Photo by Aaron Smale
Gangs and gang-related violence in Aotearoa New Zealand is a growing challenge. It's often featured as front-page news, with government officials announcing new policies and prohibitions to stamp out gang-related crime, many of which are discriminatory and lend themselves to unjust outcomes.
In this section, we discuss what a gang is and our approach to reducing gang violence. You can also learn more about gang liaison and why it should not be an afterthought.
In this section, we discuss what a gang is and our approach to reducing gang violence. You can also learn more about gang liaison and why it should not be an afterthought.
What is a gang?
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Defining what a gang is can be problematic and there is no consistent definition amongst international gang researchers.[4]
This can largely be attributed to the term gang often being used emotively to describe a marginalised group and or delinquent group behaviour. Nearly all definitions of a gang include two components:
Defining what a gang is has become even more confusing as governments have linked gangs with organised crime. This link has distorted the reality of the indigenous ethnic gang and youth gang situation in New Zealand as there is no clear evidence that indigenous ethnic gangs and youth gangs have been intricately linked to organised crime. |
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Our approach to reducing gang violence
Arresting youth and gang related violence requires a multi-dimensional long term response. At H2R, we promote the need for a social inclusion approach. This differs from government agency views on a preferred government response to youth gangs, which predominantly focus on preventing young people joining gangs.
Our proposed approach to reduce gang disorders and criminal behaviour is underpinned by the following principles:
Our proposed approach to reduce gang disorders and criminal behaviour is underpinned by the following principles:
- Focus on the behaviours rather than on appearance or affiliation. The delivery of interventions and social services should be focussed on changing behaviours rather than what the recipient looks like or who they are affiliated to [5].
- Remove the labels. There is a propensity to label youth groups as youth gangs without recognising that young people need their peer support as part of a natural youth development process. Labelling theorists argue that labelling can create a self fulfilling prophecy situation where the young people’s behaviours will be influenced by the label [6].
- Recognise that there is good in all whānau and communities. Regardless of how alienated or dysfunctional a whānau or community may be, there will always be some good within it – identify the good and tap into it to start the change process.
- Recognise leadership diversity. Māori are not a homogenous group and a whānau has its own leadership that agencies need to accept and work through.
- Engage whānau and community. Recognise whānau and community are not passive recipients but are aspirational and are capable of designing, developing and delivering their own interventions and services that will factor in their whānau and community realities. People who have common experiences with hard to reach populations are the most appropriate people to design and deliver interventions projects because they can share their experiences of what has led them to make positive life choices [7].
- Build capability and capacity. Recognise whānau and community leaders are often people with instinctive leadership qualities and may need support to develop their formal leadership acumen.
- Mobilise whānau and community. Changing criminal behaviours effectively requires the whānau and community acceptance for the need to change.
- Support and resource whānau and community initiatives – ensure Maori designed, developed and delivered bottom-up initiatives are adequately supported and evaluated by government Iwi and community agencies.
Discover more
This article is part of our Framework page, which provides key information about our approach to working with hard to reach communities. You can learn more about our framework via the button below, or head straight to our next article about gang mediation. We discuss what it involves and how effective it can be.
Resources
[4] Green.J. and Pranis.K., (2007) “Gang Wars – The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies”, Justice Policy Institute. http://www.justicepolicy.org.
[5] Ibid.
[6]. Originating in sociology and criminology, labelling theory (also known as social reaction theory) was developed by sociologist Howard Becker. It focuses on the linguistic tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from norms. The theory is concerned with how the self-identity and behaviour of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them, and is associated with the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Unwanted descriptors or categorisations (including terms related to deviance, disability or a diagnosis of mental illness) may be rejected on the basis that they are merely “labels”, often with attempts to adopt a more constructive language in its place.
[7]. Spee.K. (2008) Investments in Effective Interventions Programme of Action for Māori initiatives Evaluation of the ‘Hard to Reach Youth’ project: Evaluation Report Te Puni Kōkiri. Unpublished.
[5] Ibid.
[6]. Originating in sociology and criminology, labelling theory (also known as social reaction theory) was developed by sociologist Howard Becker. It focuses on the linguistic tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from norms. The theory is concerned with how the self-identity and behaviour of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them, and is associated with the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Unwanted descriptors or categorisations (including terms related to deviance, disability or a diagnosis of mental illness) may be rejected on the basis that they are merely “labels”, often with attempts to adopt a more constructive language in its place.
[7]. Spee.K. (2008) Investments in Effective Interventions Programme of Action for Māori initiatives Evaluation of the ‘Hard to Reach Youth’ project: Evaluation Report Te Puni Kōkiri. Unpublished.
