MCYS REGIONAL YOUTH GANG FORUMS:MICHAEL C. CHETTLEBURGH

March 10, 2010

A s t w o o d S t r at e g y Co r po r at io n

Corporate Background

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Established 1991; work with youth/street gangs reaches back to 1995.

Criminal and social justice strategy and evaluation firm Quantitative and qualitative, including QEDs Country’s most in-depth base of expertise on

youth/street gangs, earned from projects across the country

Canadian thought leaders – 600-plus media interviews since 2007

www.astwood.ca

Small Selection of Clients

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Front Line: Canadian Training Institute St. Leonard’s Society Boys and Girls Club

Community Coalitions: Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council Edmonton’s Solution to Gang Violence Niagara Citizens Advisory Council City of Vancouver Four Pillars Coalition Winnipeg Crime Prevention Corporation

Law Enforcement: Ottawa Police Service RCMP – National Crime Prevention Services

Government: NCPC/PSEPC DoJ MCYS Cree Regional Authority

Corporate Background

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Principal Investigator: Evaluability Assessment of Breaking the Cycle street gang exit

program, Toronto Evaluation of YOS Program, Canada’s first implementation of

American G.R.E.A.T. Program Evaluation of $45M Youth Challenge Fund/Youth Options for

Success program, Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, set in Toronto’s 13 priority communities, including: Evaluation of Hoodlinc/ROSE program academic recovery program

for gang involved youth Evaluation of gang exit/prevention program for Centre for Spanish

Speaking Youth Evaluation of San Romanoway gang prevention/intervention

program Evaluation of NCPC funded Waterloo Community Gang

Prevention Program (Spergel Model )

Author, Young Thugs

Comprehensive portrait of Canadian street gang situation: causes, economics, girls in gangs, prison gangs, US influences, media influences.

Prescriptions on suppression, justice reform, community mobilization, prevention and parenting.

Runner-up 2008-09 Donner Book Prize, recognizing best Canadian book on public policy

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Quotable quote

The gang is a spontaneous attempt on the part of boys to create a society of their own where none adequate to their needs exists.

Frederic Thrasher, 1927

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What’s the Same?

Code of conduct Unique subculture: colours and mode of

communication Mutual protection Camaraderie Initiation and tests of worthiness Sanctioned aggression Rite of passage Opportunity to live life of distinction Peers as primary agents of socialization Tournament

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What’s the Difference?

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So What?23

We are hard wired to belong to groups. Most often, your circumstances, world view,

mental health condition, genetics, environment, status etc. help shape what those groups will be.

State of the Nation

What We Know24

Perception v. Reality25

Collective anxiety and concern about youth crime on the rise according to several polls

Media accounts of “gang” dominate Interest on issue never been higher Despite popular perception, crime (and youth crime in

general) is on the decline, however. Youth violent crime, however, on the rise, due largely

to growing youth/street/organized crime problem Most acute form of violent youth crime seen within

context of gang situation

Perception v. Reality26

We are not embraced in a gang epidemic... But we are in crisis and carnage continues. Our ethnic genocide?? Homicides as a result of gang

and drug trade related violence 2001 to present day: ~125 young men died in Vancouver (mostly Indo-Canadian,

Asian) ~200 young men died in Toronto (mostly African-Canadian) ~ 50 young men died in Montreal (mostly African-

Canadian, other) ~ 150+ young Aboriginal men

Darwinism at work, or tragedy? Problem is growing more serious, however, moves we

make in next decade are essential to slowing growth.

Criminal Organizations

•Younger•Disorganized•Fluid membership•Less hierarchy•Geographic orientation•Lower propensity for violence and criminality•Show colours•Spillover to community

•Older•Organized

•Stable membership•Hierarchical

•Economic orientation•Greater propensity for violence

and criminality•Not visible

•Spillover to community bad for business

YOUTH/8 to 18

STREET/8 to 28

TOC/24+

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Member Demographics29

Race/Ethnicity % Can.

African Canadian/Black 24.7

First Nations 21.4

Caucasian/White 18.2

East Indian/Pakistani 13.8

Asian 12.4

Latino/Hispanic 6.1

Middle Eastern/Arabic 3.4

’07 Estimates – Under 2830

City #

Winnipeg 3,000

Vancouver/Lower Mainland 2,500

Edmonton 4,000

Toronto/Peel/York 6,500

Montreal 1,500

Ottawa 600

…..

Estimate 22 -25K+

Per Capita Concentration –2007 Astwood Estimates

City Per 1000 population

Hobbema 18.75

Edmonton 6.00

Winnipeg 5.00

Saskatoon 2.57

Vancouver 1.50

Regina 1.42

Toronto 1.15

Brampton 1.00

Ottawa 0.55

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Canada’s Biggest Pyramid Scheme

TOC24+

Street Gangs(8 to 28)

Youth Gangs(8 to 17)

Aboriginal Canadians

Flocked to cities in 50s after repeal of a federal law that prohibited Aboriginals from leaving reserves.

1.3 million Canadians claim Aboriginal ancestry, 54% live in cities of more than 100,000 people; 71% live off-reserve.

Aboriginal community is disproportionately young and faces persistent discrimination, income inequality and legacy of residential school abuse, loss of culture, colonization….

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Aboriginal Canadians34

Demographics:Aboriginal birth rate 50% higher than non-

Aboriginal rate.Median age in 2006 was 27 v. 40 years.1/3 population under 14 years Less than 50% of Aboriginal children live with two

parents, compared to 83% for non-Aboriginals “Babies having babies” – ineffective and

inexperienced parenting

Aboriginal Canadians35

Conflict with the Law◦ Young Aboriginal males were almost eight times more

likely to be in custody compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts and to serve sentences that were approximately 20% longer. For young women, rate is 250 times higher.

◦ On average, the highest grade completed by Aboriginal youth, at the time of their admission to custody, was grade eight and only 2% of Aboriginal youth in custody aged 18 and over had successfully completed high school.

◦ One in six - FASD

Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief

Historical trauma is cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma (1985-88)

Historical unresolved grief accompanies that trauma

(Brave Heart, 1998, 1999, 2000)

Historical Context

Collective survival of war trauma Some tribes were prisoners of war Massacres, alcohol as chemical warfare, theft of

lands, forced removal of children from families and terrorism on our land – smallpox infected blankets traded to tribes

Canadian Aboriginal people are genocide survivors as are all Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Genocide

Intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group

Includes several criminal actions: Causing serious bodily or mental harm to group

members Deliberately inflicting life conditions to cause group’s

physical destruction Imposing measures to prevent births within the group Forcibly transferring children to another group

From Geneva Convention, 1948

Historical Trauma Response Features

Survivor guilt Depression Sometimes PTSD symptoms Psychic numbing Fixation to trauma Somatic (physical)

symptoms Low self-esteem Victim Identity Anger

Self-destructive behavior including substance abuse

Suicidal ideation Hypervigilance Intense fear Dissociation Compensatory fantasies Poor affect (emotion)

tolerance

Historical Trauma Response Features

Death identity –fantasies of reunification with the deceased; cheated death

Preoccupation with trauma, with death

Dreams of massacres, historical trauma content

Loyalty to ancestral suffering & the deceased

Internalization of ancestral suffering

Vitality in own life seen as a betrayal to ancestors who suffered so much

Identification, Self-Hatred, & Violence

Identification with the aggressor (A. Freud) & internalized oppression (Freire)

Identification with the oppressor’s view of Natives, resulting in self-hatred and hatred of other Natives

Self-destructive behavior or projecting hatred onto others to avoid pain and to act out the self-hatred

Identifying with parents’ trauma response patterns Mental health implications for justice issues

Gang Drivers42

Pull:Drug Trade

Push:Immigration

Push: Aboriginal Disaffection

Push:Cities

Push:Family

Push:Economics

Push: Mental Health

Push:Persistent discrimina

tion

Pull of the Drug Trade

Drug trade facilitated by relationships to OCGs who partner with street and drug gangs to do risky street-level selling.

Despite... Societal scorn Gangster salesmen Doctored substances Prohibitionary laws and possible criminal sanction Risk of addiction

....Canadians demonstrate a taste for illicit drugs

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Pull of the Drug Trade

CCSA Canadian Addictions Survey 2004 – random sample of 13,000 Canadians over age 15. 44.5% of Canadians used cannabis once in lifetime; 14.1% use

during previous 12 months Using 2006 population number for >15, means 3.8 million users

this year. Excluding cannabis, lifetime usage: PCP/LSD (11.4%), cocaine

(10.6%), amphetamines (6.4%), ecstasy (4.1%) Fastest growth cohort? Men aged 35 to 44/marijuana (3X

growth) Across all drugs, consumption has doubled in last 10 years

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Pull of the Drug Trade

So…..drug users by their robust consumption, have supported the growth of street gangs and organized crime

Gangs have stepped in to capture the demand induced profits from Canadian’s desire for illicit substances.

Arguably, absent a drug trade, gangs and their violent rivalries would not nearly be as acute. What else would they do for money if no smack to sell?

Many expect gangsters to “just say no”, but pull is strong when economic alternatives are meager or less attractive

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Pull of the Drug Trade

Drug markets are in a state of flux, a prime reason for much of the violence we see in cities Growth in demand and availability of chemical and

designer drugs – Meth, E, Ketamine, GHB, etc. Less dependent relationships – more gangs becoming

makers and not just sellers New supply…undercut price…violence ensues

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The Why47

Protection Surrogate family/belonging/brotherhood Peer pressure Self-esteem Rite of passage Perceived riches of underground economy Excitement, power Identity Exaggerated risk taking behavior Kicks and thrills ...

Hybridization of Street Gangs

Canadian street gangs growing more hybrid: Fluid affiliations and loyalties – therefore attrition and

experimentation Less territorial, more economically driven, but depends on

part of country Collaboration with other street gangs if economic agenda is

served With enhanced police suppression, less use of visible

modes of communication, including dress Diverse and established links with TOC in respect to

economic opportunities

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Hybridization of Street Gangs

More gangs in suburban/bedroom areas Gentrifying city cores Police suppression

Some members are otherwise “good kids” from respectable parents and educated parents

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Interprovincial Movement

“Go west young man” Resource sector boom and demand for drugs, women, etc. LBC to Calgary/”Fort McMoney” Maritime gangs to Golden Horseshoe (e.g., North Preston’s

Finest – prostitution, drugs) Dial-a-dope operations Escape police heat Purposeful scouting for new drug markets – esp. large

Aboriginal gangs Court conditions - ~ banishment from large centres. “Diesel therapy” – movement of gang members across

jurisdictions to keep peace on the prison range.

Challenging Prison Environments

Gangsters of all description coalesce within federal, provincial and youth corrections facilities.

For some, doing time earn stripes and street cred Do time to earn nut for future drug deals “Victim or victimize” Drivers of prison gang growth- protection, highly

competitive economic markets, widespread use of drugs, growth in gang membership

CO: “We control the perimeter, the gangs control the range”

Community Spill Over

“Experienced” gangsters know that violence and drama is bad for business – constrain within the business of gangs

Code of the Thug Life, Tupac Shakur Post-Creba----OGs were pissed Youth and emerging street gangs increasingly

victimize those outside business of gangs and drug dealing Violence normalized Personal robberies, swarming in public places

So What Should We Do?

Balanced Approach - 6 Pillars

Balanced Approach

Prevention

Intervention

Diversion

Enforcement

Suppression

Re-integration

Communities that deal most effectively with youth crime and victimization employ a balanced approach.

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Astwood

The message is seldom heard55

Recent tough on crime announcements will make no difference at the street level

Are we to now believe that gangsters are doing real-time cost-benefit analysis, weighing risk versus reward?

Incarceration, death and injury are conditions of employment

Gangsters will not heed the messages being sent by Ottawa.

Announcements demonstrate the primacy of rhetoric over reason. As effective policy, they get a failing grade.

Let’s all walk a mile in their shoes56

Have the arm chair critics and policy leaders walked a mile in their shoes?

Who among us has been in the ‘hoods, Canada’s many little dirty secrets? Before you pull any lever or twist any dial, must visit the fountainhead

When you are told you live in a war zone, you begin to act like a soldier

At-risk youth or youth in at-risk communities? Healing must come from the inside out; we cannot

just impose our will.

Fact v. Fiction: So tough on crime works??

Results of U.S. $1 trillion investment:

Year Prisoners Gang Members

1980 314,457 100,000

2005 2,193,798 760,000

Willing suspension of logic – the facts are in, yet we do not pay attention

More police works?60

Essential part of solution, but not total solution Cautionary tale: Samson Cree First Nation, Hobbema,

Alberta: 90 km south of Edmonton Population 6,000 Median age 19.1 INAC controlled resource royalties Despite protestations of band councils, distribution to

those reaching age of majority - $100 to $240K Highest per capita concentration of RCMP officers in

country

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Take the long view68

Can never win “the war on gangs”; part of human condition

This problem was decades in the making, it will be decades in the solving.

Cannot arrest our way out of the problem, despite how elegant that solution may appear to some.

Discrimination69

Gang members perceived by many as a single, undifferentiated arch enemy of society.

They are not all the same – propensities, standing, commitment, etc.

Need to separate the wheat from the chaff Carrot and the stick Pareto principle does apply in my experience Need to employ or maintain the right tools:

risk/responsivity assessment; judicial discretion versus mandatory minimums; restorative versus traditional approaches that unnecessarily criminalize relatively minor offences (one year for sale of pot?? /2 years for sale near schools)

Canada’s prison industrial complex?

Prevention70

1 in 5 children and youth under the age of 19 struggles with their mental health (emotional and behavioural)

Mental disorders are the second highest source of direct care costs in Canada

Onset of most illnesses occurs before the age of 18 There are undiagnosed children and teens everywhere

– impacts everyone – individual, family, schools and community/society

Left untreated these children/youth can turn to drugs and alcohol, become suicidal, drop out of school, isolated/withdrawn, engage in antisocial behaviour or become violent

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7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25

(10.5%) Life-course persistent(19.6%) Adolescent-onset(24.3%) Childhood-limited(45.6%) Low

Con

duct

Pro

blem

s Sc

ale

Age

ASB Trajectories (N=526 males)

7 9 11 13 15 18 21 26

Odgers, Caspi et al., Arch Gen Psychiatry, in press

A FACT WE CANNOT IGNORE(Loeber, Farrington, & Petechuk, 2003)

Strong evidence indicates that there are “seven years of warning” before a juvenile becomes a serious, violent offender.

Those who ended up in court for serious offences at age 14.5

Minor problems (age 7)

Moderate serious behavior problems (age 9.5)

Committed serious delinquency offences (age 11.9)

Serious violent offences (age 14.5)

Use weapons (including guns) •Become a gang

member•Engage in substance

use

OVERT PATHWAY

MINOR AGGRESSION

PHYSICAL FIGHTING

VIOLENCE

COVERT PATHWAY(before age 15)

MINOR COVERT BEHAVIOR

PROPERTY DAMAGE

MODERATELYSERIOUSDELINQUENCY

SERIOUS DELINQUENCY

VICTIM COSTS AND DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYSStouthamer-Loeber & Loeber, 2002

AUTHORITY CONFLICT PATHWAY(before age 12)

Stubborn Behavior

Defiance/Disobedience

AUTHORITYAVOIDANCE

Prevention74

Prevention interventions that focus on child delinquency take the largest bite out of crime

Where should we direct efforts: Prevention of persistent disruptive behaviour in

children Prevention of child delinquency (especially among

disruptive children) Prevention of serious violent juvenile offending,

particularly among child delinquents Earlier the better!!

Reality Programming75

Who will youth most listen to? Those who have lived the life, or have studied it from afar?

Need to have an honest discourse in this country about what is working versus what is not, and re-allocate investments accordingly

Redemption is possible, and when we see it, we need to embrace and celebrate it.

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Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value?

Job SalaryOttawa Bus Operator $129,999.97

London 1st class constable $159,317.99

County of Norfolk paramedic $106,642.74

18-year CSC Officer $59,000.00

Average Boys and Girls Club worker $37,000.00

Youth closed custody front line average $35,299.00

We all have to improve our game80

Notwithstanding needs at community level... Too many silos Too little collaboration Too much protection of turf Too confusing array of choices for those that may be in a

position to fund Too much politics!

Need to rationalize or engineer collaboration Crime Prevention Ottawa Edmonton’s CSGV/Native Counselling Services of Alberta Waterloo Crime Prevention Council

Corporate world is undergoing a massive shake-up, so too must social services

Focused Gang Exit81

Many discover life in is worse than life out Many want out, we need to show path It’s not “hug a thug”, it is effective policy Intensive interventions, major investments (~$20K

per person) Cost benefit relative to incarceration is very

attractive Breaking the Cycle Winnipeg OPK program

Give voice to youth82

Have we made them full partners at our table? Can they not speak to peers better than we can? Are they not also at the front lines? Ottawa DFSA example

So What’s Your Plan?83

Advocate? Speak up? Improve your processes? Collaborate and mobilize a coalition? Educate yourself? Innovate? Recruit? Spend time with a child? Get out of the way? Start a movement?

Restorative Justice84

Many criminal incidents can and should be referred to RJ processes where more traditional approaches can be employed.

Enhanced outcomes, satisfaction, efficiency, etc. Family group conferencing, healing circles,

sentencing circles, etc....

Contact Info85

mc@astwood.ca416-568-2564www.astwood.ca www.gangsummit.comwww.astwood.ca/speeches.html