Working With Chinese Triad Youth Gangs: Correct Diagnosis and Strategic Intervention

• Author: T. Wing Lo,H. L. Tam
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X18755482
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X18755482

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2018, Vol. 62(12) 3708 –3726

© The Author(s) 2018

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X18755482

journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo

Article

Working With Chinese

Triad Youth Gangs: Correct

Diagnosis and Strategic

Intervention

T. Wing Lo1 and H. L. Tam1

Abstract

Across the world, youth workers have been active in helping vulnerable youth groups.

In Hong Kong, government-funded youth services are conducted by professional

social workers to help vulnerable youths. This article adopted a case study approach

to investigate a youth group who committed a murder. Nine murderers and two

social workers were interviewed. It aims to uncover the structure and activities of

the group and analyse the gang intervention prior to the murder to find out what

had gone wrong and identify the lessons that social workers can learn from the

murder. Four misconceptions in gang intervention have been identified. First, because

of the Triad (Chinese-organised crime) affiliation, this is not just a group of deviant

youths but a youth gang. Second, because it is a gang, the social workers should

not group them but should instead degroup them to avoid contamination. Third,

diagnosis is different from labelling. With the right diagnosis, services can be tailor-

made to delabel them. Fourth, when the youths are diagnosed as a gang, outreach

work instead of centre work should be provided—social workers should reach out

to the gangland to uncover the youths’ gang participation and crime involvement.

Keywords

violence, outreach work, youth gang, Triad society, Hong Kong

Introduction

This case study originated from a murder in which a youth gang took turns torturing a

16-year-old gang member to death in Hong Kong. The gang decided to punish the

1City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Corresponding Author:

T. Wing Lo, Head, Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee

Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Email: sstwl@cityu.edu.hk

755482IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X18755482International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyLo and Tam

research-article2018

Lo and Tam 3709

victim after he advised a mentally retarded person who had been bullied by the gang

to report the matter to the police. According to the court records, the offenders tortured

the victim by various means that they learnt from movies and cartoons themed on

Chinese Triad society. They punched the victim on his back and chest, followed by

strikes with homemade kung-fu implements, an umbrella and a leather belt. They

stabbed his hands while wedging his head between the legs of a stool. The victim was

ordered to eat cigarette butts and apologise to everyone in the gang. The gang made up

a Triad society poem in which all their nicknames were mentioned. They recited the

poem and beat the victim when their names were pronounced. The beating continued

until the victim fell unconscious. He died about an hour later. The next day, the gang

met up again and placed the corpse in a cardboard box and sealed it with adhesive tape.

The gangsters poured sulphuric acid over the corpse to conceal his identity and twice

set him alight with paraffin. After they failed to burn the corpse completely, they put it

in a rubbish bag and wrapped it in canvas. The canvas was then thrown into a larger

bin, which was taken away by a rubbish truck.

In this case, 14 youth offenders were put on trial. Five of them were acquitted and

nine (the interviewees in this study) were found guilty of murder, manslaughter, or

serious assault. Because of the wicked and brutal killing involved, a government-com-

missioned research was conducted to find out the causes of the murder. The views of

the murderers and their teachers, family members, and social workers were collected

through focus interviews. It was discovered that the gang had been receiving social

work services in a youth centre for a few months prior to the murder. This article aims

to uncover the structure and activities of the youth gang and the gang intervention

prior to the murder to find out what had gone wrong and identify the lessons that social

workers can learn from the murder.

Literature Review

Gang Treatment Programmes: Suppression, Intervention, and Prevention

In cross-examination of the internal dynamics, experiences, and structural components of

youth gangs, much of the delinquency, crime, and victimisation problems derived from a

history of early delinquency, childhood abuse, and family neglect and violence experi-

enced by individuals (Howell, 2003; Taylor, 2008; Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, Smith, &

Tobin, 2003). Consequently, to reduce youth gang problems, programmes should address

and deal with reducing these high-risk factors. Globally, various intervention models and

programmes have been developed to redirect, transform, and prevent gang crime and

violence (Goldstein & Huff, 1993; Huff, 2002; Klein, 1971; Loeber & Farrington, 1998;

Spergel, 1995). However, suppression techniques, such as the Three Strikes law, zero

tolerance policies, as well as psychiatric institutionalisation or boot camps, have been

found to be counterproductive and ineffective in reducing or eliminating youth gangs

because they bring clusters of delinquent individuals together (Borg & Dalla, 2005).

There is no single method or treatment programme that can single-handedly con-

front, identify, administer, and reduce gang affiliation and membership by itself.