Title: Gangland Online: Performing the Real Imaginary World of Gangstas and Ghettos in Brussels
Abstract: The findings presented in this paper are taken from a study carried out in 2009 in a city in the North West of England (North City).The purpose of the research was to answer a number of broad ranging questions surrounding youth violence including: an exploration of young people"s motivations to join a "gang" and become involved in the use of weapons including firearms.The risk factors and significant influences that draw young people into gang culture in the research city were also explored.Formal interviews were undertaken with 45 "gang" members, their associates and key informants such as senior and operational police officers working in the city"s specialist gang and firearm response unit.The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion of the structure and formation of "gangs" in four areas of North City from the point of view of the young people identified as "gang" members and those responsible for this identification i.e. police officers and multi-agency panels.Findings demonstrated that few of the young people viewed themselves as belonging to a "gang", indeed many were scathing of such an attribution, contesting its applicability.A more accurate description of these young people is of a rather loose and fluid interlinked but informal social network of friends and associates.There was evidence that the authorities labelling of some young people as "gang members" and adoption and use of gang names attributed coherence and identity to what was often only fluid and transitional youth group formations.This may have created the very circumstances it sought to challenge.