The Centre for Social Justice also wants "Gang Prevention Zones" set up in the worst affected areas, where police, councils and other agencies would focus efforts to get youngsters out of trouble. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who heads the CSJ, said urgent action was required to tackle the "casual savagery" of gang-related crime. "The tragic murder of Rhys Jones in Liverpool has brought home the casual savagery of gang crime in Britain today," he said ahead of Thursday's publication of the report - Dying to Belong. "Half the 27 teenagers murdered in London last year were the victims of gang crime. That should bring home the brutal truth that street gangs are a nasty and shocking symptom of the broken society. "We need emergency action in stemming the rise of gang culture which is devastating our most disadvantaged communities. "Our report is a practical solution which doesn't just deal with the narrow issue of knives but the vital issue of the people who are most likely to be using knives or any weapon and is founded on the best practice in the Western world." The report calls on the Government to adopt projects used in American cities such as Boston, where gang leaders are told to end violence - and receive training, drug rehab, remedial education and help finding work - or continue and face constant attention from the authorities and prosecution for the most minor offences. It estimates gang membership in this country at between 20,000 to 50,000 teenagers. Simon Antrobus, the chief executive of Clubs for Young People, who was involved in compiling the report, said: "The critical element of this report is that it goes beyond a traditional approach to responding to the challenge of gangs in our communities. "It recognises that gang members are children and young people first - increasingly younger. Similarly it recognises that an approach based on enforcement alone is flawed. "We need an instant response. But we won't make sustainable progress in reversing this worrying trend that is pulling children and young people on to the street and into the gangs in our inner cities unless we are prepared to engage with the less eye-catching but vital work of medium and long-term social renewal among our marginalised and disaffected young people. "The adult world bears a big share of the blame for the rise of the gang, not least because so many of our young men are experiencing a crisis in masculinity. "Father deficit and space restriction lead to anger and rage forcing some young men to search for a sense of belonging which they find in the local gang and the gang leader." The CSJ said Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire had cut youth homicides by 63% - and highlighted the early success of similar models in the UK such as Merseyside's Matrix Gun Crime Team and Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit.50,000 teens are in gangs and zero tolerance policy needed, says Iain Duncan Smith report
Up to 50,000 teenagers in the UK are involved in gangs, a thinktank will warn this week in a call for a US-style zero tolerance policy towards ringleaders.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Posts
