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This paper aims to discuss the emergence of the contemporary Urban Street Gang (USG) on Merseyside. In terms of gang scholarship in the UK, Merseyside has been greatly neglected despite regular reports in national mainstream media that suggest Merseyside USGs represent some of the most criminally active and violent members in the UK.

A specific methodology has been omitted because the author while providing a viewpoint from Hesketh (2018), also wishes to encapsulate observations from the remaining two pieces of research conducted on Merseyside (Smithson et al., 2009; Robinson, 2018). For this reason, a summary of the methods used in each of the three studies is provided.

The paper will highlight observations drawn from all three research studies that were prevalent with USG members throughout the Merseyside county at the time of each study. They include aspects surrounding territoriality, belonging and identity through dress style as well as USG structures and motivation for joining. In particular, the paper will address also address the role of drugs which has transformed the structural make-up of many Merseyside USGs from relatively loosely knit-street corner groups involved in anti-social behaviour (ASB) to more structural-deviant entrepreneurial enterprises.

The paper calls for more research to be carried out on Merseyside. Limitations would include the omission of young women in each of the three studies.

The practical implications are as follows: a need to focus on the impact of bridging within excluded communities; a need to focus on emphasising that drug dealing is a crime that carries serious consequences, and not a form of work (grafting); a need to focus on young women and criminal involvement; and a need to concentrate on developing strategies that counter the allure and attraction of risk-taking behaviour.

The paper addresses the impact of social exclusion and the need for equality to counter young people becoming involved in criminality and gangs as well as adult organised crime groups.

The paper is based on what have been so far the only three in-depth studies carried out on Merseyside.

In the past few years, academics, practitioners and policy‐makers have wrestled with the problem of defining youth gangs and differentiating them from other youth groupings. This is partly because different contributors to the debate have been interested in gangs for different reasons, but also because the form that gangs take is often determined by local factors, which make producing a single generic definition difficult, if not impossible.

The purpose of this paper is to consider what the author might call the evolution of the evolutionary argument about gangs and, while acknowledging its explanatory power, suggests that gangs may develop in very different ways depending on the available opportunities, pre-existing forms of criminality in the areas in which gangs emerge and global change.

It is based on a review of the relevant literature and interviews with purposive samples of research, criminal justice and social welfare professionals and young people involved in or affected by gang crime. Findings were triangulated with data held by the police and other public authorities.

The term “street gang” includes a wide variety of groupings all of which are involved in some form of crime but with differential levels of organisation and commitment to purely instrumental goals. Gangs may form but not necessarily evolve. Gangs appear to develop in very different ways depending on the available opportunities, pre-existing forms of criminality in the areas in which they emerge and global changes in drugs markets.

The originality of the paper consists in its interrogation of the concept of “gang evolution” and its discussion of the variety of forms and evolutionary trajectories of gangs.

This article presents research findings on Operation Roundup, a project initiated by the Santa Ana Police Department in Santa Ana, California. The covert police operation was designed to curtail gang activity in a specific neighborhood by securing indictments and arresting 130 violent gang members belonging to the notorious Sixth Street gang. A purposive sample of community members, selected from the neighborhood where the gang members operated, were surveyed before and after the intervention about their fear of crime and perceptions regarding the effectiveness of local law enforcement. The results revealed a decrease in perceptions related to the fear of crime but little change in attitudes toward the police. However, the covert police operation successfully eliminated the Sixth Street gang and their criminal activities from the neighborhood.

In the light of the recent rapid growth in the ownership of ‘status dogs’ in the UK, and drawing upon research conducted in Britain and North America, this article considers the motivation of the dogs' owners, the relationship between the ownership of ‘status dogs’ and urban street gangs, and the social impact of these dogs.

County lines involving the exploitation of vulnerable children and young people by gangs have been described as a bigger threat than the exploitation exposed by the Rotherham scandal (The Times, 27 November 2017). The purpose of this paper is to explain the contingencies and drivers informing gang identities in the irregular economy of drugs and make some suggestions to address these.

The paper discusses the social reality (ontology) of UK gangs in the UK and the different theories of knowledge about gangs (epistemologies) that can both help and hamper gangs’ policy and practices. The paper is based on recent research and sets out strategic ideas for good community safety practice in order to develop multi-modal partnership interventions in gang-affected neighbourhoods. Recent policies are located within the broader political economy of crime, which raises questions of current policy direction to achieve safer neighbourhoods.

A critical realist approach to gangs (Pitts, 2016) assumes that unobservable structures (patterns of relations and roles) cause observable events (gang behaviour). This suggests a reality of gangs independent of theories about them. In this paradigm, the author’s theories about the world are historically, socially and culturally situated and always partial. Not only do gangs change in space and time, but also so do the author’s representations of them.

Arguably, at this moment, the authors’ best ideas about the underlying causal forces which precipitate gangs involve social structures which have push and pull factors acting in conjunction with culturally enmeshed individuals with limited choices. The pushes of social exclusionary factors such as institutional racism and unemployment act in consort with pull factors of excessive consumerism. However, the author’s ideas about gangs are partial and fallible, and this demands a methodological pluralism that involves a range of stakeholders when researching and formulating appropriate interventions.

To address the impact of gang violence at the micro or neighbourhood level, Andell and Pitts (2009, 2013, 2017) developed an interactive model of action research which is inclusive of the experiences and knowledge of stakeholders. This knowledge can be valuable not only to build multi-modal strategies in gang-affected neighbourhoods, but can also be useful as a reflexive spur to provide feedback and direction on what works to reduce community harms. Earlier research experience (Andell and Pitts 2009, 2013, 2017) informs ideas that that single agency or “siloed” approaches to problems associated with gangs and drug markets can cause confusion and mistrust for other stakeholders and that more integrated approaches are needed.

In order to assist young people to attain their potential with the assistance of institutions, both micro and macro changes need to take place. The social capital of community networks needs to be enhanced and the redistributive potential of economic policy needs to be enacted. Therefore, policy is needed which is founded on the belief that research is capable of understanding the mechanisms that produce material and cultural domination, and this analysis, in conjunction with stakeholder knowledge, could lead to a realistic program for collective actions in both the micro and macro spheres that reduce relative deprivation and curb the cultural mores for excess.

The paper suggests a critical realist approach to gangs (Pitts, 2016) and assumes that unobservable structures (patterns of relations and roles) cause observable events (gang behaviour). This imputes a reality of gangs independent of theories about them. In this paradigm, the author’s theories about the world are historical, socially and culturally situated and always partial. Not only do gangs change in space and time, but also so do the author’s representations of them.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution of HM government’s gang strategy from 2011 to the present. It considers why an initial emphasis upon the “troubled family” as the progenitor of gang violence has given way to more tightly focussed modes of intervention in which concerns about gang violence are conflated with other policy concerns.

The paper draws on a range of policy documents over the relevant period to demonstrate a shift in rhetoric and focus and assesses this trajectory against the evidence base suggested by other relevant literature.

The argument contained in the paper attributes this shift in focus to a combination of the insights provided by new research, dwindling budgets and the reformulation of the original policy objectives in terms of recent policy priorities.

It is suggested that in times of austerity, policy initiatives are reformulated to fit available resources but changes are presented as an improvement on what went before.

The paper uses secondary sources to develop and original analysis and argument.

Gangs have become a hot topic in recent years, particularly since 2011 when gang members became the poster child for “the worst bout of civil unrest in a generation”. Given the portrayal of gang members as “super predators,” it is maybe not surprising that much of the media and scholarly attention, to date, has focussed on gang members as perpetrators of violence — paying little attention to their role as victims and the impact this may have on their psychological wellbeing (Bennett et al., 1996). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and synthesize theory and research relating to the relationship between gang membership and mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder and considered how treating gang violence as a public health problem, rather than punishing it as a criminal justice problem has superior benefits in terms of rehabilitation and reduced recidivism.

The scarcity of research on this topic meant that research from other subfields of psychology was be collated in order to build a clearer picture of the psychological consequences belonging to a gang can have.

It is clear from this review that gang members’ involvement in violence (as victims and perpetrators) is likely to have a negative impact on their behavioral, social and psychological functioning.

The authors suggest future directions should be aimed toward developing and honing a robust program of research capable of producing intelligence-led assessment and intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact having been in a gang has on being in a group in a democratic therapeutic community (DTC). In particular what characteristics attract (in this case) males to join a gang and or group, and what is the impact on a DTC of having former gang members in it.

The paper is a discussion paper considering the implications of the points raised above. It also includes results of research relating to the “Changing the Game” programme.

The findings result from experience of having worked in the environment, reviewing available literature, conducting research and having managed some of the issues raised. It is not a research paper but does present findings.

This is a conceptual paper which incorporates findings from this author and others on the impact of gangs in a DTC. There is limited research in this area and so much is drawn from findings in other settings.

Little is written on the impact of having been in a gang and the dynamics that introduces in a forensic DTC. Therefore, it is hoped that it will encourage further research in this area.