Gang culture
A senior police officer has blamed family breakdown and a corresponding growth in gang culture for the increase in violence and drug-related crime amongst young people. Barbara Wilding, Chief Constable of South Wales, said that in some areas tribal loyalty had replaced family loyalty.
In a speech for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, she said that many young people have experienced family breakdown, and in place of parental and family role models, gang culture is now established.
The former deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan Police also said that greater focus is needed on tackling the complicated social and economic issues that lead to criminal behaviour. ‘In an age of cost-benefit analysis … there is no appetite for solutions that have no visible return and no patience for any which will not bear immediate political fruit’.
