FROM THE DAILY MAIL
It's the most disturbing social issue of our age - why Britain is plagued by a generation of violent, barely literate young men living outside the normal bounds of society. For nine months, a leading investigative journalist has been examining their world for the Mail. In the concluding part of this landmark series, she looks at the rise of gang culture
With their hierarchies and strict discipline, street gangs are nothing more than a distorted mirror image of the house system common in private schools.
Loyalty and team effort are all-important. As one young gang leader from Kilburn, North-West London, told me chillingly. 'You have to know the people, you have to trust the people, because you do everything together. When you stab, you stab together.'
Most boys who join gangs aren't irredeemably evil. They are teenagers from low-income families who have been let down by their schools, their parents and other adults.
