Much of youth gang crime today revolves around violent score-settling or livestreamed thrills, rather than profit, says Abraham Kuol, a criminology researcher who helps run mentoring and other intervention programs for teens caught up in gang violence. Yet police say they are finding more young offenders involved in crimes “outsourced” by the major gangs too, including firebombings, burglaries, and even shootings.

“Organised crime is exploiting them, and they’re getting away with it because there’s so much attention and public policy debate about youth gangs at the moment,” says Kuol. Youth gangs often learn from bigger crooks online, inspired by bosses splashing their luxe lifestyles across social media and talk of joining a “brotherhood” if they earn their stripes. In some cases, larger syndicates are known to have recruited good fighters by reviewing videos of brawls posted by youth gangs, the way sports teams might scout new players.

Kuol, who is also a South Sudanese community leader, says youth gangs are less organised than the major syndicates, often forming and splitting apart fast over rivalries that escalate across social media and drill rap. Scenes such as the wild machete brawl that unfolded at the Northland shopping centre in Melbourne last month are generally motivated by “beefs” between rival postcode crews, not illicit business. But, while many of these gangs have no connection to serious organised crime, Kuol says the underworld is exploiting young people more than ever. “There’s definitely an understanding that you can use youth gangs as muscle, and they don’t really care about the consequences. There are links with the tobacco war [arson] ... and stealing high-end cars.”

According to Victoria Police, these “networked” teenagers are actively lured into extortion work and other serious crimes by major syndicates, at times torching properties for as little as $500. Police have raided bikie clubs recruiting children as young as 10 for burglaries or to steal cars needed for other crimes. Some teens may only make contact with bigger players in the food chain via encrypted apps, including a specialised app styled as an “Airtasker for the underworld”, where they can take jobs, but generally won’t be told the full details of the crime.

Most of the young people caught up in gangs are among the most vulnerable, living in poverty and often bounced around refuges or foster care. Meanwhile, Kuol says, the bigger crooks “are skating free in the background”. Tobacco war kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad perfected this model of using young “guns for hire” as part of his recent campaign of firebombings and shootings to seize control of Melbourne’s booming black market in tobacco. Last year, Lunar taskforce police charged four teens, aged 14 to 16, over a string of attacks on tobacco shops and businesses targeted by Hamad’s crew. Their cases are still before the courts.

“The old codes of the underworld have shifted in recent years,” says David Bright, a former criminal psychologist who has interviewed hundreds of offenders as part of his research on organised crime at Deakin University. Most crime bosses now run Australian syndicates from safe distances offshore, and need fewer of their own people on the ground, though the scale of organised crime is only growing.

“We often think of gang rivalry, but there’s more co-operation than ever,” says Bright. “It’s less about hierarchy. It’s a network. Even the bikies work together sometimes. “And in this economic and social climate, it seems there are more violent young men willing to turn to crime to make a buck, and to belong somewhere.”

Vince Hurley, a criminologist and former detective who once worked undercover targeting bikies and other criminal gangs, says the move to outsourcing may bring more risk than organised crime figures realise, particularly when relying on the unpredictable “firecrackers” in youth gangs. “There’s more people to snitch, more mistakes. More people getting hurt,” he says.

While the “serious players” in organised crime will still turn to their own trusted networks for key jobs, Hurley notes these freelancers are also increasingly “subletting” the job to those on the outside. Bright agrees the trend to cheap, young labour is clear. “You only have to look at ... footage of the botched tobacco shop firebombings, people dropping things, setting themselves alight,” he says. But one thing hasn’t changed: “The [bosses] still don’t care what happens to the young ones at the bottom.”

Kuol says some teens – those feeling trapped in their circumstances, or chasing street cred – are “definitely still running to those jobs”.

Source: The Age