Black crime in Britain: As many as a fifth of 18-34 year old black men in Hackney could be part of a gang according to researchers

The figures emerged in a study which concluded that gang members suffer unprecedented levels of psychiatric illness, placing a heavy burden on mental health services. Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, surveyed 4,664 men aged 18 to 34 in Britain, with the sample weighted to combine significant numbers from areas with high gang membership - including 700 from Hackney. Of the total sample 2.1% of men said that they belonged to a gang - but in Hackney the figures were much higher at 8.6%. If membership of a gang is narrowed down to black men in Hackney the figure shoots up to 20%. Professor Jeremy Coid, director of forensic psychiatry research unit at Queen Mary, and lead author of the paper said: “One of the most interesting things is that you actually have a real changing social demography in Hackney. So if we look at white men in Hackney the figures are fractionally higher than the rest of the country for gang membership, but it’s extremely raised among black men."