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The long history of research into gangs and youth subcultures has often concluded that what exists here, within Britain, is often unstructured or lacks seriousness to the degree of American equivalents. Despite this, the negatively associated label ‘gang’ is often applied to a diverse range of groups without recognition of their distinctions. This results within the seriousness of some youth groups exaggerated and a public increasingly fearful of the threat they apparently pose. Therefore it is argued that an understanding as to why the youth affiliates with such groups in the first place is needed to explore whether these current negative perceptions have any salience. Through conducting semi-structured interviews with professionals working in close contact with youths, this paper not only highlights the lack of threat which these gangs pose to the public, but also the unjustified nature of these perceptions. This is reflected within the discovery of unavoidable influences upon the youths’ motivations and behaviour. These include not only sociological influences such as the immediate social group and surrounding environment, but the difficulties of dealing with these during a psychologically complex life stage. Therefore it is suggested that the surrounding mass negativity only further creates reason to affiliate with gangs and commit crime for the unsupported, vulnerable youth. It is thus proposed that a more holistic understanding of the youths’ behaviour is needed instead of a continuing reliance upon false over-exaggerated stereotypes.
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