NEWS LESSONS / Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer
Level 3 Advanced
Crime and punishment 2
Key words 1
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
1. A _________________ is a situation where something is missing or a feeling that something is missing.
2. _________________ is a feeling that you can do anything you like and you will never be stopped, challenged
or arrested.
3. A _________________ is someone who belongs to the same social group as another person or someone who
is the same age as another person.
4. _________________ is a system by which someone who has committed a crime is not sent to prison, but has
to agree not to break the law again and to let a probation offcer check their behaviour for a specifc period
of time.
5. A _________________ is an experienced person who helps someone who is less experienced.
6. An _________________ is someone who is kept in a prison, mental hospital or other institution.
7. A _________________ is a system for organizing people according to their status in an organization, society,
or other group.
8. _________________ is the process of selling illegal drugs.
9. _________________ is the process of helping someone to give up drugs, alcohol or a life of crime.
10. If criminals _________________, they break the law again.

invincibility peer probation inmate hierarchy
rehabilitation dealing reoffend mentor vacuum
Put these phrases related to crime and punishment into the correct order from beginning to end.
1. get sentenced
2. be released from prison
3. be put on trial
4. go to prison
5. commit a crime
6. be arrested
7. be found guilty
8. be charged
NEWS LESSONS / Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer
Level 3 Advanced
Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer.
I should know. I used to be a member
Toby Helm, political editor
27 October, 2012
1 Junior Smart knows a lot about gangs. He is now
36 and his life can be divided into two distinct
phases. He tells how in his late teens, after his
mother died, he became drawn into a south
London gang, which, at the time, helped fll a
huge vacuum.
2 They became my new support group, he says.
"At frst it was just a bit of fun but then it became
more serious, more and more about making
money. They got involved in criminality. That is
how it was. At school Smart failed his GCSEs,
then retook them at college and passed the lot.
He secured a full-time job in administration and
worked as a DJ. But, on the side, he was making
money illegally as part of the gang.
3 Eventually he was arrested for serious
drug-related offences and was sent to prison
for 12 years. Instantly, he says, his sense of
invincibility was shattered. "The frst night after
I was arrested was the biggest wake-up call of
my life, he says. I had been living a dual life. I
had been living as one person to my peers and
another person to my peers enemies. I spent a
long time sorting myself out.
4 Today, Junior Smart runs a team of 12
full-time workers and six volunteers, which aims
to turn young criminals and gang members
away from crime. Most of those working there
are, like Smart himself, ex-offenders. A few are
still serving their sentences but are regarded
as having reformed enough to be allowed out
during the day to help. They work with the
police, the probation service and other, voluntary
organizations to help those who feel trapped
and frightened in the violent criminal gangs that
operate across London.
5 For Smart, the extraordinary journey from gang
member to mentor began when he witnessed,
from within, a prison system that was so
obviously failing its inmates. He recalls a drug
addict he befriended who, to his dismay, kept
returning. I was touched by the people who kept
coming back in, he says. I couldnt believe that
nothing was being done about it. I was talking to
the inmates and they knew what needed to be
changed in their lives, but the problem is that the
prison system only deals with the
index offence.
6 One guy had a 300-a-week cocaine habit,
which he funded through burglary. He would tell
me stuff about how he would walk into a house,
even when he knew people were there. So
although he had a drug addiction, it never got
dealt with. The thing that got me about that is
that it is simply a revolving door.
7 That case and scores of others persuaded Smart
to start working as a prison listener an inmate
who helps reassure new arrivals and talks them
through their frst days inside. From there he
developed what he calls his own little plan to
run his own scheme once out of prison using
the experience of ex-offenders to help others
reject the revolving door of prison life. He was
released early, after fve years. "At the end of
my sentence I got an opportunity to put my little
model into practice, he says.
8 So what does he think now? Does he believe
that, after the riots of last August, and the
governments promise to crack down on gangs,
things are getting better? He is careful to offer
some praise to the police and says much of
their work in hauling in gang members has
been good. But overall he is highly critical of a
disjointed government approach that believes
that, once the leader of a gang is arrested, the
problem is solved. He agrees with the fndings
of a report that says the arrest of gang leaders
can even make things worse. He says the effect
of removing the leader is often to destabilize the
entire gang.
9 He draws a diagram of the hierarchy on a pad.
When you arrest the top guy, people start
fghting for position all the way up. Who was the
most loyal? Who had the most respect? It is a
bit like a family. They are more likely to act out,
through violence. It means that the arrest of the
gang leaders has been nullifed because it has
not had a long-term effect. They have not even
given the community a respite.
10 Can it actually make the streets more
dangerous? It can do, because in the vacuum
the recruitment and manipulation of young
people becomes even more prevalent, creating
new lower levels all the way down ... People take
sides. If one gang or another territorial street
network knows that an elder [leader] has been
taken out, then they suddenly think that gangs

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NEWS LESSONS / Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer / Advanced
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer
Level 3 Advanced

Comprehension check 3
weak ... And so we have inter-estate disputes
going on. And what happens when that elder is
in prison? He forms alliances with other gang
members, or when he gets released he
then tries to retake control. That is when
violence happens.
11 In order to spread risk down to the lowest levels,
he says gangs are now recruiting far more in
primary schools. The youngest members are
called tinies. Over the last years we have seen
more and more of this. The tinies can be as
young as eight to eleven years old. The young
are brought in to shield their seniors from risk.
It is often they who are charged with doing the
street dealing or even the stabbing, he says.
12 Smart says that, with a lack of government
funding and commitment to long-term
rehabilitation, the challenges are immense,
particularly in the current economic climate. I
try to engage a young person who has been
earning 300 a week through illegal methods.
It was hard before, to try to convince him. But
with unemployment high and cuts to benefts, it
makes things tougher.
13 That said, his project, which has well over 1,000
clients, is delivering results. Fewer than 20%
of those who come in for help reoffend. From
personal experience, Smart refuses to write off a
single individual as beyond redemption and that
is what drives him on. I dont think that about
anybody, he says.
Guardian News and Media 2012
First published in The Guardian, 27/10/12
Choose the best answer according to the text.
1. Why does Junior Smart know a lot about gangs?
a. because he acted as a mentor in prison
b. because he used to be a gang member himself
c. because he studied crime and criminology
2. Why does he describe prison as a revolving door?
a. because people come in and then leave
b. because the same people come back again and again
c. because there is only one way people can go
3. Why can arresting a gang leader make the streets more dangerous?
a. because it creates a power vacuum that destabilizes the gang
b. because the gang members want to take revenge
c. because there is an immediate increase in drug dealing
4. What evidence is there that his project is delivering results?
a. It has over 1,000 clients.
b. Fewer than one ffth of his clients reoffend.
c. The government is now committed to long-term rehabilitation.

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NEWS LESSONS / Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer / Advanced
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012
Seizing gang leaders isnt the answer
Level 3 Advanced

Discussion 7
Why do people join gangs?
Word-building 6
Verb + noun collocations 5
Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns or noun phrases in the right-hand column.
1. serve
2. retake
3. fund
4. put
5. take
6. form
a. an alliance
b. something into practice
c. sides
d. a sentence
e. a drug habit
f. an exam
Find the word 4
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. a three-word noun phrase meaning a bad experience that warns someone to change the way they behave
(para 3)
2. a verb meaning to become the friend of someone and treat them in a kind way (para 5)
3. a noun meaning a feeling of being very worried, disappointed or sad about something surprising or shocking
that has happened (para 5)
4. a three-word phrasal verb meaning to start dealing with someone or something much more strictly (para 8)
5. a two-word phrasal verb meaning to arrest in large numbers (para 8)
6. a verb meaning to make something lose its value or effect (para 9)
7. a noun meaning a short period of rest from having to deal with a diffcult situation (para 9)
8. a two-word expression meaning too bad to be improved (para 13)
Complete the sentences using the correct form of the word in brackets at the end of each sentence.
1. Junior Smart was making money _________________ as part of a gang. [LEGAL]
2. In a vacuum, the _________________ of young people becomes more prevalent. [RECRUIT]
3. Fewer than 20% of Smarts clients _________________. [OFFEND]
4. Smart himself is an _________________. [OFFEND]
5. While in prison, he _________________ a drug addict. [FRIEND]
6. The addict funded his habit through _________________. [BURGLE]