disadvantaged communities especially for the education and employment opportunities of the youth. John Pitts in his recent book Reluctant Gangsters: the changing shape of youth crime notes that the residents of the deprived areas feel that the policy makers and politicians do not give enough consideration to the plight of the gangs’ neighbourhood and do not fund that is needed the most. They think that the politicians give more priority to the advantaged areas than the deprived communities. The involvement of high profile advocates in the gang-affected areas can help resolving the issue in a far better way. The government is also needed to review its regeneration policies that are more concerned to spend millions of pounds on redesigning the city centres rather than changing the life time opportunities for the deprived neighbourhood (as cited in Antrobus, 2009). The local governments can play a very effective role if they are really serious about the situation. They can help provide the rehabilitation to those involved in gangs and re-establish the backward areas who feel disconnected from the main stream society. Potential of the young people can be used effectively by providing better and effective opportunities of employment, training and education. Long hours in schools can help retract the thinking process from dangerous activities. Police should also help eliminating the gangs from streets that threaten the young people and the fear of murder or violence forces other young boys and girls to join groups for ensuring their safety. But above all, what is needed is a stress free family relationship that can only be achieved if the economic situations of the poverty stricken deprived areas are improved. If families are in a better condition, they will never let their young children to get involved in such activities and society can be saved from losing its strings into violent hands. References Antrobus, S. (2009). Breakthrough Britain: Dying to Belong. [Online] Available at http://www.saferlondonfoundation.org/download.php?file=DyingtoBelongFullReport.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2012] Cox, A. (2011). Youth Gangs in the UK: Myth or Reality? Internet Journal of Criminology: 1-24. [Online] Available at http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Cox_Youth_Gangs_in_the_UK_Myth_or_Reality_IJC_September_2011.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2012] Fitch, K. (2009). Teenagers at Risk. [Online] Available at http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/research/findings/teenagersatriskpdf_wdf64003.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2012] Singleton, A. (2011). What are the Neighbourhood Conditions of those Appearing on Riot- Related Charges? [Online] Available at http://www.alex-singleton.com/?p=507 [Accessed 20 May 2012] Smith, D.L.H. (2007). Breakthrough Manchester: Ending the Costs of Social Breakdown. [Online] Available at http://www.saferlondonfoundation.org/download.php?fileDyingtoBelongFullReport.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2012] Responding to the Riots: A TUC Briefing (n.d.). [Online] Available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/tucfiles/80/respondingtotheriots.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2012] Read More