Working with Chinese triad youth gangs: Correct diagnosis and strategic intervention

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.