Gang Deconstruction

these services also permit users to send and receive private messages and talk in
private chat rooms. Often a police officer may stumble upon one of these pages, or an
informant can give access to the local gang page. Alternatively, they will have to
formally request the needed information. Most service providers have four basic types
of information about their users that may be relevant to a criminal investigation; 1) basic
identity/subscriber information supplied by the user in creating the account; 2) IP log-in
information; 3) files stored in a user's profile (such as "about me" information or lists of
friends); and 4) user sent and received message content. It is important to know the
law, and understand what the police can get service providers to do and what their
capabilities are. It is also important to understand how gang members use the Internet
and how the police can use their desire to be recognized and respected in their subculture
against them.
Debate Surrounding Impact
In the UK context, law enforcement agencies are increasingly focusing enforcement
efforts on gangs and gang membership. However debate persists over the extent and
nature of gang activity in the UK, with some academics and policy-makers arguing that
the current focus is inadvisable, given a lack of consensus over the relationship
between gangs and crime.
The Runnymede Trust suggests that, despite the well-rehearsed public discourse
around youth gangs and "gang culture", "We actually know very little about 'gangs' in
the UK: about how 'a gang' might be defined or understood, about what being in 'a
gang' means... We know still less about how 'the gang' links to levels of youth violence."
Professor Simon Hallsworth argues that, where they exist, gangs in the UK are "far
more fluid, volatile and amorphous than the myth of the organized group with a
corporate structure". This assertion is supported by a field study conducted
by Manchester University, which found that "most within- and between-gang disputes...
emanated from interpersonal disputes regarding friends, family and romantic
relationships", as opposed to territorial rivalries, and that criminal enterprises were
"rarely gang-coordinated... most involved gang members operating as individuals or in
small groups."
Cottrell-Boyce, writing in the Youth Justice journal, argues that gangs have been
constructed as a "suitable enemy" by politicians and the media, obscuring the wider,
structural roots of youth violence. At the level of enforcement, a focus on gang
membership may be counterproductive; creating confusion and resulting in a drag-net
approach which can criminalize innocent young people rather than focusing resources
on serious violent crime.
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