Fighting Gangsterism in South Africa: A Contextual Review of Gang and Anti-Gang Movements in the Western Cape

• NCJ Number: 213294
• Journal: Acta Criminologica Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: 2005 Pages: 51-60
• Author(s): B. E. van Wyk; W. H. Theron
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
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Annotation

This study reviewed gangsterism in the Western Cape Province in South Africa from 1970 to 2000 and strategies in the prevention, intervention, and suppression of gangsterism.

Abstract

Responses to gangsterism in the Western Cape Province of South Africa have been predominantly reactive and not based on any thorough research. Strategies for gang prevention, intervention, and suppression involve programs directed at the youth. However, none of the programs involved the youth in its implementation and design. To be successful in the fight against gangsterism, research suggests that innovative ways need to be developed to draw the youth out of gangs and integrate them into society. Youth need to be engaged. Interventions need to aim to address the unmet developmental needs of youth, as opposed to focusing only on the eradication of the problem associated with gangs. Gang members should be integrated into mainstream society and community life instead of regarding gangsterism as a social disease that needs destruction. A study was conducted as part of an ethnographic study of gang members from a high school in an urban township in the Western Cape Province in an attempt to understand how gang members socially developed meaning from gang membership. The report following the study describes a contextual review of gangsterism in the Western Cape province focusing on three decades, 1970-2000, of gang movements and corresponding community and State responses to counter the growth of gangs over this period of time. References