Gazette - Street gangs in Canada: the shape of things to come

COVER SECTION

By Michael C. Chettleburgh

Much has changed in the past three years with respect to our understanding of street gangs in Canada.

Perhaps it was the sheer violence displayed in several major cities in 2005 — fiercely punctuated by the indiscriminate killings of innocent teenagers Jane Creba of Toronto and Phillipe Haiart of Winnipeg — that forced all Canadians to confront a problem that law enforcement has known about for years, but has essentially lacked the resources to contend with.

Today, robust guns-and-gangs units are a staple of most major police agencies. The media cover gang-related crimes and trials like never before, and various levels of government have invested substantial funds in anti-gang measures and gang research. Community groups like Community Solutions to Gang Violence in Edmonton and the multi-stakeholder Youth Gang Committee headed by Crime Prevention Ottawa have studied local conditions and thrown their weight against the problem. While we know more today about street gangs than ever before, we are regrettably playing catch-up with a foe that is transmuting and growing — and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The Canadian context

It is difficult to accurately estimate the size of street gang membership in Canada. In its 2006 Annual Report on Organized Crime, the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada pegged the number of street gang members under the age of 30 at approximately 11,000. This estimate is perhaps conservative and one that will grow in coming years as police agencies across the country continue to expand their specialty gang units and develop better local intelligence. Taking into account known gang members, suspected gang members, girls and young women who are associated with gangs in some way (as girlfriends or income earners through the sex trade), the many young “wannabe” gang members who are at risk of full gang membership, and the under-reporting of gang affiliation in northern Aboriginal communities, the number of Canadian street gang members and so-called affiliates could very well be much higher.

One vexing question is why thousands of young Canadians are involving themselves with dangerous street gangs. Depending on who you talk to, you’ll get a range of answers — from simplistic explanations involving the influence of media violence or hip hop culture to well-reasoned socio-economic explanations. Talk to actual or reformed street gang members, and they’ll give a wide variety of reasons for their involvement, including broken families, poverty, persistent discrimination, sibling or parental gang involvement, the sense of camaraderie and excitement of the gang, and a lack of positive role models and things to do. They’ll also refer to the pull of the lucrative illicit drug trade and to dangerous social housing communities, where oftentimes they are faced with a binary decision: either become a victim of gang violence or join a gang and victimize others. In practical terms, this means that no two street gangsters are the same in terms of their status in the gang or propensity for violence. A “one-size-fits-all” approach to dealing with gangs and their participants will therefore be ineffective.

Future challenges

From a gang suppression perspective, challenges lie ahead. It is difficult to make general qualitative statements about street gangs in Canada because from coast to coast to coast, they are very diverse. The secretive Asian gangs of Vancouver are as different from the large Aboriginal gangs in Winnipeg as they are from the black and multi-ethnic gangs in Toronto and elsewhere. What we can say with some degree of certainty, however, is that street gangs across the country are increasingly aggressive with their recruitment. They attract youth under age 12 and as young as age eight — youth whom they know cannot be formally charged with a criminal offence — to participate in criminal activities such as drug dealing. They recruit young women to work, under duress or drug addiction, in the growing teenage prostitution market.

Moreover, there is an increasing “hybridization” of street gangs, characterized by multi-ethnic composition, less visible use of gang communication like colours and dress code, less focus on protecting geographic turf, more focus on protecting economic markets, increased co-operation with more sophisticated traditional organized crime groups, and fluid gang affiliations where gangs or gang members come together for a short period of time to commit opportunistic crimes, then disband.

At the same time, violence and rivalries are escalating, largely due to the highly competitive, multibillion dollar business of illicit drugs — from mainstay products like cocaine, heroin and cannabis to gang-produced synthetic drugs like ecstasy, GHB and methamphetamine. While the 2006 rate of violent crime involving the use of firearms in Canada remained stable for the fourth consecutive year — according to a 2006 Statistics Canada study examining trends in gun violence — police-reported data showed that among young people aged 12 to 17, the use of guns in violent crime has increased 32 per cent since 2002.

There is evidence that gang members are increasingly “suburbanizing” — moving from large cities to outlying areas — as well as moving interprovincially. These movements are driven as much by effective, large-scale police suppression as by the gangs’ search for untapped drug markets. More than one large police agency in Canada now reports that members of notorious U.S.-based gangs like MS-13, the Latin Kings and 18th Street have recently moved into its jurisdiction. Added to this fractious mix are more guns on the street, a greater willingness of gangsters to use those guns, and the problems of witness intimidation and promulgation of “stop snitchin’ ” campaigns, which make the task of successfully prosecuting cases more difficult.

Mobilizing against street gangs

The moves we make in Canada in the next decade are pivotal in slowing the growth of gangs, which are by their nature expansive organisms. To combat street gangs, police agencies across the country need additional resources — including staff, technologies and funds — to support confidential informant development, gang training, complex investigations and the creation of multi-jurisdictional task forces (because gangs do not respect jurisdictional boundaries).

Irrespective of its size or dimension, however, the street gang issue is simply not a problem that police must grapple with alone. The RCMP, municipal and provincial police agencies and others now know that police cannot arrest their way out of the street gang problem through sheer force or willpower. They need the co-operation of all citizens and sectors of society to stem the growth of gangs. Mobilized communities that accept responsibility for the existence of gangs in their locales are the most effective in dealing with gangs.

Today, each city in Canada ought to take careful stock of its local gang situation with police, citizens, political leaders, social service agencies, educators and other front line professionals at the table, and craft a balanced and collaborative approach to the gang issue. Police-led enforcement and suppression should focus on the 20 per cent of all gang members that are responsible for 80 per cent of the drama and violence we see in the streets.

To support this activity, greater resources must be deployed in early identification and intervention of medium- to high-risk youth, in order to steer them clear of gangs in the first place. Taxpayers must demand more government investment in evidence-based prevention programs that equip youth under age 12 with the protective life skills and knowledge they need to avoid the pull of gangs and other high-risk behaviours. More must also be done to help gang members exit the gang life, because redemption is still possible for the many who have been conditioned to believe that once you become a gang member, there is no way out.

Finally, every citizen has a role to play in ensuring the health and safety of his or her own community. Law enforcement partners must encourage citizens to co-operate with police, act as positive role models for youth, demand more action against the root causes of gang affiliation, and reject the underground economy — especially the illicit drug trade — which fuels the growth of gangs and the sheer violence to which we increasingly bear witness.

Michael C. Chettleburgh is President of Astwood Strategy Corporation and author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs (HarperCollins Canada, 2007), a finalist for the 2007/2008 Donner Book Prize, which recognizes the best Canadian book on public policy.”