Reluctant Gangsters - London Borough of Hillingdon

primary schools by their younger brothers and sisters as
reinforcements in the aftermath of an ‘inter-gang’ playground ‘beef’.
It is alarming to think that, by dint of this, possibly notional, early
gang affiliation, a link, however tenuous, is forged between the
primary school playground and international organised crime.
Ethnicity
The Pan-London Gang Profile indicates that 48% of the gangs
surveyed were ‘African Caribbean’ and 21% ‘Asian’, but the nature
of the data collected means that these young people may well have
been Black British, African, or of Mixed Heritage. In Waltham
Forest, there are few single ethnicity gangs (KI.07,18,19,43,44,
45). Gangs are estate-based and their ethnic make-up reflects the
ethnic make-up of their estates. Nonetheless, because of their
heavy concentration in social housing in the borough, African-
Caribbean and Mixed Heritage children and young people
predominate. Whatever their ethnic origin, however, gang members
assume the style and manner dictated by popular, globalised,
ostensibly ‘Black’, street culture (KI.07,18,19).
Gender
Some Elders and Youngers have several young girlfriends (aged 13-
15) who are, apparently, ‘attracted by the ‘glamour’ and ‘celebrity’
of gang members’ (KI.02,15,18,19). These girls tend to play an
ancillary role, sometimes carrying or hiding guns or drugs for the
boys. They are often sexually exploited, sometimes in exchange for
drugs. The relationship tends to be abusive; one of dominance and
submission. Some senior gang members pass their girlfriends
around to lower ranking members and sometimes to the whole
group at the same time. Unreported rape by gang members, as a
form of reprisal or just because they can, is said to occur fairly
frequently and reports to the police are rare. A head teacher said:
One of my year 10 students was recently gang-raped by some
gang members. I talked to her and her mother. They are
obviously very frightened and the mother insists that it was
consensual. The girl won’t come to counselling because she is
afraid of being seen to talk to anyone in authority about it.
(KI.38)
There are other girls, loosely associated with the gangs, who regard
themselves as ‘soldiers’ and concentrate on violent street crime.
They do not perform the same sexual role as the ‘girlfriends’ of
gang members. The numbers of girls passing through Waltham
Forest Youth Court, charged with theft and robbery, usually of
jewellery from other girls, increased during 2006 (KI.10). While
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