Reluctant Gangsters - London Borough of Hillingdon

me because of something I was supposed to have said when I
was inside. You have to fight otherwise you’d look scared and
it would get worse and they would think they could do what
they like with you. They have to know that it won’t be easy.
(KI.48)
Respect matters because to be disrespected is to be ‘fair game’ for
anyone who wants to make a name for themselves and, as we
suggest below, this is virtually everybody involved with gangs. And
this is also why, as Bill Sanders (2006) notes, that in certain
neighbourhoods, being ‘mugged’ is often a prelude to a career of
street crime, as young people endeavour to rebuild respect in their
social mileau in the wake of an attack. However, being respected in
this way has a particularly acute downside:
Respect? Well, it’s fear isn’t it. You want to be feared, but
nobody is untouchable, there is always someone to come after
you with a blade or something. There’s no way out.
(KI.26)
Intra-gang Conflict
Many gang members appear to have a virtually obsessional
preoccupation with status and respect. This is institutionalised into
gang culture in the form of an elaborate non-verbal and clothingbased
etiquette, the breach of which ‘can get you killed’
(KI.07,24,26). Gang members also tend to be highly individualistic
and enjoy a very low level of mutual trust. When we add to this the
fact that many gang members are, knife and gun-carrying crackcocaine
users, and hence subject to the ‘crash’, the comedown from
crack, characterised by anxiety, depression, irritability, extreme
fatigue and paranoia, it is not surprising that interpersonal
relationships within the gang are often somewhat fraught
(KI.06,07,13,24). These relationships are put under even greater
strain when gang members assault or rob friends or relations or,
indeed, one another; a not infrequent occurrence (Palmer & Pitts,
2006). And this accounts for the fluidity and volatility of gangs, as
evidenced by the recent emergence of Drive.
Inter-gang ‘Beefs’
Drive, a fast-growing gang, came together around a friendship
group of former Warwick School students who ‘hang-out’ around
Atlee Terrace (KI.07,28,47). Drive comprises members, many of
whom have defected from other gangs as a result of being cheated,
robbed, abused or disrespected and, as such, the emergence of
Drive bears eloquent testimony to the forces making for instability
in gangland, and the sometimes random and chaotic nature of gang
affiliation.
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