Gang culture has replaced family life among teens, warns police chief

by Paul Conneally | July 1, 2008 at 10:24 pm

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Gang culture replacing family life is perhaps not the reality for most areas but in our most deprived areas there are worrying signs that emotional and cultural sustenance is being found through a gang culture based on criminality. Here we have a police chief who is calling for longer term social interventions rather than quick fix highly visible reactionary solutions based almost entirely on enforcement.

Barbara Wilding, the Chief Constable of South Wales, says family ties have been abandoned in place of "tribal loyalty" among young gang members, who have become "almost feral".

Ms Wilding, the longest-serving female chief constable, said that social breakdown means violence and drugs has become a way of life in deprived parts of many larger English cities.

Custody could only provide a short-term solution, she said, with policies based primarily on enforcement "set on sand"