Diverting young men from gangs: a qualitative evaluation

Abstract

Purpose Serious organised crime (SOC) costs the UK billions of pounds every year and is associated with significant negative health, social and well-being outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether young people can be diverted from involvement in SOC using preventive intervention approaches. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on data collected from semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved in a six-month intervention which specifically aimed to divert “at risk” young people away from SOC involvement. Findings Themes arising from the analysis are: risk and vulnerability factors associated with young people involved in organised crime; what worked well during this intervention; what outcomes, both hard and soft, were generated; as well as, the specific challenges to the success of preventive programmes’ success. Practical implications Overall, the study highlights the problematic nature of diverting “at risk” youths from SOC and provides recommendations for future preventive intervention work in the field of SOC. Specifically, it suggests that longer-term interventions, targeted at younger children, may generate better behavioural outcomes if they focus on building trusting relationships with credible support workers (i.e. have lived experience of SOC). Originality/value With a growing body of evidence suggesting that young people are being increasingly exploited for organised criminal purposes, an approach which prevents involvement in SOC makes theoretical and economic sense. However, little research has empirically tested its utility in practice. This study seeks to address this gap.

Early identification and intervention with individuals at risk of becoming involved in serious and organised crime (SOC)

“…), youth workers nominated different young people who they considered to be more appropriate to the preventive aims of the programme. In total, a cohort of 22 young people (all male) engaged with the six-month intervention stage between March-September 2016 (Boulton et al, 2019). Each of these individuals were provided with a "lead professional" (i.e.…”

“…This evaluation was conducted using both quantitative (comparing data from before, during and after the intervention using Police National Computer, intelligence and crime databases) and qualitative methods (interviews with practitioners). The qualitative results from this research have since been published (Boulton et al, 2019), however a brief overview of the key findings are presented here for context.…”

“…sibling of an OCG member) or some other vulnerability that makes them susceptible to SOC that can be evidenced by a practitioner. Only 4 out of the 18 identified through the deep dive actually went on to engage in the intervention stage (Stage 6) and interviewed practitioners claimed this was because the young people were "too far gone" (Boulton et al, 2019).…”

“…Qualitative findings from interviews with the practitioners involved in the project with specific recommendations for encouraging engagement. This paper is now publically available (Boulton et al, 2019).…”

“…A short overview of the key findings from the evaluation of the intervention stage, which aimed to prevent those identified using this deep dive method from involvement in SOC, is also provided but is not the main focus of this paper. A fuller exploration of the evaluation study and the results associated with this evaluation can be found in Boulton et al (2019). Background Hallsworth and Young (2004) suggest that the main difference between an organised crime group (OCG) and other typologies of peer group or "gang" is the professional nature of their illegal operations and participation in crime for personal gain.…”