It is unlikely to have been in the Christmas stockings of many people, but resolve next year to read John Heale's One Blood: Inside
Britain's New Street Gangs.
It is evidence of how gang activity has changed since the
days of the Krays and Richardsons, although the preoccupation about territory
remains a constant.
For modern-day gangsters in east London, a trip to the London Eye a
few miles away is akin to visiting outer space, so divorced are they from the
reality of areas outside their estate or postcode - the "manor" of
yore.
The most striking difference between then and now is the
age of the gang members, some of them today being below the age of criminality.
And it is the younger members whom Heale finds most
disturbing and threatening. He isn't alone: a police officer he interviews
concurs as gun possession rises among young teenagers desperate to posture and
exercise their bravado.
Heale travels to England's major cities to produce
part-sociological analysis and part reportage, speaking to gang members, gang
leaders, youth workers and police to conclude, worryingly, that things are
getting worse and the offenders younger.
But don't think that Heale's book is a stream of negative
thought. He is simply trying to find out why we are where we are and looks for
ways to rein in the worst aspects of gang activity.
He is particularly impressed by a gym project at
Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, which has transformed the area, described by a
researcher as the most violent place he had worked.
The project, the United Estates of Wythenshawe,
underlines the contribution the non-statutory sector can make, as official
agencies struggle to harness the trust of those they are charged with helping.
The fact that UEW is run by a man who had his epiphany after staring down the
barrel of a sawn-off shotgun is likely to have earned his respect in the
community. He, in turn, has turned that respect into a positive force.
This honest appraisal of a growing problem contains some
frightening passages. When a mother reported her son to the police after
finding substances in his bedroom, the son, who as a "younger" dealt
drugs for an "elder", was beaten so badly for having the drugs
confiscated he was put in intensive care. The mother was gang-raped.
Heale discusses ethnicity with an open mind and finds
overlap between the life experiences of the predominantly black gangs in parts
of London and the predominantly white gangs in Liverpool and Manchester. But
nothing is clear-cut except the low educational expectations of the young
people and their social marginalisation.
Yet there is one thing on which everyone can agree: like
policemen, the gangsters are getting younger. A frightening thought.
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