Disputed Definitions and Fluid Identities: The Limitations of Social Profiling In Relation to Ethnic Youth Gangs
| Author | Rob White |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225408091375 |
| Published date | 01 August 2008 |
| Date | 01 August 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A R T I C L E
Copyright © 2008 The National Association for Youth Justice
Published by SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
www.sagepublications.com
ISSN 1473–2254, Vol 8(2): 149–161
DOI: 10.1177/1473225408091375
Disputed Defi nitions and Fluid Identities:
The Limitations of Social Profi ling In Relation to
Ethnic Youth Gangs
Rob White
Correspondence: Professor Rob White, School of Sociology and Social Work, University
of Tasmania, Private Bag 17, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
Email: r.d.white@utas.edu.au
Abstract
This article provides a critique of social profi ling in relation to ethnically identifi ed youth gangs
by considering the fl uid nature of social identity and the ambiguities of gang formation. It
begins by outlining the nature of youth group affi liation and association, and the multilayered
ways in which social identity is constructed. This is followed by a brief review of key propositions
relating to youth gangs, derived from international gang research over the last decade. The fi nal
section of the paper presents two models of social profi ling, one of which is based upon actual
criminal events, the other on prediction of ‘risk’. It is argued that anti-gang intervention based
upon a type of social profi ling that net-widens will most likely compound the very problem it is
intended to address.
Keywords: ethnic youth gangs, fl uid identities, group association, social profi ling.
Introduction
This article draws upon a national study of youth gangs in Australia in order to illustrate the
limitations of risk analysis and social profi ling. Specifi cally, the paper argues that, based on
available information about youth group formations and group behaviour, youth gang inter-
vention premised upon particular gang identifi ers can in effect create the very problem allegedly
being addressed. That is, the intervention itself can serve to consolidate and concretize gang
formation and gang identity. This is especially so if accompanied by aggressive forms of policing
and street regulation.
A major reason why ‘gangs’ as such cannot be easily profi led is because of the complexities of
social belonging and social identity pertaining to how young people live their lives. The notion
of ‘fl uid identities’ refers to the fact that young people have multiple identifi cations, and can
be simultaneously gang members and non-gang members. This means that if the latter become
part of the ‘profi le’, then ‘innocent’ young people are wrongly identifi ed as being members of
gangs. It is the multilayered nature and dynamics of youth associations and affi liations that
make a gang-targeting exercise diffi cult and problematic.
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Alternatively, it needs to be reiterated that gang identity is fl uid; that identity, and action
based upon identity, depends upon specifi c context, and that identity counts in terms of
prevalence and types of violence. These are important aspects of social belonging and social
action insofar as each is very much shaped by ‘external’ factors such as media images and law
enforcement interventions. The impact of these factors is especially powerful in relation to so
called ‘ethnic youth gangs’, that is, groups of (generally) young men who are identifi ed as
deviant on the basis of ethnic affi liation as much as specifi c criminal activities. Moreover, if
‘gangs’ are seen as the central problem, a focus that is reinforced by particular kinds of social
profi ling, then less attention tends to be provided to other crucial issues such as youth violence.
Indeed, one could well argue that it is youth violence, across different kinds of youth group
formations, including gangs, that poses the greatest challenges vis-a-vis safe streets and peaceful
communities.
The paper is divided into three interrelated elements. The fi rst part explores issues sur-
rounding social belonging and social identity. This section draws upon a recent national study of
youth gangs in Australia (see for example, White, 2006, 2007a, 2007b). The next section briefl y
describes nine key propositions about the nature of gangs, gang membership, gang activity and
gangs as a ‘problem’. It illustrates the complexities and disputed defi nitions associated with em-
pirical research into gangs as a social phenomenon. The fi nal section examines how risk analysis,
as a form of social research, gets translated into specifi c kinds of social profi ling when applied to
subjects such as gangs. The article concludes with some observations regarding the implications
of profi ling for anti-gang strategies.
The issue of youth gangs has come to the fore in many jurisdictions worldwide, and the
question of how best to respond to gang activities has generated considerable attention from
academics, policy makers and law enforcement services in recent years (see for example, Klein
et al., 2001; Short and Hughes, 2006). The often central place of ‘race’ and ethnicity in gang
members’ identities, a phenomenon apparent in many different national contexts, has also been
acknowledged (see, for example, Hagedorn, 2007; van Gemert et al., 2008). While this article
is principally based upon Australian research, the subject matter fi nds wider application in the
similar social processes, policy responses and law enforcement practices evident across many
industrialized countries. The issues and problems identifi ed below, therefore, are not unique;
nor should they be unfamiliar to those engaged with youth justice systems in many different
national and regional contexts.
Social Belonging and Social Identity
To understand gang formation and gang activities, we fi rst need to appreciate the nature of
group dynamics. Gang members are simultaneously members of particular gangs and of diverse
social groups, and there is overlap between the two. How different groups relate to each other
has implications for how gangs are formed, the nature of gang membership and the kinds of
violence associated with different gangs. Group membership hinges upon shared ethnicity, lan-
guage and culture. It also very much depends upon locale, age and activities. In part, this simply
refl ects family connections and basic commonalities such as ‘speaking the same language’ – both
literally, and fi guratively vis-a-vis religion, origins, and shared understandings of manners,
honour and relationships.
White – Limitations of Social Profi ling in Relation to Ethnic Youth Gangs
151
How best to categorize people and experiences in ways that provide accurate and sensitive
portrayals of social life, is part of an ongoing conundrum for social research. This is especially
evident in research and scholarship addressing phenomena such as youth gangs. Several recent
edited volumes (see Short and Hughes, 2006; Hagedorn, 2007; van Gemert et al., 2008), for
instance, have each in their own way affi rmed the complicated intersections between the
ongoing projects of the ‘self’ (constructions of personal identity), the importance of specifi c local
contexts (material resources and social histories), and wider global social, economic and cultural
processes (globalization) as these pertain to youth gangs. Group formations such as gangs are
located in particular spaces at particular times, and they engage in particular kinds of activities.
The collective and the personal – in terms of identities and well-being – are fused in the praxis
of group formation and group dynamics.
Furthermore, research has demonstrated that the complexities of social life frequently pivot
around the lynchpin of ethnicity, and that ethnic identifi cation, too, is dynamic, historical and
multidimensional as is evidenced in the research being considered here. As part of a national
youth gangs study, interviews with up to 50 young people in each capital city of Australia
including Canberra were arranged (White, 2006). The main subjects of the study were young
people who claimed to be, or who were identifi ed by local youth and community workers as
being, members of youth gangs. In other words, the sample was entirely contingent upon the
selection of local groups that were identifi ed as gangs, not on ethnicity as such. However, in
virtually every location around the country, ethnicity turned out to be central as to which
groups were deemed to be ‘gangs’ and who were in turn seen as gang members. Ethnicity was
also central to relationships at the local level between the gang members and other ‘non-gang’
youth. Social being – which encapsulates consciousness of self and the ways in which one
negotiates everyday life – is thus very much intertwined with ethnic background, as well as
class and gender.
Diverse social factors and networks bring young men and women together. In the Australian
gang research, it was observed that ethnicity (a distinct cultural identity) often forms the core of
social relationships, but then intersects with variables such as geography (specifi c locality), age
(mainly teenagers, but up to mid-twenties), size (sheer number of people who congregate at any
point in time), affi liation (with people from similar cultural backgrounds) and familiarity (of
one’s immediate...
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