The social field of the gang in London SW9 is a dangerous arena of social conflict and competition for some young people.

While gang researchers struggle to articulate this domain, or to even acknowledge it, the young men and women within it live a daily reality that remains largely unexplored in the UK. This world is often distanced and remote, and, for many adults, estranged, inexplicable and impenetrable. It is a world where social norms are inverted; where rumour and gossip lead to death and injury; where personal slights become ‘beefs’, then feuds; where family members are fair game for reprisals; where boys are ‘soljas’ and dead at age 15.

For those young people caught up in violent street gangs, this world exists in the London SW9 postcode (see Appendix A). While many residents in SW9 have no contact with gangs, none remains oblivious to them and all are affected. For young people in the social field of the gang, daily life is now governed by fear and an all-pervasive, unabating anxiety. This daily reality of fear and stress lead some to deal with the world as if it is unreal; a place unaccountable to adults and societal norms; a self-biographical world of hyperactivity, excitement and drama, replete with opportunities for distinction; a place to personally transcend and transform. For others, this reality (which generates a blank-staring fatalism) means harsh and rapid violence predicated on a belief that this is all ordained and it will all end soon.

For those of us living outside the social field of the gang, this appraisal is bleak and disturbing; our first response is to reject it as alarmist and inflated. It is, however, an accurate summation of many young people's views on gang life in London SW9.

Worryingly, however, the indications are that in recent years this social field has become even more violent. In the past few years, a range of gang-related incidents, including several murders, have occurred in Lambeth, with several occurring in SW9. Some of these are illustrated in Table 1.1.

In addition, as shown in Appendix B, the borough has experienced an 18% rise in serious youth violence (1 April to 21 November 2010), the highest rise in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) grouping of boroughs with a similar profile.