Joining gangs: living on the edge?
| Published date | 21 November 2019 |
| Date | 21 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-07-2019-0052 |
| Pages | 280-294 |
| Author | Robert Francis Hesketh |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Joining gangs: living on the edge?
Robert Francis Hesketh
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to disseminate street gang research by Hesketh (2018) that has
identified a major aspect of young disenfranchised people’s attraction to street gangs as edgework risk-
taking. The study which sought to identify differences between those who joined street gangs compared to
those who abstained on Merseyside.
Design/methodology/approach –Two samples were taken from locations within the five boroughs of
Merseyside, the first comprising of 22 participants (18–25) involved in street gangs as active and ex-members
with a second sample consisting of 22 participants (18–25) who had completely abstained from street gang
membership. Data were collected through adoption of biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM)
(Wengraf, 2001), with analysis taking the form of Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) version of grounded theory.
Findings –Of the many findings that surrounded what was identified as the core category/central
phenomena of “coping with limited opportunity”it emerged that marginalisation and austerity were
contributing to increasing inequality and institutional constraint on young people on Merseyside. As a result,
many of the 18–25 year young men felt powerless, lacking identity and aspirational drive. Joining a gang thus
became not only a way in which control was seized back from such constraint through criminal risk-taking
behaviour, what Lyng (1990) has termed “edgework”, but also a means in which many of the young men
interviewed gained an identity of being “bad”from which intrinsically pleasurable seductive and criminally
erotic sensations were derived (Katz, 1988). Moreover, a relatively new version of edgework was also
identified, even though by way of male testimony. Called “vicarious edgework”, the phenomena sees young
women drawn to male gang members (“bad boys”) to derive the excitement of risk indirectly while remaining
law abiding. In sum, the paper highlights a concerning socio-psychological and key motivating driver
triggered by marginalisation.
Research limitations/implications –Study samples were all male. Thus, any observations on the vicarious
edgework aspect of risk taking requires further research involving both young men and women.
Practical implications –The paper highlights the need for more understanding of the allure of risk-taking.
The paper identifies a new form of female edgework. The paper draws attention to gang membership and
non-membership on Merseyside, an area that has been greatly neglected by gangs’studies in the UK.
The paper describes a novel way of data collection using an adoption of BNIM.
Social implications –In sum, the paper highlights a concerning so cio-psychological and key
motivating driver triggered by marginalisation. This, the author contends has been largely neglected by
risk factor focussed interventions that largely concentrate on the idea of rational choice theory and
sociological positivism.
Originality/value –The paper attempts to disseminate original street gang research by Hesketh (2018)
that has identified a major aspect of young disenfranchised people’s attraction to street gangs as edgework
risk-taking.
Keywords Transgression, Criminal erotics, Criminal risk-taking, Criminology of the skin,
Cultural criminology, Edgework, Vicarious edgework
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Hesketh (2018) has noted the wide and varied amount of cultural criminological literature
indicating the significance of edgework[1] and the seductive allure of thrill-seeking (Katz, 1988;
Ferrell and Sanders, 1995a; Lyng, 2005; Miller, 2006). Yet despite this, there has been very less
research in terms of interventions aimed at focussing on this concerning social-psychological
facet. It is an aspect which Hesketh (2018) has observed is proving an important motivating
factor for young people to join gangs on Merseyside. Thus, the study has found support for
Received 19 July 2019
Revised 21 September 2019
Accepted 22 September 2019
Robert Francis Hesketh is
based at the School of Justice
Studies, Liverpool John
Moores University,
Liverpool, UK.
PAGE280
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JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRACTICE
j
VOL. 5 NO. 4 2019, pp.280-294, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841 DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-07-2019-0052
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