The increase of firearm-related violence has plagued Sweden, and specifically Malmö, for thirty years. This Systematic Literature Review gathered ten articles from different fields in order to discern the causes behind such an increase, the mechanisms of gun violence in a Swedish settings and the implications for Malmö on a criminological level. Results showed that a combination of factors such as the illegal importation of illicit firearms and the expansion of organized criminal groups in vulnerable territories were responsible for a shift of pattern in homicide. This change is preventing the police from properly solving homicide cases and the criminal justice system from prosecuting them. All in all, firearm violence is strongly related to gang activities in the three largest Swedish cities and the reason why Malmö is the most affected may be explained by the large number of clustered near-repeat shootings spread over three neighborhoods considered vulnerable. Actions have been taken though still require some analysis.

Magister Artium - MA / This M.A. mini-thesis seeks to open up the post-apartheid South African biopic as a topic for serious historical scrutiny. While book-length written biographies published in the post-apartheid (and apartheid periods) are the subjects of a now quite extensive historiographical literature, biography on film – including in the form of filmic dramas – has been hitherto entirely ignored. Social history or marginalised lives and not political lives of struggle against apartheid have been the predominant subgenre within this emerging field: with sixteen biopics having been produced in the 2010s. But the field is dominated by white men. This thesis showcases the story-telling gifts of one young coloured film-maker through a meticulously detailed analysis of “visual story-telling” and “visual language” used in his two award-winning gang biopics, Noem My Skollie (2016) and Ellen. Die Stories van Ellen Pakkies (2018). Read in the context of the extended processes of production of these two films in which the central protagonists played a shaping background role, the thesis explores and compares the linear chronological, four-chapter, narrative structure of Noem My Skollie with the architecture of “the parallel narrative” used in the deeply disturbing Ellen. Die Storie van Ellen Pakkies (2018) The thesis is a celebration of the film-making talent of Daryne Joshua.

A pre-existing interview of a music therapist working in Heideveld in the Cape flats, South Africa, provides data for this research dissertation. The interview focuses on a project that the interviewee and her colleague initiated as a means of developing the potential of community members and addressing some of the many social issues faced by the community, such as gangs, violence, racial divisions and poverty. The project, 'Music for Life', included a choir of about 60 children from different schools in the area, and a concert held in the community at the end of 2004. This qualitative study explores the experiences of the music therapists as they negotiated community 'musicking' with the Heideveld community through the 'Music for Life' project, and highlights possible implications of these experiences for other music therapists working in similar contexts. Emergent themes suggest that the therapists experienced a constant movement, within themselves and the community. The therapists felt a need to move outwards from their clinical work into the community. Through community 'musicking', the therapists experienced how an often fragmented community was able to move together and to move forward by sharing a sense of hope as the potential of the community was celebrated and affirmed. The therapists also experienced a movement in themselves, personally and professionally. They had to move through the process, changing their thinking and plans constantly through negotiating their work with the community. Implications of these experiences are explored from the stance of Community Music Therapy. The importance, possibilities and difficulties of Community Music Therapy work in communities such as Heideveld are discussed. These hold relevance for music therapists working in similar contexts, where community work becomes a more socially and economically viable means of addressing issues that affect individuals and communities simultaneously. / Dissertation (MMus (Music Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / unrestricted

This research investigated the strategies used by school administrators in selected high schools to prevent or reduce gang-related activity and violence. Interviews were conducted with six high school principals, six assistant principals, fifteen staff members and eleven students. All of the students were gang members. The results of the study showed that there are gang members in all schools, but that their gang activity at school is curtailed by some specific strategies.

The most challenging and spoken criminal phenomenon today is indisputably organised crime. It is a crime that both the general public, business community, commentators, researchers, scholars, journalists, writers, politicians, prosecutors, jurists and presiding officials debate with different interpretation and understanding of the concept as well as the manifestation of the phenomena. Debates on the subject have seen the dawn of rival terminologies of organised crime and crimes that are organised. While the United Nations has not assisted the nations in finding a definition of what organised crime is, the confusion has spread throughout the globe and South Africa has not been spared the pandemonium. The objective of this study is to comparatively assess the present understanding and setup in South Africa in comparison with Italy, Tanzania and the United States of America, identify the root causes of the confusion and find possible remedies to liberate the situation. The research concludes with the findings and recommendations. / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.D.

Mc-clubs are marked as mysterious with dangerous motorcycles and deviant. Research has noticed both the illegal and legal clubs, but few have performed a comparison. The paper describes the similarities, differences, and the characteristics among legal and illegal mc-clubs. The comparison is done by looking at the structure, symbols, brotherhood, and criminal involvement. The depiction of the clubs is done by the help of Edwin M. Lemert’s terms primary and secondary deviance and Lewis Yablonsky’s definition of the social, delinquent, and violent gang. A content analysis based on 28 previous and current articles has been used to find the specific themes the clubs have in common and what characterizes and separates them. The clubs were shown to have similar structure, symbols and brotherhood, the difference lying in the intensity of the three components. The major difference is the criminal involvement. The illegal clubs reject the conventional society where the deviance is a form of identity, sharing it with like-minded in a violent setting. The legal clubs, however, conform and simultaneously deviate and have their own community with values and beliefs. Implications and future research is discussed.

This study examined those employment-focused interventions (services, programming, mentorship, other supports) most effective in supporting an individual’s desistance from gang involvement. Utilizing a qualitative approach (interviews, document analysis and nonparticipant observation), this study engaged with individuals and organizations involved in the critical work of gang desistance to learn what makes their practices most effective. The criticality of gang desistance work lies in its efforts to address the thousands of lives continually lost each year as a result of gang-involvement and activity. Where gangs exist in cities, towns and communities across the country (and world, for that matter), the approaches of demonization, marginalization and suppression continue as the overwhelming response to gangs and gang activity. This study highlighted the individuals and organizations offering an alternative, employment-focused approach built on peer- and community-based efforts founded on inclusion and empowerment. Through the data collection, this study intended to identify and detail the practices of the research participants and why they are effective. Beginning with a review of available research within the field of gang desistance, an understanding of the evolving theories of the phenomenon of one desisting from gang involvement were explored, followed by an exploration of why individuals join gangs, the impacts of gang involvement, what prompts gang members to desist, and those interventions most supportive of this desistance. With an emphasis on service providers and leaders with the lived experience of gang desistance, as well as organizations dedicated to gang desistance work, the themes and evidence that emerged from the data collection provided deeper insights into how the process of desisting from gang involvement can be most effectively supported and realized. The outcome of this research pointed to several components of the work of gang desistance that make it most effective. These components focused on the desisting individual and the internal and external elements that both prompted and help maintained their desistance; the types of interventions most conducive to supporting a desisting individual––especially those focused on the individual’s identity desistance and self-efficacy; and, finally, those qualities of those service providers and organizations who provided these interventions and what made them impactful and effective. The findings of this study revealed that there are models, practices and other elements to support individuals toward effectively desisting from gang involvement. The findings also revealed the challenging and dynamic nature of the phenomenon of gang desistance––both for those desisting and those supporting them. Resulting from this nature of the work and the still developing field of gang desistance studies, these findings also offered areas of focus for future research toward a stronger understanding of the process of gang desistance, and, more importantly, the development and implementation of effective gang desistance concepts and practices.

In recent years urban violence has become understood as a 'reproduced', multi-causal and socially generated phenomenon. Less is understood about why young men reproduce the majority of this violence. This thesis uses original empirical data based on thirty-two life-histories of youths living in two poor and violent neighbourhoods in Medellín, Colombia. It argues that urban violence is reproduced by male youths because it is linked to 'masculinity'; that is, the process of 'becoming men' where youths strive to fulfil productive or 'successful' models of masculinity. These processes are related to contexts of poverty, inequality and exclusion, so this thesis does not reduce the generation of urban violence to masculinity alone. Rather, understanding masculinity provides us with further insight into the reproduction of violence. This thesis further argues that male youths are disposed by their habitus - after Pierre Bourdieu - to negotiate a pathway to manhood that largely reflects traditional masculine values in their context. Striving to achieve prevailing versions of manhood contributed to some of these youths joining armed groups, such as gangs. The gang acted as a mechanism to fulfil their dispositions to become men, by providing them with a way to perform a version of 'successful' masculinity. This is prevalent in urban contexts of exclusion and high levels of social violence, because there are limited opportunities to achieve legal and dignified versions of manhood, whilst there are significant opportunities to join the local gang. The youths interviewed that did not join gangs tended to come from families that taught them to reject violence at a young age, whilst supporting them in pursuing alternative pathways to manhood. Youths that joined gangs tended to have more problems at home and often had family members already in gangs. / ESRC, and University of Bradford

The Swedish Police Authority currently categorise 61 urban areas in Sweden as vulnerable areas, where there is an increased risk of becoming a victim of crime or violence to both females and males living in those areas. In these places the feeling of insecurity and the lack of trust and confidence in the judiciary system is more common than in other urban parts of Sweden. Due to this negative trend and development local power factors have evolved, and the risk of parallel social structures enforced by criminal activity and violent extremism is higher than in other places in Sweden. This thesis investigates the connection between Swedish criminal networks and violent Islamic extremism to create a better understand of why individuals from the vulnerable areas in Sweden join criminal networks and, or violent Islamic extremist groups

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