essay gang term

I research slang to help solve gang crime – and it’s clear how little politicians understand

Director of Slang and New Language Archive, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King's College London

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Gang-related violent crime continues to affect young people across England and Wales, with the latest reports suggesting that gang leaders are offering teenagers up to £1,000 pounds to carry out stabbings. In their efforts to curb violence among young people, police and politicians must distinguish between those who are involved in crime and those who are innocent – or risk further marginalising deprived communities.

To understand young people’s intentions, authorities have to get to grips with the slang they use to communicate. But the relationship between the street slang used by many young people every day and the secret codes deployed by gang members while planning and boasting about crimes is not always straightforward, and lends itself to misunderstandings.

That’s where I come in. I have collected slang for as long as I can remember, and since the early 1990s I have taught about it too, and published dictionaries and articles to record and analyse it. Since 2009, I have been assisting law enforcement agencies and defence lawyers to make sense of evidence in criminal trials that hinge on slang terms most people are unable to decipher. Decoding and translating this language can help both young victims of violence and the young people who are wrongly accused of perpetrating it.

Violence and vernacular

Most academics and teachers in the UK pay slang little attention: it is, after all, the language of outsiders, of rebellion, of bad behaviour and mockery. But I find colourful, unorthodox language like slang inherently interesting: it creatively exploits English in a way that both renews the language and gives a voice to marginal, misunderstood communities.

This includes ways of speaking that mix local and imported words and pronunciations, that have developed in London as well as other European cities. One of these vernaculars – called “ multicultural London English ” or Urban British English – has now spread far beyond the capital and can be heard even in rural streets and playgrounds.

Young criminals, of course, share the same accents, intonations, day-to-day vocabulary and grammatical novelties as all the other users of Urban British English. So I get involved when the meanings of slang terms are unclear, or when their interpretation is disputed by defence and prosecution in court. The same slang term may have more than one meaning: “plug”, for instance, may mean stab or shoot, or may refer to a drug contact or drug supply; “toys” can refer to drugs, drug paraphernalia, cars or guns.

Since the civil disturbances of 2011, during which electronic surveillance was used to monitor rioters’ conversations, frontline police officers have made themselves much more familiar with the jargon circulating on the streets. New terms are being coined all the time, but contrary to assumptions, slang doesn’t date quickly. Key terms in Urban British English – “bare” for many, “peng” or “piff” for attractive or good, “bait” for obvious, “p’s” or “gwop” or “lizzie(s)” for money, “food” for cannabis have been around for more than a decade.

In defence of drill

Law enforcers and social commentators made the connection between the slang used in the darker more violent forms of hip hop and knife crime some time ago. This has resulted in police issuing Criminal Behaviour Orders to groups that produce this kind of music, asking YouTube to delete such content from its platform and prosecuting two up and coming artists for breaching a gang injunction by performing in London in 2018.

Rap inherited a tradition of boasting, goading and insulting from the earlier dancehall styles, which featured rival MCs or DJs competing with one another. This can sound fantastically menacing to the uninitiated, and is taken to its furthest extremes – death threats, graphic descriptions of violence – by hyper-aggressive, macho drill music.

“Dissing” (insulting) and “bragging” (boasting) tracks reference “skengs”, “ramsays”, “shanks”, “swords” (meaning knives) as well as “spinners”, “mashes”, “burners” (meaning handguns), and celebrate “dipping” or “cheffing” (stabbing), “frying” or “wooshing” (shooting), “gliding” or “touring” (entering enemy territory) and “duppying” (killing).

Drill lyricists take their cues from slang spoken on the street – and slang speakers imitate them in turn. Some rappers are gang members themselves – and a small minority enact the atrocities they rap about in real life. But innocent young people and aspiring rappers also listen to drill music and adopt the violent vocabulary of established performers when writing and recording their own tracks.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that the police crackdown on drill music has met with resistance from academics , activists and artists, including Krept and Konan, who recently discussed the topic with MPs in parliament. Writing for The Guardian , Konan said:

After the murder of my stepdad, it was music that actually pulled me out of my former lifestyle. Before music, there was just jail, gangs and getting arrested. Without music, I do not know if I would be alive today. Best-case scenario, I’d be in prison.

Read more: Making music videos is not a criminal activity – no matter what genre

Being able to understand the language of criminality may be a legal imperative, but there are social priorities too. Young people should be free to express their feelings, motivations and concerns in their own language. Authorities, teachers, parents and politicians should try to relate to the pressures of inner-city life and the sense of futility that many young people are experiencing – even when the words they prefer to use sound strange or menacing.

• Youth crime
• Linguistics
• Gang violence
• knife crime
• Articles for young people

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Gang — Essay On Why Do Gangs Exist

Essay on Why Do Gangs Exist

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Gang Involvement of Teenagers Expository Essay

Gang involvement of teenagers in most states has increased to a signifact level and is a constant cause of concern to parents, the authorities and the community at large. In this paper we are going to address the risks posed to teenagers by gangs, risk assessment and how best to protect the children from gangs and gang activities.

The risks involved to members of a gang will vary based on the kind of activities the gang is involved in. A gang involved in violent activities poses a greater risk of physical injury as opposed to a passive group.

In a gang where weapons such as guns and knives are involved a member of a gang is exposed to a threat of physical harm. Different gangs may dispute over territories since there is the element of power and to prove superiority one gang can engage the other in a fight heightening the risk of physical injury to a gang member.

Sexual assault is another risk from gangs. The number of women involved in gang activities is not as high as that of their male counter parts. The women involved are mostly girlfriends of the members of the gang. Nonmembers are exposed to the risk of rape just as the members are.

Most members of a gang will trade drugs to earn some extra income. While in the trade the risk of the teenager using drugs is higher as compared to when the individual is not in the business.

There are tell tales of gang involvement and a parent can assess if a child is involved in a gang or not. Below are some signs a parent can look out for when they feel that their child is part of a gang.

When your child has injuries that he or she cannot explain it may mean that they are involved in something out of the norm. The injuries may not necessarily mean that the child is involved in a gang but it should not be ignored.

A child involved in a gang will in most cases withdraw from the members of the family. This is usually a protective shield used to cover up what is really happening. A child will not only withdraw from his family but from friends who are not into the culture of being part of the gang.

Most gangs have symbols or signs representing them and the members of the gang will mostly have tattoos or accessories such as necklaces or bracelets bearing their ‘trademark’. The gang also uses some terms for communication without nonmembers getting the message being passed; it is some sort of coding. Hence if your child bears these tattoos or uses a different language from what he used to, then a parent should find out the reasons behind the change.

Studies have shown that the children exposed to more risk factors are prone to join gangs as compared to those exposed to one or no risk factor. Esbensen et al (2009) has discussed some of the risk factors. The following are the risk factors that can lead a child to join a gang.

The fact that children are engaged in aggression and bullying at early stages of their life heightens as they grow up in most cases ending up as gang members. In most cases they do so to enjoy protection, acceptance and at times to revenge.

A child form a single parent or a broken family stands a higher chance of joining a gang than the one in a stable family set up. Children who lack the presence of their parent end up being emotionally un balanced and end up joining gangs to make up for what they lack in their lives.

Kids want to fit in with their age mates and be accepted. If the friends they associate with are in gangs and they feel at risk of losing them, the kids will end up members of gangs just to maintain the friendships.

When children grow up in a neighborhood where the gang activities are the order of the day, they can end up as gang members since it is a continued culture in their community (Ralphs & Aldridge, 2004).

There are some measures that can be taken to protect a child from a gang. They include but are not restricted to:

Guidance and counseling helps in the recovery process. Due to the increased gang cases there are social programs which a child can be engaged in for guidance and counseling against gang activities. Parents ought to advocate for the support team for crisis management to prevent cases of violence as addressed by Clauss-Ehlets and Weist (2004).

Gangs can be prevented by ensuring that the children are protected from the risk factors. Parents are the best at early detection of gang involvement and will be very resourceful in safeguarding their children against gang involvement and in the recovery period. It is the collective responsibility of the community to ensure the environment is safe the children and future generations.

Clauss-Ehlers S. C & Weist D.M, (2004). Community planning to foster resilience in children. Springer

Esbensen, F., Peterson, D., Taylor, T. J., & Freng, A. (2009). Similarities and Differences in Risk Factors for Violent Offending and Gang Membership. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology (Australian Academic Press), 42 (3), 310-335. doi:10.1375/acri.42.3.

Ralphs, R., Medina, J & Aldridge, J. (2009). Who needs enemies with friends like these? The importance of place for young people living in known gang area/DCSF-00064-2010.pdfwww.education.gov.uk/publications//… s. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(5), 483-500. doi: 10.1080/13676260903083356

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Guest Essay

The Problem With Saying ‘Sex Assigned at Birth’

By Alex Byrne and Carole K. Hooven

Mr. Byrne is a philosopher and the author of “Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions.” Ms. Hooven is an evolutionary biologist and the author of “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us.”

As you may have noticed, “sex” is out, and “sex assigned at birth” is in. Instead of asking for a person’s sex, some medical and camp forms these days ask for “sex assigned at birth” or “assigned sex” (often in addition to gender identity). The American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association endorse this terminology; its use has also exploded in academic articles. The Cleveland Clinic’s online glossary of diseases and conditions tells us that the “inability to achieve or maintain an erection” is a symptom of sexual dysfunction, not in “males,” but in “people assigned male at birth.”

This trend began around a decade ago, part of an increasing emphasis in society on emotional comfort and insulation from offense — what some have called “ safetyism .” “Sex” is now often seen as a biased or insensitive word because it may fail to reflect how people identify themselves. One reason for the adoption of “assigned sex,” therefore, is that it supplies respectful euphemisms, softening what to some nonbinary and transgender people, among others, can feel like a harsh biological reality. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” is taken to be an indirect and more polite way of communicating that the person is biologically female. The terminology can also function to signal solidarity with trans and nonbinary people, as well as convey the radical idea that our traditional understanding of sex is outdated.

The shift to “sex assigned at birth” may be well intentioned, but it is not progress. We are not against politeness or expressions of solidarity, but “sex assigned at birth” can confuse people and creates doubt about a biological fact when there shouldn’t be any. Nor is the phrase called for because our traditional understanding of sex needs correcting — it doesn’t.

This matters because sex matters. Sex is a fundamental biological feature with significant consequences for our species, so there are costs to encouraging misconceptions about it.

Sex matters for health, safety and social policy and interacts in complicated ways with culture. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience harmful side effects from drugs, a problem that may be ameliorated by reducing drug doses for females. Males, meanwhile, are more likely to die from Covid-19 and cancer, and commit the vast majority of homicides and sexual assaults . We aren’t suggesting that “assigned sex” will increase the death toll. However, terminology about important matters should be as clear as possible.

More generally, the interaction between sex and human culture is crucial to understanding psychological and physical differences between boys and girls, men and women. We cannot have such understanding unless we know what sex is, which means having the linguistic tools necessary to discuss it. The Associated Press cautions journalists that describing women as “female” may be objectionable because “it can be seen as emphasizing biology,” but sometimes biology is highly relevant. The heated debate about transgender women participating in female sports is an example ; whatever view one takes on the matter, biologically driven athletic differences between the sexes are real.

When influential organizations and individuals promote “sex assigned at birth,” they are encouraging a culture in which citizens can be shamed for using words like “sex,” “male” and “female” that are familiar to everyone in society, as well as necessary to discuss the implications of sex. This is not the usual kind of censoriousness, which discourages the public endorsement of certain opinions. It is more subtle, repressing the very vocabulary needed to discuss the opinions in the first place.

A proponent of the new language may object, arguing that sex is not being avoided, but merely addressed and described with greater empathy. The introduction of euphemisms to ease uncomfortable associations with old words happens all the time — for instance “plus sized” as a replacement for “overweight.” Admittedly, the effects may be short-lived , because euphemisms themselves often become offensive, and indeed “larger-bodied” is now often preferred to “plus sized.” But what’s the harm? No one gets confused, and the euphemisms allow us to express extra sensitivity. Some see “sex assigned at birth” in the same positive light: It’s a way of talking about sex that is gender-affirming and inclusive .

The problem is that “sex assigned at birth”— unlike “larger-bodied”— is very misleading. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” suggests that the person’s sex is at best a matter of educated guesswork. “Assigned” can connote arbitrariness — as in “assigned classroom seating” — and so “sex assigned at birth” can also suggest that there is no objective reality behind “male” and “female,” no biological categories to which the words refer.

Contrary to what we might assume, avoiding “sex” doesn’t serve the cause of inclusivity: not speaking plainly about males and females is patronizing. We sometimes sugarcoat the biological facts for children, but competent adults deserve straight talk. Nor are circumlocutions needed to secure personal protections and rights, including transgender rights. In the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision in 2020, which outlawed workplace discrimination against gay and transgender people, Justice Neil Gorsuch used “sex,” not “sex assigned at birth.”

A more radical proponent of “assigned sex” will object that the very idea of sex as a biological fact is suspect. According to this view — associated with the French philosopher Michel Foucault and, more recently, the American philosopher Judith Butler — sex is somehow a cultural production, the result of labeling babies male or female. “Sex assigned at birth” should therefore be preferred over “sex,” not because it is more polite, but because it is more accurate.

This position tacitly assumes that humans are exempt from the natural order. If only! Alas, we are animals. Sexed organisms were present on Earth at least a billion years ago, and males and females would have been around even if humans had never evolved. Sex is not in any sense the result of linguistic ceremonies in the delivery room or other cultural practices. Lonesome George, the long-lived Galápagos giant tortoise , was male. He was not assigned male at birth — or rather, in George’s case, at hatching. A baby abandoned at birth may not have been assigned male or female by anyone, yet the baby still has a sex. Despite the confusion sown by some scholars, we can be confident that the sex binary is not a human invention.

Another downside of “assigned sex” is that it biases the conversation away from established biological facts and infuses it with a sociopolitical agenda, which only serves to intensify social and political divisions. We need shared language that can help us clearly state opinions and develop the best policies on medical, social and legal issues. That shared language is the starting point for mutual understanding and democratic deliberation, even if strong disagreement remains.

What can be done? The ascendance of “sex assigned at birth” is not an example of unhurried and organic linguistic change. As recently as 2012 The New York Times reported on the new fashion for gender-reveal parties, “during which expectant parents share the moment they discover their baby’s sex.” In the intervening decade, sex has gone from being “discovered” to “assigned” because so many authorities insisted on the new usage. In the face of organic change, resistance is usually futile. Fortunately, a trend that is imposed top-down is often easier to reverse.

Admittedly, no one individual, or even a small group, can turn the lumbering ship of English around. But if professional organizations change their style guides and glossaries, we can expect that their members will largely follow suit. And organizations in turn respond to lobbying from their members. Journalists, medical professionals, academics and others have the collective power to restore language that more faithfully reflects reality. We will have to wait for them to do that.

Meanwhile, we can each apply Strunk and White’s famous advice in “The Elements of Style” to “sex assigned at birth”: omit needless words.

Alex Byrne is a professor of philosophy at M.I.T. and the author of “Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions.” Carole K. Hooven is an evolutionary biologist, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, an associate in the Harvard psychology department, and the author of “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us.”

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