Narratives of Gang Disengagement Among Former Gang Members in South Africa

• Author: Catherine L. Ward,Jane F. Kelly
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854820949603
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2020, Vol. 47, No. 11, November 2020, 1509 –1528.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854820949603

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2020 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

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NARRATIVES OF GANG DISENGAGEMENT

AMONG FORMER GANG MEMBERS IN

SOUTH AFRICA

JANE F. KELLY

Western Cape Government

CATHERINE L. WARD

University of Cape Town

Understanding gang disengagement is important for the development of effective interventions. This research sought to

examine how former South African gang members understand their gang disengagement. Two rounds of life history inter-

views were conducted with 12 former gang members. Thematic narrative analysis was used to analyze the interview data.

Findings revealed that personal agency was key to the participants’ disengagement, which included forming a purposive

intention to change, committing to and maintaining this change, despite challenges faced, and taking personal responsibility

for their pasts. It also involved actively drawing on protective resources—such as meaningful and practical support from

loved ones—and prosocial identities available to them within their environments, thus illustrating how the disengagement

process is an interaction between inner and outer resources. Therefore, it is imperative that gang-related interventions ensure

that individuals have access to the kinds of resources that will support their disengagement.

Keywords: desistance; gangs; qualitative methods; crime; protective factors

Gangs in South Africa have a unique and complex history, shaped and influenced by the

sociopolitical context of apartheid and its legacy. While gangs existed in the 1920s and

1930s in mining compounds, gangsterism burgeoned in the 1950s and 1960s, largely as a

result of discriminatory practices of the apartheid system. The political turmoil of the 1980s

to the end of apartheid in 1994 provided an ideal context for gangs to reorganize, and from

1994 (when the first democratic elections took place), political uncertainty and relaxation

of tight state control in communities and on borders provided fertile ground for significant

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors gratefully acknowledge Julie Berg, Elrena Van Der Spuy, and Kelley Moult

for their input in this research project. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Craven Engel and

Raymond Swartz for their valuable support in the research process, and also to the participants, who so kindly

shared their stories and showed us that “change is possible.” The support of the following organizations

toward this work is hereby acknowledged: the Harry Crossley Foundation and the DST-NRF Centre of

Excellence (CoE) in Human Development at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in the Republic

of South Africa. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not to be

attributed to the Harry Crossley Foundation or the CoE in Human Development. These grants were to the first

author. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jane F. Kelly, Department of

Community Safety, Western Cape Government, 35 Wale St., Cape Town 8000, South Africa; e-mail:

janekelly88@gmail.com.

949603CJBXXX10.1177/0093854820949603Criminal Justice and BehaviorKelly, Ward / Narratives of Gang Disengagement

research-article2020

1510 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR

growth in gangsterism (Samara, 2011). Many gangs developed into organized and struc-

tured entities that make up the criminal economy of South Africa today, which includes the

distribution of alcohol, drugs, abalone and rhino horn, stolen cars and firearms, prostitution,

and theft of goods from factories and warehouses (Standing, 2003). South Africa also has a

powerful collection of prison gangs called the Numbers (made up of the 26s, the 27s, and

the 28s) which operates in prisons across the country (Steinberg, 2004). There is a close

association between the Numbers gang and street gangs in South Africa, with the Numbers

exerting a stronghold over the criminal economy, and street gangs aligning themselves with

the various rituals of the Numbers gang (Steinberg, 2004). While elaborate policing cam-

paigns have increased police presence and promoted greater awareness of gangs, these cam-

paigns suffer from corrupt police officers, poor communication between police units, and a

lack of proper evaluations (Kinnes, 2017).

South Africa has a long history of social exclusion. Although there have been improve-

ments in the lives of many South Africans since the transition to democracy, the country is

still characterized by high rates of poverty, unemployment, and inequality (Rispel et al.,

2008). These kinds of socioeconomic factors are likely to play a role in the nature of gangs

and, thus, the process of gang disengagement. For instance, youngsters growing up in pov-

erty-stricken areas in South Africa may join gangs as a means of survival (Daniels & Adams,

2010), which could make disengaging from gang involvement all the more difficult if legiti-

mate means of earning an income or achieving safety are not available. By contrast, gang

disengagement in high-income settings is often accompanied by accessing a legitimate

means of making an income (Berger et al., 2016).

Given the problems associated with gangsterism (e.g., violent offending and drug deal-

ing), and the impact gang involvement has on not only gang members but also the commu-

nity at large, understanding how and why individuals disengage from gangs is important as

it has implications for the development of effective interventions for youth involved in

gangs (Berger et al., 2016). In the Western Cape Province of South Africa, among 2,295 of

the 3,729 murders in which a motive for the murder could be established, 35.2% (808) were

attributed to gang violence in 2017 to 2018 (South African Police Services, 2018).

International research suggests that gang disengagement is not a single event, but a grad-

ual process, where an individual has exited a gang, but retains a diminishing number of

social and emotional ties to their former gang, with their involvement in crime waning over

time. It is therefore possible that an individual may have left the gang, but still engage in

criminal activities (Decker et al., 2014), highlighting that gang disengagement should not

be conflated with crime desistance. The key difference between the two is that desistance

from crime concerns the stopping of a pattern of criminal behavior or lifestyle, while disen-

gaging from gangs concerns ceasing group criminal activities and leaving a criminal peer

group (O’Brien et al., 2013).

Gang members typically have multiple motivations for leaving the gang. The process of

disengagement may be triggered by what some have called push and pull factors (Roman

et al., 2017). Push factors are negative occurrences that highlight adverse consequences

associated with being in the gang, including, for example, being threatened with criminal

justice charges, incarceration, and violence victimization (Berger et al., 2016; Decker et al.,

2014; Roman et al., 2017). Pull factors are usually external to gang dynamics and function

as turning points as they offer an alternative to the gang life. Examples include becoming a

father or finding employment (Roman et al., 2017). In their desistance theory of cognitive