Crime & Punishment: Joining a gang involves joint enterprise

And if murder results, then all those present are culpable.


Gang culture has grown and a twin-pronged attack on it is required. Murders, knifings and intimidation are rife, it seems. And now plans are afoot to take a class-action approach to the perpetration of crime. This has to be a good thing as those who drift or are coerced into gangs must appreciate the potential consequences of their involvement. Machismo appears to be a a significant driver, as boys in particular are attracted to gangs in the absence of respectable male role models. Education is often seen as an effeminate pursuit and so (mean) street-life is preferred to a productive and responsible career. Kids exit school unqualified and a life of crime is the obvious route for many.


A wholesale review of inner-city life is needed. And programmes successfully programmes adopted abroad, like the popular and brilliant Compton Cricket Club in Los Angeles which has dramatically reduced gang involvement and criminality in a deprived neighbourhood, could be introduced here in England.


The Coalition should demonstrate its innovative credentials by fresh approaches to a rapidly developing and increasingly costly problem. Vested interests which block progress must be ousted, and novel ways found to tackle these issues. Joint enterprise to capture all those involved in murder is but one tool, there are numerous others. And banging up youth in jail is a counterproductive measure: engaging the young in their own and the country's future has to be preferred.


The Era of Austerity might yet solve major social ills, but only if the government acts decisively.


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