What are the main reasons behind the rapid rise of gang culture in Britain in the last decade?
Mark Bird: There are numerous reasons and it would be more prudent for an academic to give you the definitive list as to why there is probably a stronger gang culture now in Britain. Some of the things certainly are very obvious in terms of social deprivation and limited life chances for some young people. It has been said to me before that if it does not happen in a particular youngster’s street or in the neighbouring street then it does not happen at all. Certainly, my own experience of mentoring has shown that young people, certainly in some of the inner London boroughs do have a limited scope of what is out there in terms of the world beyond their own. There are a number of reasons. Social more than anything else as to why people are probably more involved in gang culture now than they have done previously.
