Essay on Youth Crime: Examining Street Gangs in UK Gang Academia

This essay examines the complex relationship between youth crime and street gangs, particularly within the context of UK gang academia. It delves into the historical perspectives of youth involvement in criminal activities, the formation and dynamics of street gangs, and the social factors contributing to youth crime, such as broken homes, social comparisons, and lack of parental guidance. The essay also highlights the role of media in shaping youth perceptions and behaviors related to crime and gang affiliation. Furthermore, it discusses the evolution of organized crime involving youth, including contract killings and drug supply, and the challenges faced by law enforcement in controlling these activities. The analysis incorporates historical examples of notorious gangs in London and concludes with a reflection on current issues and the impact of modernization on youth crime rates. Desklib offers this essay and many other resources for students.

Youth crime

TABLE OF CONTENT
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Youth crime and street gang:.......................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

MAIN BODY
Youth crime and street gang:
Young blood are always indulged some kind of illegal activity that lead them to commit
serious crime, youth have been involved in different gang activity that increase crime rate around
the country, from theft, burglary, chain snatching, robbery, dacoity and murder are some serious
crime that have been committed by these youths gang (Tebbutt, 2016). The UK government is
bringing down these crimes rate with the help of strict action, laws and police support but still
respectable fear can be seen in the public. There are many cases where youth have planned major
crime that impacted the history as well, involvement of youth of common in 18th century because
of lack of education.
Formation of street gang can be seen in the previous century where youth creates a strong
gang and capture particular area, it is very clear that street gang are involved in serious crime of
murder and robbery (Díaz and Patacchini, 2022). There are rapid increase in crime rate after
formation of youth gang as they themselves fight for respectable fear that allow them to create an
image and win the particular boundary. Youth crime took place when children was not
considered as part of family member, due to broken family tree, children left behind and due to
lack of support they tend to perform crime.
History of respectable fear highlight that youth crime occur due to child labour in the
year 1833, in this year, youth was pushed to work as labour. Due to lack of family support,
children was financially and mentality facing challenges. There are many cases where family
pushed youth to earn money with the help of crime, here involvement of family can be seen.
Children who were involved in the crime tend to gain respectable fear in which general public
started to fear them due to their crime. This took rapid increase when gang formation took place
in the street of London and Manchester, youth started to take murder contract and involve in
bank robbery. There was no strict law to control such crime. Parental involvement played vital
role in promoting youth crime because lack of support and guidance lead these youths to commit
crime and become part of criminal world. Crime was done because to earn money and focus on
daily living but crime become trend as concept of respectable fear come into street of London,
youth focused on committing crime not only to earn money but to gain respect in the society.
In today modern world, gang can be seen in the street but these gangs are not that much
of power as it was before in 18 century, gang formation is under control by government and

youth crime is rapidly decreasing. Gaining respectable fear still can be seen in the world, there
are many cases where street gang are still involve in youth crime including murder, robbery and
illegal drug supply. In 21th century, gang formation still exist where youth are supply drugs,
cannabis and other substance that fall under youth crime (Alleyne and Pritchard, 2016). Modern
world have adopted technological advancement to bring down crime rate in London, surveillance
are installed in every street to control crime. Government and official run certain program to
control these crimes for example drug racket where official turn themselves into drug buyer to
catch drug supplier, these missions of official shows significant control in youth crime in
London.
It is very clear that there are certain factors that impacted youth crime for example social
inclusion and pressure from respectable fear, young people focus on creating reputation with the
help of street crime. Due to high profile murder, knife crime and riots, street gang gain
respectable fear and role of media can be seen in creating gang myth (Irwin-Rogers and Pinkney,
2017). Mass media is been used in aware youth about crime but due to misuse, social media have
become channel of crime. Aim of gaining respect pushed youth to commit crime and enter world
of criminals, high profile murder and knife crime are been done by youth to create an image and
gain reputation. Due to lack of education, every youth want to become criminal but no one want
to become a responsible person.
Social construction of gang can be seen in the past century where gang was formed with
the help of mass media, this simply means to gain reputation in the society, youth commit crime
and gain a respectable fear. Mass media played vital role when it comes to formation of gang,
newspaper and TV media highlighted benefit of becoming violent and harm other to create a
respectable fear. It is very clear that gang formation can be seen in modern era as well where,
mass media still manipulate behaviour of youth (Densley, Deuchar and Harding, 2020). There
are certain social factors that give birth to those individual who have mentality to commit crime
for daily survival, these factor may include;
Broken home where no facility is been provided a survival was difficult, poor life impact
mentality of youth and push them to commit crime to become stable. Broken home become an
issue when youth compare their lifestyle with other individual for example comparing lifestyle
with rich individual (Frisby-Osman and Wood, 2020). It is very clear that social comparison

effect mentality of youth and their thought processing, most of the youth crime occur because of
social status.
Bad family condition is another reason for youth crime, due to unstable family, youth do
not find guidance and mentorship, if family themselves is associated with some kind of criminal
activity then youth and children of that family might in criminal world. There are many cases
where family pushed youth the commit crime, due to heavy family pressure young blood commit
crime, broken family tree and lack of guidance lead to involvement of youth in the crime.
In 19th century, government did not focus on gang and their activity as street gang was
not that much harmful but after several serious crime, government of the UK took control to
bring down rapidly increasing crime rate in the country. Lack of government control give birth to
certain harmful and dangerous gang including The High Rip Gang, The Kray Twins, The
Richardson Gang and Terry Adams Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate (Smithson and Ralphs 2016).
These are some of the most the deadliest street gang of London that commit certain serious crime
including murder, brutally beaten up, drugs supplies, kidnapping and murder of even young
people. These gangs are formed to gain respectable fear in the society and control over street of
London, these gangs are formed with the help of young people and their aggressive behaviour.
The Kray Twins gang was one of the most the deadliest street gang of London that had
rule over every street, this gang was formed by twin brother, Ronald Ronnie and Reginald
Reggie. These twin brother had The Firm gang that tend to lead serious crime including racket,
robberies, hijacking, arson, money laundering and certain other serious crime that impact
criminal world (Sutton, 2017). These gang focus on involving young blood in the gang that have
more aggressive behaviour to commit crime, Kray Twin provide opportunity to youth to create
respectable fear with the help of serious crime in the street.
Street gang include young blood that allow them to collect aggressive behaviour which is
easier to commit crime, it is very clear that behaviour of youth drive them to commit crime
which means young people may have strong feeling and emotion. Turing these feeling into
aggression may lead to stress full life which allow young people to commit crime and become
part of criminal world.
Role of media can be seen in the seen in the promotion of gang in London, mass media
had great role in the process of creating youth gang as well as reducing crime rate. Media
represent youth crime in such a manner that viewers get influenced, highlighting youth crime

lead to push in crime rate. Many people believe that mass media create Juvenile Delinquent
Behaviour in the youth and push them to commit crime for respectable fear, there are many cases
where youth under 18 are involved in serious crime including murder because their mind and
thought processing was impacted due to media news and coverage that promote crime.
There was high rise in crime mainly youth violence as they do not fear government, there are
many cases where young criminal did not fear government and its strict action in controlling
these crimes. Fear plays vital role when it comes to crime, gaining respectable fear was dream of
every young blood in the UK, formation of gang can be seen where with dream to capture street
of London (Tebbutt, 2016). The historical background highlight youth crime as major issue,
horrible incident can be seen in the past where young people brutally murder people and gain
respectable fear. There was no government control on street, murder, Bulgary, theft, acid attack,
robbery and street fight was common in that era.
Organized crime and organized gangs means youth gang have started talking murder
contract, these contracts are well planned and well organized where amount of money is been
taken to kill a personality, contract murdering was common in 19th century where gangs like The
Richardson Gang and Terry Adams Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate take contract to kill people.
With the time, youth crime has become well organized where involvement of important
personality can be seen. In today's world, youth are used by important personality to create
violence in the country including riots.
Organized gang in the UK promote youth crime because they do not fear government and
its regulation, gangs like The Richardson Gang and Terry Adams Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate
have power in London street which means they are controlling organized crime with the help of
youth.
Business model gang means formation of gang with the aim of performing business in the
country, these crimes are done on the basis of business model. Youth are involved in the
formation of business model for example crime of drug supply, business model crime may
include supplies of substance in the country, contract killing and kidnapping. This is an sensitive
topic that highlight organized crime done by youth, it is very clear that organized crime need
organized plan and resource for example; weapons and other crucial resource that is used in
committing the crime.

In 19th century, crime are often committed with regular weapon including knife, baseball
bat, blade and other weapon that are easily been found but 21th century crimes are well organized
by youth as they carry more knowledge about modernized weapon including amu nation, guns,
knife, automatic guns and even grenade. Youth who regularly commit crime create a business
model for example; The Kray Twin who create a business model out of youth crime which
means involving youth to commit organized crime including contract murder using advance
weapon (Thornberry and et.al., 2018). These firms are organized gangs that have advance
weaponry, skilled killer, fear in general public and involvement of politics to commit crime.
Youth crime in 21th century highlight involvement of youth in the serious crime activity,
today's youth crime rate is under control. Current issue in the society promote youth crime
including riots, these issue is related to societal problem like cultural discrimination, impacting
religious belief and serious issue including rape case. Issue in the society promote crime rate as
media play vital role in influencing these crimes, it is very clear that modernization have
controlled the youth crime rate because use of technology help government to take control over
street for example; installing surveillance, survey of authority and many other steps to ensure
crime are under control.
In the year 2018, 135 people were murdered in London by street gang highest since 2008,
there is again rise in youth and street crime violence where street gangs tend to be more deadly
with deadly weapon. London street face issue related to weaponized theft that organize each and
every step in planning and committing the crime (Van Ngo and et.al., 2017). Government have
crafted certain law to control these crimes, under Crime and Disorder Act 1998, young individual
have to face certain legal process if they violated YOT standards including youth crime
violation. There was no strict legal process in 19th century as government was developing law
according case, crime rate was high because there was no fear of government in these criminals.
Crime law of the UK highlight every criminal even minor have to face legal process including
imprisonment.
The 2011 riots was one of the biggest event in the history of England where 29 year old
young individual was shot dead by authorities, this riot took huge publicity where involvement
of street gang can be seen. In this riot, youth was crashed with local authority for killing an
young person for no valid reason, after the death of Mark Duggan, youth tool another way of
protesting which include riot that consist looting, arson and death of people. Modernized weapon

can be seen in this riot, youth set shops, buses and public property on fire and created one of the
biggest riot in the history of London.
In this case, media played crucial role where they influenced minds of youth and impact
their behaviour, coverage of media and highlighting murder of young person impacted
aggressiveness of the youth. Social media was used to create sensation in the country and
promoted riot, sharing misleading information on these platform impacted youth and push them
to commit crime.
Today's modern era have significant control over crime rate because of advancement in
the process and key element, for example advance laws and legislation that provide clear
guidance to youth to avoid any kind of criminal activity, or they have to face serious legal
obligation. Laws for youth crime is been provided by the government to control these crimes,
there is different law for different crime for example knife crime may have different law as
compared to robbery (Wood, 2019). Youth crime had become central focus of the government
which allow them to strictly control these crimes and manage youth of the nation. Crime rate
have significant increase in the year 2020, there was almost 7500 incident record in the book
where 35% around 2500 are connected with self harm. However, government of the UK is taking
certain steps to reduce youth crime as they did in 19th century where youth crime was at peak and
gang formation was common topic in the media. Government had controlled these crime rate in
street of London in the process.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alleyne, E. and Pritchard, E., 2016. Psychological and behavioral characteristics differentiating
gang and non-gang girls in the UK. Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and
Practice.
Densley, J., Deuchar, R. and Harding, S., 2020. An introduction to gangs and serious youth
violence in the United Kingdom. Youth justice, 20(1-2), pp.3-10.
Descormiers, K. and Corrado, R.R., 2016. The right to belong: Individual motives and youth
gang initiation rites. Deviant Behavior, 37(11), pp.1341-1359.
Díaz, C. and Patacchini, E., 2022. Parents, neighbors and youth crime. Review of Economics of
the Household, pp.1-20.
Frisby-Osman, S. and Wood, J.L., 2020. Rethinking how we view gang members: An
examination into affective, behavioral, and mental health predictors of UK gang-
involved youth. Youth justice, 20(1-2), pp.93-112.
Irwin-Rogers, K. and Pinkney, C., 2017. Social media as a catalyst and trigger for youth
violence. Catch22.
Smithson, H. and Ralphs, R., 2016. Youth in the UK: 99 problems but the gang ain't one?. Safer
Communities.
Sutton, T.E., 2017. The lives of female gang members: A review of the literature. Aggression
and violent behavior, 37, pp.142-152.
Tebbutt, M., 2016. Making youth: a history of youth in modern Britain. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Thornberry and et.al., 2018. Reducing crime among youth at risk for gang involvement: A
randomized trial. Criminology & Public Policy, 17(4), pp.953-989.
Van Ngo and et.al., 2017. The unravelling of identities and belonging: Criminal gang
involvement of youth from immigrant families. Journal of International Migration and
Integration, 18(1), pp.63-84.
Wood, J.L., 2019. Confronting gang membership and youth violence: Intervention challenges
and potential futures. Crim. Behav. & Mental Health, 29, p.69.
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