Gangs in New Zealand Prisons*
| Date | 01 December 1992 |
| Author | John Meek |
| Published date | 01 December 1992 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589202500304 |
AUST
&
NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
(December
1992) 25 (255-277)
GANGS IN NEW ZEALAND PRISONS·
John
Meek
t
255
Gangs became a permanent
feature
of
New Zealand prisons during the.
1980s.
Surveys
indicate
that more than 20%
of
inmateshavepastorpresentgangaffiliations.
This
article
looks at the gang
phenomenon both in thecommunity and in prisons. A casestudy lookingat the impact
of
gangs
at
Auckland Maximum
Security
Prison
(Paremoremo) is included; a unique inmate subculture was
destroyed
and inter..gangconflictresultedin the prison beingrun on a unit
basis.
Using
information
from the 1989prison
census,
includingunpublished
material,
the
article
examinesthe level
of
gang
membership and comparesgangmembersand unaffiliatedinmatesovera range
of
variables.
Gang
members
were
found to
be
more likelyto be
younger,
classified as
requiring
medium or maximum
security
custody,
convicted
of
violentoffencesand
serving
longer
'senten
ces.
The
article
alsolooks at
management
approaches
to gangs in prisons and a fresh
approach
being adopted by the
Department
of
Justice.
Gangs in the Community
Although confusion is common, if
not
obligatory, when people
are
discussing gangs,
it is probably
true
to say
that
when
they
refer
to
'the
gangs' in New
Zealand
most
people
are
talking
about
the
ethnic gangs,
and
the
nation-wide 'Supergangs' Black
Power
and
the
Mongrel
Mob
in particular.
Other
gangs include 'bikie' gangs
(or
motorcycle clubs as most members
refer
to them), comprising mostly Pakeha
(European)
men,
and
cult groups
such
as punkrockers, skinheads
and
bootboys
(Comber, 1981)
..
The
ethnic gangs, however,
are
the
most
numerous
(according to
police estimates)
and
visible in terms
of
media
coverage.
Ethnic
gangs first came to
public attention in July 1971 when they were
the
subject
of
atelevision
current
affairs program, which looked at claims by members
of
the
Stormtroopers gang in
South Auckland
that
they
had
been
brutalised
by
the
police (Edwards, 1971)
..
At
that
time, most gang members were in
their
early to
mid
teens
and
conformed to
the
traditional picture
of
urban
street
gangs (Howman, 1972; Patrick GJackson, 1989).
Throughout the 1970s
the
ethnic gangs periodically
came
to public attention,
generally in relation to offending by individual gang members or inter-gang conflict,
but
it was
not
until
the
end
of
the
decade
that
the
perception
of
gangs
changed
from
that
of
ajuvenile crime problem to a
major
threat
to law
and
order,
and
asocial
problem
of
dangerous proportions. By
then
they
had
spread
to provincial towns
throughout
the
North
Island
and
their
membership comprised adults who
had
grown
up with
the
gangs as well as younger members.
Kelsey
and
Young (1982)
attributed
the
changed perception, of gangs in
the
late
1970s to
three
factors. First, increased membership,
the
emergence
of
effective
leaders
and
moves towards national organisation
made
the
gangs
appear
to be
stronger
and
more stable entities. Secondly,
there
was
greater
intensity in intergang
•
This
article was
presented
as a
paper
at
the
Conference
of
the
Sociological Association
of
Aotearoa
(NZ),
Lincoln University,
December
1990.
The
assistance of Beverley Braybrook, Policy
and
Research
Division,
Department
of Justice, Wellington, in providing unpublished
data
from
the
1989 Census of
Prison
Inmates
is gratefully acknowledged.
The
views expressed in this article
are
those
of
the
author
and
not necessarily those of
the
Department
of
Justice.
t
MA
(Hons),
Dip
Journalism, Certificate in Criminology. Policy Unit,
Penal
Division,
Department
of
Justice, Wellington NZ.
256
JMEEK
(1992) 25
ANZJ
Crim
rivalry, especially in Auckland, and the resultant violent altercations received a high
level of media attention. Thirdly, growing numbers of young Maori and Pacific
Islanders in gangs made them a symbol of racial disharmony, 'and led to fears that
the gangs could be 'used' by Maori radicals to cause large scale disruption. Kelsey
and Young dubbed 1979 'The Year of the Gangs' and analysed the response to gangs
as a 'moral panic'.'
It was in 1979 that the first reference was made in the media to the potential of
ethnic gangs to engage in urban terrorism.' which is probably of greater interest as
an insight into Pakeha paranoia than as a reflection of reality, but it has been
frequently repeated in subsequent years, including in the Police submission to the
Committee of Inquiry into Violence in 1986 (New Zealand Police, 1986). This
statement set the tone for some of the more extravagant statements which have been
made about gangs and led the Roper report to claim that 'there is probably no
subject in the field of law and order that can provoke more selective and distorted
coverage from the media, or more emotive and often ill-informed rhetoric from
those in authority, than gangs' (Roper, 1987: 87).3 The point has been made in the
US literature that the media 'publicise gangs; they don't tell us much about them'
(Hagedorn, 1988: 23), and the same is true in New Zealand. Overseas studies have
shown that newspaper coverage of gangs is frequently inaccurate and almost
uniformly negative; it basically serves to form and reinforce dramatic stereotypes of
gang structure and behaviour. While research indicates that violence plays only a
small part in gang behaviour, media coverage focuses on this to a large extent (Klein,
1971). In New Zealand, Kelsey and Young (1982) found that the media limited and
distorted the image of the gangs and of their activity.
The main source of information about gangs is the police. However, the police
approach to gangs as a 'crime problem' rather than a social phenomenon has severe
limitations. This certainly is not to say that the gangs are not a significant crime
problem; the high number of gang members in prison attests to this fact, although
police estimates that gangs are responsible for up to 40% of reported crime (Rae,
1989)seem excessive. However, crime is seldom the raison d'etre of gangs; 'unlawful
business within the gang is usually personalised and not related to the formal
orientation of the group' (Newbold, 1989b: 269).
The police submission to the Committee of Inquiry into Violence was indicative of
police attitudes to gangs:
Gangs have
been
aproblem for the last 20 years
but
in the last few years a noticeable
change in their attitudes towards authority and their involvement in criminal offending has
occurred.
Their
members are now hardened, often ruthless criminals responsible for a
wide variety of offending from murder and armed robbery to intimidation and drug
dealing
....
The
basic philosophies of the gang is [sic
lone
of ambivalence to society. This reflects the
arrogant attitude adopted by this sub-culture in pursuit of its goals and objectives. Gang
members have
opted
out of society; they do not wish to be likenormal citizens or dress like
them; that is why they are eager to perform shocking
and
disgusting acts
....
Gangs have become more coordinated
and
sophisticated, atrend which disturbs the
Police. Disorder offences, which typified their past behaviour, are still to be found
but
now
gangs are more heavily involved in serious crime
....
The
tentacles of criminal offending
have spread to include both New Zealand and the international arena
....
While the ethnic gangs do not as yet display open hostility towards the white population, it
is of reaJ concern to the Police
that
ultimately aleader will emerge who is capable
of
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