13 / 24
There’s ‘nothing
to live for’
2
REVENGE:
A third of all gang
members can be expected to
give a story about ‘having
nothing to live for anymore’
because someone or a group killed his mother, father, sister or brother. The sec-
ond most forceful revenge push is the rape of his mother or sister. The third is
arson, if a group or someone burnt his house, especially with his family in it –
and it does not matter if all lives were spared. In the St Catherine Adolescent
Study (2004), we discovered that boys enter gangs not only to take revenge for
these reasons, but also to prevent them from happening. In that study, only
boys expressed these things among their greatest fears.
Boys in gangs have no mother or
father, or bad relationships with both
1
BROKEN FAMILY:
Between 2004 and 2014, as part of a large
study on multiple murderers, I managed to convince 17 dons or
gang leaders with power over 28 inner-city communities in
Jamaica to allow me to profile the young men under their influ-
ence. The 28 communities were broken down into 86 districts or
corners. In each district, three to five young men would sit with me
and profile each young male between the ages of 15 and 34 years.
Over that period, I profiled seven critical characteristics on 2,316
young men, including material on their caregivers and gang status.
What did I learn about the boys who had joined a gang?
a. Over 40 per cent were from homes where there was constant con-
flict, especially between caregivers.
b. Over 60 per cent either had no father in his household or had
severe problems with his father/father figure.
c. Over 75 per cent either had a missing mother, a bad relationship with
his mother, or one who was involved in prostitution or lifestyle that
breaks the boy’s sense of attachment (Boys are fractured by mothers
having multiple partners).
d. Over 95 per cent had a missing mother or father or both, or bad
relationship with either or both, or suffered from a conflict in the
home.
In summary, in this dataset (as well as in datasets from Belize and
Trinidad), very few boys who have a nurturing home have been found to
join a gang. It is easy to find boys from very nurturing homes in inner-
city crews, hanging out on the corner to prove masculinity – but not join
gangs.
Men with
degrees
want gang
executive
positions
3
ECONOMICS:
Almost all small
gangs are aligned
to larger ones which
are connected into
massive confedera-
tions that help each
other. Membership in
even one petty gang
can provide the con-
tacts to allow a youth
to join or receive ille-
gal jobs or money
from larger gangs that
have resources from
the international drug
economy. Gang life
pays. In a country of
economic uncertainty
– and especially high
levels of prejudice
against males from the
inner city – gangs
become an attractive
alternative. In recent
studies, young men
with first degrees list-
ed scamming and gang
executive positions as
occupation. This is of
grave concern.
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 27, 2017