Urban centers and smaller communities across Canada are witnessing an increase in youth gang activity. But, determining both the level and nature of youth gang involvement/activity is problematic, in part because of varied interpretations of what it means to be a gang. Many Canadians believe that a gang is a structured organization with crime as their main objective. However, youth gangs can range from associations involving a loosely organized collective of friends that come together to protect their neighborhood to that of the hardcore gangs who have political agendas and are structurally organized. It is much more difficult to determine the level and nature of youth gang activity because they are ever changing entities depending on factors such as race, socio-economic status, and community. Youth gangs become a burden to society financially, emotionally, and mentally. Costs are incurred due to vandalism and an increase in crime: while anguish and a heightened sense of fear/anxiety speak to the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects resulting from gang activities.<p> This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on how agencies in Saskatoon define youth gang activities and behaviors. The agencies involved constitute community based organizations, permanent and part-time holding residences, justice and city officials. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to maintain the original interviewees own voices from interviews to the final product. The final analysis is divided into three sections that focus on: characteristics of Saskatoon youth gangs, implications of defining, and programming. By analyzing these themes we begin to see that defining youth gangs becomes a very political issue and that agencies who work with youth have difficulty in coming to terms in creating a common definition of youth gangs for Saskatoon.

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This visual analysis of the Stay out of Gangs public service announcement (PSA) is a site for social investigations. The investigation follows the question of what kind of work the campaign does, in terms of the social discourses it works within and its broader social impact. More specifically, this paper explores the design of the campaign, focusing on the way it frames and interpellates intended audiences, paying attention to the discourses that are produced. The discourses observed in the campaign both reflect and reference popular representations of the gangster and the stereotypes of ethnic minority groups in our society. This paper concludes that the interpellation of both the marginalized at-risk and the law abiding subject positions is working within the PSA, thereby reinforcing social discourses of social inclusion and exclusion currently working in society.

This visual analysis of the Stay out of Gangs public service announcement (PSA) is a site for social investigations. The investigation follows the question of what kind of work the campaign does, in terms of the social discourses it works within and its broader social impact. More specifically, this paper explores the design of the campaign, focusing on the way it frames and interpellates intended audiences, paying attention to the discourses that are produced. The discourses observed in the campaign both reflect and reference popular representations of the gangster and the stereotypes of ethnic minority groups in our society. This paper concludes that the interpellation of both the marginalized at-risk and the law abiding subject positions is working within the PSA, thereby reinforcing social discourses of social inclusion and exclusion currently working in society.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-148). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

The field of mediation within peace and conflict studies has remained almost entirely focused on state-based armed conflicts and traditional non-state armed groups (NSAG). This restricts our ability to address other actors and emerging forms of conflict in non-conflict and post-conflict settings. This includes a certain classification of gangs who display strong similarities to typical NSAGs. This study analyses gang mediation and its effects on levels of violence in gang conflicts in El Salvador through the lens of traditional mediation theory from the field of peace and conflict studies. It seeks to answer the question, how does mediation influence levels of violence within gang conflicts? More specifically, addressing the hypotheses that, mediation between gangs, and government support for mediation, will likely lead to lower levels of violence. Using a qualitative comparative case study method, employing a structured, focused comparison between three different time periods in El Salvador, I find support for both hypotheses, showing that gang mediation leads to a significant reduction in violence albeit conditional on government support. In addition, factors such as dialogue, information sharing, leverage, concessions and the signing of an agreement are essential in the process between mediation and lower levels of violence.

The aim of this study is to examine in which way nationalistic influences plays a prominent part in the news coverage of larger media houses. This by studying how  two newspapers, Swedish Aftonbladet and Norwegian Verdens Gang, portrays and reports about Therese Johaug after she was tested positive for doping.   We performed a critical discourse analysis of a total of 20 web-based news articles. These articles were chosen from the date the news appeared and one week forward. This in order to see if the the two newspapers were characterized with nationalistic tendencies as well as comparing them to see what the differences and similarities might be.   By using theories such as national identitets, nationalism, ”us and them” and imagined communities we came to the conclusion that a nationalistic discourse is very much present. The subjects in the articles often become representatives of either Norway or Sweden - depending on the nationality. Johaug is mostly characterized as a national hero and sympathies are often shown from the norwegian news-articles. The opposite meaning were shown in the swedish news-articles. Described as an antagonist and a cheat - the complete opposite of a national hero. Imagined communities are also present as a nationalistic discourse. The people of Norway and Sweden are often involved - in order to justify this imagined community which occurs within the nation's borders.   The similarities and differences between the two newspapers are quite subtle - but present nonetheless. This with a nationalistic discourse which confirms both previous research and our theoretical framework.

In a world where conflict is common, effective programs for reintegration of the combatants must exist for the post conflict societies. There is also a growing presence not only of gangs, but also of reintegration programs for those that chose to leave said gangs. To find what parts of those processes are alike and what parts are different is the objective of this thesis. For the former combatants, the thesis focuses on those of the former rebel group, meaning the illegally armed group. The reasons for comparing the two processes are that they outwardly look quite similar in the sense that the both deal with reintegration of formerly armed groups. Both groups have also been involved in some sort of violent action, and they are both being reintegrated into a society that they are not actively full members of. The research is carried out through a desk study using the method of a qualitative research through and abductive approach. The theoretical framework that is used is the inclusion-exclusion framework from the security-development nexus. This is also combined with the use of an analytical framework which was created using three different parts of full reintegration, namely social, political and economical reintegration. Through the usage of the case study of El Salvador, the thesis found that there were both similarities and differences between the two types of reintegration, however, the differences far outweighed the similarities. The thesis also found that while the two processes may be alike from an outside perspective, they are dealing with people of quite different needs. However, some potential can be seen for changes in both processes in order to improve their efficiency, though more research is needed.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / No abstract available. / South Africa

This bachelor thesis examines how Swedish Television frames news about gang violence and explains which actors that appear in news articles on this field. News about this societal problem have started to appear more frequently in media publications during the last years which motivates the implementation of the study.   The analysis reveals that news about gang violence to a large extent is being framed as a question for politics. This is demonstrated in articles where the problem is framed as a conflict between political parties which proposes different solutions. Gang violence is also framed as something that the government should take responsibility for and therefore not a societal problem that individuals can solve themselves. Most of the articles are framed in a thematic, more general than specifik, perspective and episodic frames do not get that much coverage. There are mostly politicians that occur in articles about gang violence and thus the actors who have the opportunity to set the media agenda.  News articles published on the online edition of Swedish Television in September 2020 have been used as study material. This was a period during the year of 2020 where most news articles about gang violence were published. The method applied was a combined quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The theoretical framework consists of McCombs &amp; Shaws agenda setting theory and also three framing theories formed by Entman, Iyengar and Semetko &amp; Valkenburg. The frames used in the study are the conflict frame, human-interest frame, economic consequences frame, responsibility frame, morality frame, thematic frame and episodic frame.