Report offers rare peek into Canadian gang life and high-risk youth

Good study on motivations behind joining gangs. Sheema Khan has looked at anti-gang initiatives as a way to reduce “honour crimes (Canada looks to Chicago to reduce ‘honour’ crimes) and there are some similarities with attraction to extremist and fighting abroad:

That’s when the unassuming Hieu Ngo would go to work. He would tell them his story, how he went from being a Vietnamese refugee tempted by street life to a University of Calgary associate professor whose research on gangs and their behaviour has produced a pivotal study entitled The Unravelling of Identities and Belonging: Criminal Gang Involvement of Youth from Immigrant Families.

It’s a unique report driven by Prof. Ngo’s life experiences. He conducted interviews with more than 30 gangsters or former gangsters; some of whom were born abroad, others who were first-generation Canadians. Prof. Ngo chose this demographic as his subject matter because their numbers are increasing nationally and because not enough research has been done on what pulls these youth into gangs.

“It’s about the unravelling of who they are,” Prof. Ngo said. “In extreme cases, young people I talked to had people chasing them with a baseball bat. And for a 12-year-old who just came from a refugee camp, had traumatic experiences in Burundi where people were being killed, then comes to Canada thinking we have a safe place and he gets chased by other teenagers because he’s a black kid? That takes away their sense of identity and a chance to be a Canadian.”

The youth in that story ended up joining a gang for safety. Prof. Ngo’s approach is based on preventative action. He wants immigrant youth to stay clear of gangs and to choose other options. He arrived in Calgary at the age of 18 after being sponsored by a local church. He attended high school, learned to skate and cleaned downtown office buildings to make money. It not only helped him assimilate to Canadian culture, it kept him off the streets where his vulnerability and stature – he’s five-foot-six, 125 pounds – would have attracted gang recruiters.

Report offers rare peek into Canadian gang life and high-risk youth – The Globe and Mail.