Some say gangs are largely fictional, a figment of an establishment imagination which is hooked on American popular culture and unable to explain the activities and motivations of young people (Hallsworth 2013). Others say gangs in contemporary Britain are only too real, the by-product of complex problems that the government is reluctant to face, such as technological change that has displaced workers, globalisation that has destabilised communities, and inequality and injustice that has disintegrated families (Pitts 2008).
It may be the case that both sides of this debate have something valuable to tell us. Our research suggests that, when it comes to London ‘gangs’, fiction feeds into fact and vice versa.
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