GLASGOW’S NOTORIOUSLY violent gang culture has been dealt a blow by a Strathclyde police-led community effort that has seen some crime rates fall by nearly half – twice as effective as any previous attempt to tackle gang violence.
Nearly 80 gangs are active in the eastern and northern districts of Glasgow alone, operating under names such as the Baltic Fleet, Real Calton Tongs, Monks Dennistoun, and the Gallowgate Mad Squad, with up to 1,000 members.
Throughout Glasgow, 3,500 youths are believed to be involved in gangs. A Glaswegian youth is three times more likely to die of a stab wound than one in the rest of Britain while 20,000 people are hospitalised with stab or slash wounds every year.
So far, 400 gang members have signed up to the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence programme, which was started in Glasgow’s east end in 2008 and was extended to the northern part of the city two years ago.
Violent attacks have dropped by one-eighth in Glasgow east compared to a 1 per cent increase in Glasgow south, where the programme – which has received £1.4 million (€1.5 million) worth of Scottish government money, along with £3.4m worth of services – does not currently operate.
Based on a project started in Boston in 1996, the programme has seen crime rates among Glasgow youths who have agreed to take part in the intensive training drop by 73 per cent , while knife-carrying rates have dropped by nearly 60 per cent.
Strathclyde police’s Chief Insp Robert Stevenson said the number carrying weapons had dropped by 85 per cent, while the numbers elsewhere in the city were down by 53 per cent – partly, it is assumed, because the gangs are not carrying weapons with them if they go outside their home turfs.
Gang members are approached by a social worker and offered an alternative, starting with a session of Glasgow’s sheriff’s court, where their own family, police and doctors spell out the human suffering caused by the gangs.
A police officer then warns “if any of them – including members not present – commits an assault/murder, they will pursue the whole group, not just the individual”. “This has the effect of pushing gangs to police their own behaviour. The A&E consultant talks about the problems,” said the programme, adding that the youths are then invited to sign a pledge to put down their weapons.
Those who sign up get help to improve their chances of getting work, while some get help with anger management, conflict resolution, or how to write up a CV. Remarkably, just 70 of the 470 youths called in have failed to sign the pledge.
One youth signed up at 17: “I didn’t really think about being in a gang or getting into trouble. To me, I was just hanging around with my mates . . . but the older I got, I began to think there had to be something else than hanging about and getting into bother. I wanted to work in the building trade – I’d been to college and liked it.”
Having got training, the youth then applied for an apprenticeship: “I had two interviews and it was really tough. It was great when I found out I’d made it.”
