Gang life damages communities in several ways. It causes young teenagers to fear leaving their homes because of the risks of being followed, robbed, stabbed or beaten by rival gangs engaged in "postcode wars" over territory. These gangs, which can be based on race, ethnicity or criminal activities, recruit members as young as 8 years old. Last year alone, known gang members in London were responsible for 24 murders, 28 attempted killings, and other violent crimes, according to official police data. Gangs form close bonds, referring to each other as "family," but their activities undermine safety and breed fear in the areas where they operate.

1. First Draft – Double Page Spread
Gangland
Why are people in gangs?
I feel that people are in gangs because of many reasons. These
reasons can go as far as just to gain respect in the postcode area you
live in. They may do this because they may be getting bullied or have
no friends so they would join a gang to build up their moral in the
community. Other reasons can be because they are broke and they
want money because word on the street is that the quickest way to
make money is to join a gang. However, the way you make it is by
selling illegal drugs which is makes you get earn illegal money.
Another way is that some people grew up in a rough family which
has a history with gang life so some are just born into the road life.
One other way is that you may join a gang for revenge. This means
that say if another gang member murdered or stabbed your friend,
you would be so angry that you would want to get revenge back so
that they don’t get away free with what they done.
Facts and statistics about gangs?
In hackney, gang membership of young black males can go as far as
20%. This shocking fact causes black people to have a bad name
because it will make people think that it's mostly black people up to
no good because out of 6 races, black people take up 20%. Another
fact is that gangs can be organized based upon race, ethnicity,
territory, or money-making activities, and are generally made up of
members ages 8 to 22. This means that they start off from a very
young age. Last year, the crimes include 24 murders, 28 attempted
killings, 170 firearms offences, as well as stabbings and kidnappings.
Other offences include grievous bodily harm with a weapon and also
robbery. Each of the violent crimes was carried out by one of 3,484
gang members logged on an official Met database. It includes two
13-year-old gang members, another 24 aged 14 and nearly 550 older

2. juveniles. This shows us how bad this is becoming and it’s getting out
of hand by all the things that’s been happening. People need to
change their ways and society needs to help these gang members.
Research
What does gang life bring to the community?
Gang life damages the community. Gang life makes young teenagers
be afraid to leave their houses because they fear that something
could happen to them such as being followed, getting robbed,
getting stabbed and getting beaten up. However these are risks are
being taken daily by young teenagers. This is all caused by postcode
war. Postcode war is where different postcodes rival each other so
that they can be the most elite gang in the borough. However, some
gangs have join other gangs to create a bigger gang to make them
become more powerful and supreme gang against the other gangs
that war with. These gang members call each other ‘Family’. Calling
another person family is a powerful word so therefore this must
mean that the gang members have a very tight and close relationship
with each other to call each other family.