RSS

Contact us

FAQs

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Gangs: The Strathclyde Model

I suspect that the idea that opportunistic looting can be explained by organised gangs is, no matter what the Prime Minister said this morning, a questionable premise. Nevertheless, it was interesting and encouraging to see him reference the work done by the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police. Interesting because their approach to gang-related violence demonstrates just how tricky the problem is and how "traditional" policing and criminal justice approaches fail to have much, if any, useful impact.

Here's a terrific and freshly-relevent Prospect piece that explains how the project has worked in Glasgow and, before that, in Boston. Karyn McCluskey is a very impressive person and, in my limited experience, someone worth listening to. And her experience, I think, has found that neither favoured "right-wing" or "left-wing" policies actually work. That is, neither "punishment" nor addressing "underlying causes" is enough. What matters - and here the Prime Minister may have seized upon the most important thing of all - is the moral dimension. Shame and stigma matter more than prison. That seems to be one lesson to be taken from the Boston and Glasgow experiences. As the Prospect article explains:

After 18 months of planning, the Strathclyde police were ready for the first call-in, to be held in the east end of Glasgow. It took place on 24th October 2008 in the Glasgow sheriff’s court, and was opened by the sheriff as though the court was in session. Through a cordon of four mounted police at the entrance, 120 gang members were escorted into the courtroom by police in riot gear. A police helicopter hovered overhead and constables cruised up and down the Clyde.
“The chief of police stands up first. He gives a hard-edged message.” McCluskey said. “Pictures of the gangs are getting flashed around on the screens. We know who you are, who you associate with, who you fight with. If we wanted to we could have a police officer outside your front door. You could see the looks on their faces. They are shocked. Some of the gang members think we don’t do things like that.”

Then members of the community spoke. An elderly man said he was petrified to walk past them on the way to collect his pension. An A&E consultant explained the difficulty of dealing with knife victims. A mother told how at the age of 13, her son was set upon by a gang and attacked with machetes. The injuries to his face were so severe he was unrecognisable. He had tried to protect his face with his hands and lost his fingers. “We had gang members crying because regardless of how good or bad their parents are—they love their mums,” McCluskey said. “That was the most powerful thing in the US and it was the most powerful thing here too.”

Another speaker was Gary, who committed a murder at 18 and had been in prison for 11 years. “He has such self-loathing.” McCluskey said. “He spoke about the dehumanising, harrowing aspects of prison, spending his twenties in a cell, someone telling him when he can go to the toilet, when he can eat. He has a level of remorse that speaks to them.”

In a sense, this is an old-fashioned approach re-tooled for the modern ned. You don't behave like this because it's wrong to behave like this and because, well, look at what you're doing to yourselves, your families, your community. Get a grip. but getting that message across takes time and may not always work. It is, if you like, an addiction problem: until the addict accepts there's a problem any solution is likely to be temporary at best or, worse, counter-productive.

The difficulty with this approach is that it is both innovative and simple and thus the kind of thing at which it's easy to scoff and hard to believe in. Nevertheless, there it is. The evidence from Glasgow is that it can have a useful impact, even if, like all approaches, it cannot and never will work universal wonders. We should not expect too much from it, or any other, programme just as we should recognise that what works in one city may not be easily transferred to work in another.

Actions: Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink   |   Comments (3)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Back to top

Advertisement

Apollo Magazine | Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2012 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved