The definition of what constitutes a criminal gang is hotly disputed. Understanding how the concept varies between those identified as potential gang members and professionals has important implications for public health.

Gangs, in public discourse, are connected with participation in illicit drug transport and sales as well as rising levels of street violence (The Centre for Social Justice 2009; HM Government 2018).  Understanding what gangs are and how they operate is therefore a serious public health concern. Agreeing what constitutes a criminal gang is central to the provision of reliable data; both to monitor gang activity and help identify preventative public health interventions, yet reported narratives reveal significant anomalies.  Commentators (Taylor 2023) argue that the term ‘gang’ is increasingly used to control minoritized groups, particularly young black men. The collective label of the gang can conjure fear and animosity amongst the law-abiding majority and in this way has been held up as a Government ploy to divert attention away from the crisis of ever growing inequalities; pointing the finger instead at individual delinquent behaviour (Densley et al. 2020). A more nuanced understanding may result from gaining more insight into the perspective of those young people who are seen to be ‘gang involved’.

Qualitative research carried out through a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Three Schools Mental Health Fellowship conducted in three main English locations (South-West, London and Liverpool) sought to interview young people (aged 11-24 years) with involvement in criminal gangs and professionals working with them. The study involved a scoping phase consulting professionals, practitioners and academics followed by in-depth interviews with 26 young people and 22 professionals working to support them. The sample of young people was drawn from a range of settings including youth clubs targeted at vulnerable groups, alternative provisions for children unable to attend mainstream schools, charities supporting gang-involved young people and local authority youth offending teams. All young people interviewed had been permanently excluded from mainstream school and the vast majority had experience of the criminal justice system. Contact was made with young people via professionals who considered them as being likely to be ‘gang-involved’.

Young people referred to a variety of gang related models including: territorial street gangs that reside over geographical areas, often identified by the boundaries of the local estate or post code; organised crime groups with hierarchical structures involved in drug dealing and a range of other money laundering activities; and County Lines Gangs characterised by the use of children and young people to traffic drugs from urban centres to smaller towns and rural areas. Accounts collected from the young people revealed that only a small minority identified their own activities (criminal and social) as being gang related. Although if pressed young people acknowledged the existence of local gangs, their form and constitution was seen as constantly metamorphosising and membership often fleeting. Moreover, gangs involved in drug dealing have responded to the pandemic and lockdown by adjusting their business model (Brewster et al. 2001) and it was evident that there is significant geographical variation in the type and form of gangs across England.

Several of the young people interviewed had been involved with County Lines drug gangs; a model associated with rising youth violence, proliferating drug markets and the notable grooming and exploitation of young people. Yet whilst acknowledging their activity, as drug runners within a broader network, the young people involved struggled to see their involvement as gang related. There appeared to be little recognition of being part of a wider discernible group and certainly no sense of group membership. There was however a common purpose; to make money. This chimes with Hesketh and Robinson’s  (2019) notion of ‘deviant entrepreneurship’ where young people enter a variety of business arrangements, often as dealers in their own right. Whilst there were stories recounted of grooming, particularly the receipt of designer clothes and trainers, the key motivation in all cases appeared to be money, either to acquire personal status, to pass money on to family, or to assist independence and escape unhappy home lives. Individual outcomes following initial involvement were mixed with some managing to extract themselves before getting too deeply enmeshed, whilst others described significant drug debts, violence and associated mental health issues.

Alongside County Lines, territorial turf wars were also commonly mentioned. Gangs were seen to be fuelled by the passing on of trauma and ‘beef’ from one generation to the next. Some young people, excluded from school and marginalised from civil society spoke of the thrill of life on the edge. Their names have been changed. Here ‘Bobby’ talks with bravado about the excitement of the anonymity of the balaclava and the drama of the police chase.

Well if we see something on snapchat and we want to go and bang one of the ‘ops’ {opposition}. Give them some beef… you’ll just keep a bali in your pocket cos you never know if you’re going to end up doing something stupid (Bobby, Liverpool).

For others, who had been the victims of serious knife attacks, local gangs invoked terror. Four of the young people spoken to had moved between relatives or out of area to escape gang persecution.

A lot of the stuff they call ‘beef’ was passed on by older people who had issues. But then they moved on – or they did what you would hope to do which is to make your money then go away and restart (Iassac, London)

For the majority involved in some sort of dealing, it was hard to recognise a common set of gang characteristics. Instead, most stories shared references to broken families, struggles to get money to buy themselves the clothes they wanted, complex mental health issues and school behavioural problems leading to exclusion. This combination of factors, often without the protection of strong adult relationships left young people vulnerable to the apparently easily available money from dealing drugs (either for themselves or others).

Yeh I got sucked up into it. Yeh. I got meself involved me. I’m on bail now. I started to go downhill when I went to that behaviour school. All the kids together. There was a few gang members in there. I just used to chill with them and sell a bit of weed and that. And then before I know it I was sucked up into it (Ethan, Liverpool)

This study has uncovered several rich accounts of young people’s understanding and experience of life on ‘the margins’ and shines a light on the disparities between organisational/systemic understandings and the way gangs are seen and experienced by young supposedly ‘gang-involved’ people. Whilst the press are increasingly prone to use the term ‘gang involved’, splashing the term with Hollywood dazzle – the result may be that attention is shifted from the individual young people battling with multiple adversities, to direct public fear and blame against a marauding mob. Social policy framing the way young people are educated, supported and policed must focus more on the significant impact of inequalities and acknowledge the harms implicit in some of our institutions.

This fellowship (MH015) was funded as part of the Three Schools NIHR Mental Health Programme. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.