By Carl Greaux
There is no doubt that gangs are in existence for many decades, but recently there has been a very significant increase in their numbers, as well as an increase in the number of youths affiliated with gangs, gang-youth drug involvement and gang violence in my country. Their activity has become more violent and also a major social problem in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The scientific knowledge base about delinquent gangs is very limited. Longres (1990, p 320) notes, “No consensus exists for a definition of a youth gang. In addition, no agreed upon recording system exists, and no data on gang offenses are collected in systematic ways by disinterested agencies. Furthermore, attempt to eradicate gangs through social service and criminal justice programs have met with little success.”
The inadequacy of the knowledge base about delinquent gangs is a major obstacle to developing effective intervention strategies with this population. Based on my knowledge as a Police Officer dealing with delinquent gangs in my country, I have defined this group as an organization of young people in their early teens and twenties, who have established a group name, claims a territory of its own and engages collectively and or individually in acts of violence or serious criminal behaviors.
In St. Kitts and Nevis, we have identified a number of delinquent gangs as follows:
The Bloods - This gang is known for its gang members’ use of the color red in their clothing and hangs out in Newtown with members from Newtown, Conaree, Cayon and also Nevis.
The Crips - This gang is known for its gang members’ use of the color blue in their clothing and hangs out in McKnight. They have now broken up and divided into two groups, the ‘Tek Life’ and the ‘KMS’ (Killer Man Squad). These two groups are in conflict with each other and also engage in open warfare. The Crips is now a loosely connected network of individual sets belongings to the two autonomous gangs. They are mainly from West and Central Basseterre and have members in Newtown and St. Paul’s.
Black Knight - This gang is known for its gang members’ use of the color black and its membership is from Tabernacle, where they also hangout.
Brown Street - This gang is known for its gang members’ use the color brown in their clothing. Members of this gang are from and hang out in Saddlers.
River Side - This gang is known for its gang members’ use of the color green in their clothing. Its members are from Old Road and Frigate Bay and they hang out in Old Road.
I recently looked at an illustration of a categorization provided by Morales (1989, p419-21), who classified youth gangs into four types; Criminal, Conflict, Retreatist and Cult/Occult. However, for the purpose of this article, I will highlight two of them: Criminal and Conflict.
According to Morales, the primary goal of Criminal Gangs is material gain through criminal activities. As a Police Officer dealing with members of these delinquent gangs, I noticed that their criminal activities include murders, larceny of property from persons or premises, extortion (Bloods/Crips) and obtaining as well as selling illegal substances (mainly Cannabis/Cocaine). Conflict Gangs are turf oriented and will engage in violent conflict with individuals or rival groups that invade their territory, or they will commit acts that they consider degrading or insulting. Clearly, this has been demonstrated time and time again with the shooting incidents we been having lately. I also learnt that respect is highly valued and defended.
There are numerous theoretical explanations as to why youths join gangs and why gangs engage in delinquent or criminal activities. These explanations include biological, psychological and sociological theories. As yet, no consensus exists as to which theory is most useful. It is also known that adequate research was not conducted to ascertain the validity of these theories. However, in order to provide illustrations of existing theoretical conceptualizations, let us look at four sociological theories: Differential Association, Anomie, Deviant Subcultures and Control.
Edwin Sutherland advanced his famous theory of Differential Association in 1939. This theory asserts that, “A person becomes delinquent because of the excess of definition favorable to violation of the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law.” Based on interviews with gang members, I discovered that when a gang member has decided to commit a crime, it is based upon the nature of present and pass associations with significant others. People internalize the values of the surrounding culture. When the environment includes frequent contact with criminal elements and infrequent contact with noncriminal elements, a person is apt to engage in delinquent or criminal activities.
Robert Merton (1968) applied Anomie theory to delinquency and crime. This approach views delinquent behavior resulting from when an individual or gang is prevented from achieving high status goals in a society. Merton begins by noting that every society has both approved goals (for example, wealth and material possessions) and approved means for attaining them. When certain members of society want these goals but have insufficient access to the approved means for attaining them, a state of anomie results. (Anomie is a condition in which the acceptance of the approved standards of conduct is weakened). When an individual or gang is unable to achieve their goals through society’s legitimately defined channels, they would seek to achieve them through illegal means, which signifies that the channels have been weakened.
Let’s look at Deviant Subculture. This theory by Albert Cohen (1958) asserts that groups have developed their own attitudes, values and perspectives that support criminal activity. He argued that the lower class culture is more conducive to crime than the middle class. He also asserts that lower class culture is organized in six values - trouble, toughness excitement, fate, smartness (the ability to con others), and autonomy. Evidently, base on my finding in the investigation of gang members, I can safely say that most of them are from the lower class of our society and they exhibit the mentioned values and allegiance to these values that produce delinquency.
The Control theorists asked the question, “Why do people not commit crimes?” Theories in this category assume that people would naturally commit crimes and therefore must be constrained and controlled by society from breaking the law. Hirschi (1969) suggest that the prospects of delinquent behavior decline as the adolescent is controlled by such social bonds as affective ties to parents’ involvement in school activities, success in school, high educational and occupational aspirations, and belief in the moral rightness of conventional norms. The weaker the social bonding, the greater the likelihood that an adolescent will become involved in delinquent gang activities. From my observation, it is evident that social bonding has weakened in our society due to inadequate parental supervision and monitoring, parental rewarding for deviant behavior, parent modeling of aggressive behavior, and inadequate parental warmth.
I would therefore like to recommend that we take a collaborative approach in order to reduce or eradicate this social problem of delinquent gang activities and to develop intervention strategies. The Anti-Gang Unit of the Royal St. Kitts-Nevis Police Force and the Juvenile Probation Department of Social Development, Community and Gender Affairs should team up and conduct a detached workers program, in which members of both organizations join gangs and seek to transform anti-social into pro-social attitudes and behaviors. I think that Probation Officers should use their legislative authority for the placement of delinquent gang members in group homes residential treatment facilities or reform school (such as Saddlers Secondary School, Youth Skill etc.) and also collaborate with the Police and the Ministry Health and Education in providing drug treatment of gang members who have a chemical addiction. There is also the need to create programs to support and strengthen families, particularly single parent families, and programs to prevent school dropouts and to provide academic support.
Finally, I strongly believe in the statement made by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas when he said, “This group of young people (gang members) is just misguided youths.”
I think this group of young people needs guidance and love. As a nation, lets us work conscientiously together and provide the much needed guidance and love to these youths and make St. Kitts and Nevis the envy of not only the Caribbean region, but the world at large.
