A University College of the Fraser Valley graduate who did a year long exploratory study for one of his Criminology classes at UCFV is gaining attention with academics and law enforcement professionals. The study was called “The Development and Characteristics of South Asian Gangs”, which provided an insight into the dark world of South Asian Gangs in theory. The South Asian gang culture is a growing concern for law enforcement, which has left many victims. Harjit Singh who graduated with his Bachelors Degree in Criminology from UCFV in 2004 and is now doing his Masters in Criminology at Simon Fraser University is hoping to teach at the university level with the focus on research that would assist minority communities in aspect of social change.
Singh is also part of the Group of Ten Task Force to combat South Asian youth violence, which started last September. Singh said, “this study was necessary due to the lack of information on South Asian gangs and it is the first systematic research that takes into account the views of actual gang members.” This project was conducted under the guidance of UCFV Criminology instructors Darryl Plecas and Terry Waterhouse who provided assistance in structure, writing and methodology.
The study was conducted in 2003, which compared American minority gangs (Afro-American, Hispanics and Orientals) in terms of their development, characteristics and activities with what we would find in South Asian gangs in BC. American minority gangs commonly come from ghettoized environments, members are generally marginalized, they lack family support network and the opportunities to succeed legitimately. One aspect that is noticeable is the presence of a decades old gang culture that is firmly entrenched within certain cities in the United States.
South Asian gangs have a few similarities and a few glaring differences from American gangs. Singh said, “ the major differences are in the background, reasons for joining and development of these gangs. We should look at the South Asian community as a stratified one rather than looking at it as a whole. The reason for this is because we found three main subsets of gang members each with there own unique characteristics.”
He also said the background of South Asian members is much more varied than the American findings. South Asian gang members will come from middle to upper class families with extensive social support networks. Singh said, “ a surprising finding was the same social support network that is used by the mainstream members of the community is also used by the gang members to make contacts. There may be a older brother, cousin or family friend involved in that lifestyle and this makes it easier to get involved.”
Further findings my Singh found that South Asian gangs differ in size and structure they are relatively small with 5-7 core members and they operate in a loose hierarchy. There is no initiation ritual or symbol or colors. They are early in development and they are best categorized as a level one gang, which consist of one unit and loose structure with the members functioning as a small organization without rules. Singh remains optimistic about the changes occurring to combat this issue. He also is looking to put the study under review for publication to make it accessible to the general public. Plecas said, “Harjit's outstanding work constitutes a significant contribution to our
understanding of the development and character of South Asian gang activity. His work is really the first scholarly attempt to articulate why and how young people find their way into South Asian gangs and stay there. He does a brilliant job of showing how the development, structure, and character of South Asian gangs here can be distinguished from the history of minority gangs in the US, and from traditional organized crime gangs.”
Plecas acknowledges the most important part of Singh’s work is that which considers how would-be gang members come to mis-interpret the Sikh faith and how they otherwise come to develop a mis-guided sense of what deserves respect. I am tempted to say that if the South Asian community took what Harjit has studied to heart, we wouldn't have a South Asian gang problem.
KenHerar@yahoo.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment