Mind your language: does use of the word gang encourage crime?
The use of the word gangs to describe youths who hang around committing crime could make their activities worse, a study has claimed.
The Youth Justice Board conducted a major study on gangs and concluded that the term is "inappropriate". It also suggested replacing the phrase "gang-related" with "group-related".
The organisation, which believes some youngsters could view the gang image as "seductive", said: "Juvenile gangs do exist in some urban areas, but most young people involved in group offending do not belong to gangs - even if others label them in this way."
What do you think about the findings of the study? Would dropping the use of the word gang really make a difference? Does the word gang have a negative connotation or could it really be viewed as "seductive" by some youngsters? Can use of the word actually encourage more crime? Let us know what you think.
Your comments
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D from North says:May 24, 11:58
Gangs are seductive ... rap music, and urban culture portray success through crime and violence. Status comes through being hard, having money, and with that comes women and respect. We need to change the perception of being successful but for many young lads attracting women will always come down to being a bad boy. Thats part of the issue here ... its difficult to change that at a cultural level and the only way to do it is to promote a different lifestyle through the figures in music and popular culture that kids already respect.
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terry from essex says:May 24, 11:53
who paying these idiots to tell us to re phrase words like gangs thats been around for centuries god help us all
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Alan Clarke from Boston - Lincs says:May 24, 11:52
Whatever next and what a load of rubish! They are thugs and we should have rights to call them what we want.
Please bring back some sort of national service with discipline and the learning of respect!
We should also call the parents "thugs" as they do not control their kids! or... they do not care! -
El Zilcho from Alley says:May 24, 11:17
They all dress the same because it makes it more difficult to identify them individually...look at the pic
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n from surrey says:May 24, 11:11
im feed up with do gooders who protect these people.yes youths who go around commiting crime in a gang should be called a gang.the trouble is do gooders have more than likley not ever been on the recieving end of crime before so they dont know what their talking about. i also think asbos dont work as i know of a few youths who have been on these and quite frankly they havent changed one bit.ive watched the 1950s national service programe were they send misfits to do the national service 1950s style. instead of asbos, make them do this but they have to do it untill the end and not be allowed to quit. the more mature people who did national service would probaly say it didnt do them any harm and so it wouldnt hurt the youths who comit crime.it might teach them how to be decent and hard working.
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