Lambeth - Home To 25% of All London's Gangs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7243742.stm

On BBC News (13th February) one of the leading stories was that claiming that Lambeth held a staggering 25% of all gangs in the whole of London. Researchers found that there were 20 gangs operating in this area - one was even said to have 2,500 members. These gangs have been said to operate in the poorest areas of this borough, including Acre Lane and Stockwell Gardens Estate.

The majority of gang members are African-Caribbean (with a few either white or Asian). Researchers also found that gangs are composed in certain ways regarding ages:

Elders: 20 + [they make their money through drug sales]
Youngers: 16-19 [they benefit from street crime]
Tinies: Under 16

By late 2006, the violence within Lamberth had gotten so bad that there were certain parts of the borough that were labelled 'no-go' areas for outsiders and the vulnerable.

However, a leader of the gang 'Peel Dem Crew' said that their violent behaviour and criminal days are over - they have now turned to the music industry and are 'official businessmen'

The Lambeth Council are currently under-going plans to outline ways in which they can combat the issue. Youth centres, gatherings and a hotline for worried parents are all hopefully going to be set up in an attempt to cut down on gangs.

In our inner cities, gangs are the new extended families...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/09/comment.society

On 13th February, BBC News identifed Lambeth as being the home of a quarter of all London's youth gangs. This article is written by a charity worker who works in Lambeth and is in contact with youths involved in gangs.

The latest killings - the vast majority of victims being black - have triggered a flurry of headlines and hand-wringing, but they were going on long before the media cottoned on.

This article highlights some key issues:

* Many youths feel that by them belonging to a gang, they are ensured protection if something goes wrong - to contrast this, they feel that the police won't come to their rescue.

* Inner city youths see gangs as their extented family - they know that they can rely on them in times of need.

* In some cases, people become parts of gangs, due to their family history - brothers, uncles, cousins may all belong to the same gang as they join.

* A Mori poll last year found that 29% of pupils in London schools admitted to carrying a knife, HOWEVER But the young people coming through the doors of our project say that 90-95% of their classmates have taken a knife to school in the past year.

* When asked, a boy of 16 years old, was able to describe what a Mac-10 was, without hestitation. He said what one was (a sub-machine gun), how many rounds per second it can spray (more than 12), and its street price (£800), without pausing.

* Tony Blair claimed that this behaviour wasnt caused by society poverty, but the increase in black gang culture.

* HOWEVER despite the thoughts that more black role models are needed, it is in fact the question of money. The lack of money, has been said to be the root of all of this violence.

* Sharon, the girlfriend of someone who recently got killed, said that money leads to a cycle of robbery - if you dont have the latest goods, then you'll rob people that have them already, yet they've probably stolen them goods in the first place - this cycle continues.

* Lloyd, 16, says that its easier to rob people who live in your neighbour hood, as opposed to people who live in prosperous areas, as they are more likely to call the police, and thus they will get involved. When robbing one of your own kind, officers are less interested.

* The result is a vicious circle of violence and fear, where deprived young people feel exposed and vulnerable, left behind by a rampantly consumerist society they can ill-afford to buy into.

* In many cases youths are forced into this situation due to the lack of things for them to do and their poor backgrounds - parents constantly struggling to make ends meet. This combination causes them to become at a loss as to what to occupy themselves with; however they all know that guns and knives are readily availible, therefore resort to using these.

Guardian Unlimited

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukguns
This website is off Guardian Unlimited, which has an archive of all the articles published in it's newspapers.

Hopefully, i will use this website to understand and learn some more about the increasing rates in gun crime in London, and how the media represents both the victims and the culprits.

My Final Question..

How does the media represent gun crime in the UK?

* outline my personal opinion - hypothesis
* briefly identify what the current laws are on firearms etc...how have they changed over the past 10 years?
* identify the types of media that is open to portraying gun crime - newspapers, tv, radio, internet, youtube etc
* analyse a few ofthese different forms - how does the media represent gun crime across these different mediums?
* conclude what i have found regarding my research
* conduct some audience research - talk to some youths, see how they feel about the way in which the media represents them regarding gun crime etc
* maybe talk to some specific people who have experienced gun crime - Richie's family?
* what/if any patterns have occured...do my audience believe in the same thing as i do?
* draw all my research together...both primary and secondary
* conclude everything - identify what my results have shown; was my opinion the same as others?? do some people disagree?? why is this??

Question...

How does the media mask/portray the entirety of gun crime in the UK?

- they cover up parts of the story so that you have a negative view on certain sections of society....predominantly young black men/youths
- the media uses hip hop as an excuse to mask the truth behind gun crime.....instead of tackling the root of the problem, the use hip hop as a medium to mask
- the media dont take into consideration the surroundings in which people are brought up in, the readily availibility of guns in London etc....instead they constantly exposer ideas in the media, from which they think are the main causes for the increasing numbers of crime rates

This website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6938411.stm gives an insight into the way the media portrays hip hop as a main cause of encouraged youths to use guns.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7047649.stm

The Media and Crime

It has been said that the "media's attention on high profile and sensational crime can distort the true picture". Even with good news about falling crime rates, the media prefer to single out instances where crime is rising. This tendency to sensationalise crime extends beyond the news media through to TV drama and cinema. There is a continuing fascination with crime that will never go away even if the media could be persuaded to temper their worst excesses.

Crime stories carry all or most of the ‘media triggers’ identified by academic research e.g.

* Questions of blame.
* Alleged secrets and attempted cover-ups.
* Human interest through identified heroes, villains, victims and dupes.
* Links with existing high profile issues or personalities
* Conflict.
* Portent of further ills (What next?).
* Many people exposed to the risk, even if at low levels (It could be you).
* Strong visual impact (e.g. pictures of suffering).

http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/learningzone/comm_strat/cr3.htm

Initial Proposal No.2

1. Which topic area is this proposal for?
Crime and the Media.

2. What is the suggested focus?
Focusing on the link between youths and knife & gun crime - how does the media portray certain sections of society?

3. Do you have an idea for a question/problematic?
Is the media's stereotyping an accurate acount of British youths?

4. Why would you choose this?
Because I'm really interested in crime and what goes on in and around society. I read and hear a lot about knife&gun crime, therefore I feel that I already have an advantage.

5. Do you have any concerns or are there any limitations to this proposal?
I'm not sure whether or not I could succesfully answer this question, due to the need of accurate statistics etc.

6. Can you rate it on a sliding scale 1- 5 (5 being great proposal, 0 being lousy proposal)
31/2 - I think this proposal is a good one, however I need to ensure that I get the right information, both theory and evidence in order to successfully answer my question.

http://www.london.gov.uk/gangs/

Crime Rates for London: 2006-2007

Using the Metropolitan Police website - http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/ - it has enabled me to look at the crime rates for individual boroughs, from which I can then see whether or not the bourough has seen an increase or a decrease in the total number of crimes including rape, robbery and racism.

This website allows me to pinpoint which boroughs recieve the highest crime rates - in this case its Westminster with a staggering 65,728 crimes from December '06 - December '07. In comparison the borough that recieved the lowest crime rates was Richmond-upon-Thames which had a total number of 12,490 crimes. My results show that the boroughs on the outskirts of London have a lower crime rate, whereas the city boroughs are the ones that attract the most crime. This could support the idea that the higher the poverty levels in a particular area, such as Newham (35,186), Southwark (39,955) and Hackney (32,649), the higher the crime levels. To contrast this, commuter-belt boroughs such as Harrow (13,851) and Kingston-upon-Thames (12,490) have the lowest crime rate......Does this suggest anything about the people living in particular areas or does this have nothing to do with it??

British Gangster Films - Do They Have An Effect On Their Audiences?

I have decided to research into some famous British gang films which may or may not have an effect on their audiences..
I am going to look at 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'The Krays' and 'Reservoir Dogs'. By conducting more research into these films, I will see if the media have made attempts at saying that one of the films caused certain criminals to commit the crimes they commit.

Case Study 1: Gary Nelson

I watched the January episode of CrimeWatch, which showed an on-going case on a South London gangster who they've finally convicted for his crime that he commited 12 years ago.

The man in question is Gary Nelson, 36, one of Britain's most dangerous gangsters, was found guilty of the murders of security guard William "Kwame" Danso and PC Patrick Dunne in Cato Road, Clapham, south London, in October 1993.

I used the websites http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,1712558,00.html, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/18/ngangsta18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/18/ixportal.html and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4717168.stm which have furthered my knowledge on this case even more. I want to use this as one of my main case studies - going into detail why he murdered his 2 victims, what his lifestyle was like, what his influences were (films? peer pressures? etc), which in turn will hopefully prove useful in arguing my view.

On reading up about Gary Nelson, it has becomme apparent that his violent record, consisting of 21 offences, dates back to his teen years (15), with links to one of Londons most infamous crime families. He may have joined this group due to peer pressure, or as a result of wanting to feel 'invinsible' (which is how he later described himself).

We can also see a side of Nelson's personality which may suggest he had some mental problems - in 1994, he ran out of his cell naked lunging at police officers with a broom handle. In addition, he was convicted of commiting a violent act on a man who simply overtook his car whilst driving. This could suggest an instability in his thought processes, meaning that he felt the need to release his anger through violent acts.

Initial Proposal No.1

1. Which topic area is this proposal for?
Crime and the Media.

2. What is the suggested focus?
Focusing on the controversal question: 'Is The The Media To Blame' - the media isn't to blame for the increasing rate of violent crme.

3. Do you have an idea for a question/problematic?
'The Media Is Not To Blame'....the general argument of the essay will be arguing that crime films/British gangster films do not effect people who commit crimes - they are not influenced by them; instead there are other key factors that cause criminals to do wrong in society.

4. Why would you choose this?
Because I'm really interested in crime and what goes on in and around society. I enjoy watching programs such as CrimeWatch UK as I find all the different cases really intriguing. I love hearing about crime stories and have a lot of knowledge on the topic already, which will help me with this project.

5. Do you have any concerns or are there any limitations to this proposal?
I have to consider both sides of the question: I must outline the arguments which state that the media is to blame for the increasing rate of crime, and state why I feel they are not the core reasons for why people commit crime.

6. Can you rate it on a sliding scale 1- 5 (5 being great proposal, 0 being lousy proposal)
31/2 - I think this proposal is a good one, however I need to ensure that I get the right information, both theory and evidence in order to successfully answer my question.

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.1997283.0.violence_has_its_causes.php

The Home Office

The Home Office website, outlines how they intend to reduce youth crime as currently "Youth crime harms communities, creates a culture of fear and damages the lives of some of our most vulnerable young people."

This website sucessfully outlines the factors which, they feel, have caused youth-crime to increase over the past few years. They are:

- troubled home life
- poor attainment at school, truancy and school exclusion
- drug or alcohol misuse and mental illness
- deprivation such as poor housing or homelessness
- peer group pressure

As you can see, these factors are all constantly reinforced by the governments views of youths, particularly black youths, and also that of the media's who reguarly issue stories in newspapers about how society should be aware of the increasing rates of crime coming from youths.

Websites

To begin with, I am just going to gather some information about youth and gun/knife crime in London, and how the media portrays youths in negative ways.

I think that this website may prove useful in the research stage of this project:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/youth-crime/

Crime!

I have decided that I am going to study Crime and the media, and the way in which the media constantly links youths with the increasing number of gun crime and knife crime.