The Youth Gang Member

In terms of section 10(3) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (“POCA”), a court may impose an aggravated sentence on a criminal offender if the offender was a gang member at the time of the commission of a crime. The court is entitled to apply section 10(3) to the sentencing of any common-law or statutory offence, save for the gang-related offences in Chapter 4 of POCA. As aggravated punishment is attached directly to a person’s status as a gang member, one must question whether such aggravated punishment does not violate the right to freedom of association in section 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Section 18 is an unqualified right and subject only to the limitations clause under section 36 of the Constitution. The purpose of this contribution is to investigate whether the associational freedom guaranteed by the Constitution may be limited in light of considerations under international law (such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) as well as foreign law (specifically the United States and Germany). The consensus is, broadly speaking, that persons are nondeserving of associational protection where the conduct connected to such an association is criminal in nature. Increased criminal consequences are justifiable where a person’s unlawful conduct is also connected to their status and activity as a member of a criminal organisation. However, increased criminal consequences based merely on a person’s membership of a criminal organisation, as is the case in terms of section 10(3) of POCA, is considered arbitrary and irrational. The conclusion is that section 10(3) of POCA should be amended so that it applies only to crimes that are related to a convicted person’s gang-related activities.

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“boys of God”: the experience of re-socialization of adolescents and young people in conflict with the law in the Santa Filomena community

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE SPREADING ◽

10.20952/jrks2112433 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Zilmara Alves da Silva ◽

Maria Helena Santana Cruz

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Young People ◽

Open Space ◽

Second Generation ◽

Field Research ◽

Youth Gang ◽

Public Authorities ◽

The Law ◽

Mutual Care

This research aims to analyze the resocialization process of the second generation of adolescents and young people from the Meninos de Deus project and the contributions of socio-affective relationships in the resignification of individual trajectory in the context of violence in the Santa Filomena community. The study is necessary to understand the importance of strengthening the resocialization processes in an open space, which has the triad of public authorities, civil society and the community as the executing nucleus of socio-educational measures. The Meninos de Deus group was born in 2007 and was born from a pact, among youths in conflict with the law, based on the premise of mutual care, commitment to life and in the re-socializing walk with the community. In this group, the feeling of belonging is opposed to the feeling that young people and adolescents in conflict with the law had with the youth gang or the criminal faction they belonged. The methodology to be used is ethnography, where we will use field research, characterized as an integration of data obtained in the field and by bibliographic reading.

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Nad zalew bym sobie pojechał

Parezja Czasopismo Forum Młodych Pedagogów przy Komitecie Nauk Pedagogicznych PAN ◽

10.15290/parezja.2021.15.06 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 77-80

Author(s):

Małgorzata Michel ◽

Keyword(s):

Urban Studies ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

Street Children ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Street Gang ◽

Youth Gang ◽

Qualitative Researcher ◽

Personal Stories ◽

Gang Activity ◽

City Memory

Malgorzata Michel, PhD at Jagiellonian University works at the Institute of Education. Her research focuses mainly on local prevention and rehabilitation systems, studying activity of the „street children” afiliating with youth gang activity and deviant hooligan groups in the context of urban studies. The presented text is the outcome of taking part in Mikolaj Grynberg’s workshops focusing on writing about city memory and personal stories in years 2019-2020. Malgorzata Michel combines being a qualitative researcher set in ethnomethodology and writing skills achieved on later mentioned workshops. Her text is an outcome of a process starting with and interview with a teenage hooligan, ex street gang member. Finally, the author showcases a way to present qualitative data in form of a reportage.

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