The Context of the Study

On the whole, crime and criminal justice professionals in the UK have maintained that gangs on the pattern of those in the US do not exist in Britain, and that little crime is related to gang activity here.Police have highlighted the organized element in football violence, the drugs trade, and trafficking in women for prostitution in Britain.Specifically, the police, to growing gang activity, have often linked the rising use of firearms.Gangs can range from groups of teen- agers hanging about aimlessly to violent and ruthless units of criminal organizations.Gang resistance programs have emerged, such as the Manchester Multi-Agency Gang Strategy, developed by Man- Chester City Council in cooperation with Greater Manchester Police.In the US there is a longer and fuller history of gang research, stretching back to Ashbury (1928) and Thrasher (1936) and continuing to the present day.Gang members are distinguishable in many respects from non-gang membersGangs in North America more often than not, bear little resemblance to the gangsta-rap image attributed to them by American popular culture and by the international news media.Same individuals committed more crime during periods of gang membership than at times when they were not gang members.

The Methodology of the Study

The Findings of the Research