Gangs in New Zealand

Gangs In New Zealand

There are numerous gangs in New Zealand, of varying criminality, organisation and ethnicity. According to the New Zealand Police, the three most prominent New Zealand gangs are Black Power (not related to the African-American movement); the Mongrel Mob, and the Nomads. Other gangs are prominent in particular areas, for example the Junior Don Kings (JDK) and Dope Money Sex (DMS) in Central Auckland.

According to the book Gangs by Ross Kemp, New Zealand has more gangs per head then any other country in the world, with about seventy major gangs and over 4,000 patched members in a population of 4 million people.

According to sociologist Jarrod Gilbert, New Zealand has had youth and street gangs since the 1950s. By the 1960s, there were four established gangs, the Black power, Mongrel Mob, Head Hunters and Stormtroopers, they had friends in high places with prime minister Rob Muldoon partying at a Black power pad in 1976 and Wellington Mayor Michael Fowler stumping bail for seven of them after an altication with the Mongrel mob. However organised crime gangs such as those which currently dominate the New Zealand scene mostly date from the 1970s. 'Gangsta' style gangs have been a presence in New Zealand since the early 1990s but individual gangs of this type are typically short lived. New Zealand gangs have generally been heavily influenced by their American counterparts. Although Black Power takes its name from the black liberation movement of the same name, in many ways it and similar gangs are much more akin to white American motorcycle gangs such as the Hell's Angels. Since the early 1990s newer gangs have primarily been influenced by African American street gangs such as the Crips and Bloods.

Gang members are a minority of New Zealand criminals. A New Zealand Ministry of Justice study showed that in 1991 just under 80% of prison inmates had no gang history, and just over 90% had no current gang membership. Of the prison population, 4% were members of the Mongrel Mob and 4.3% former members, while 3.6% were current and 3.2% former members of Black Power. No other gang had more than one percent of the prison population. A similar study in 2003 showed that 11.3% of prison inmates were gang members. Of these, 35% were Mongrel Mob and 33% Black Power, with no other individual gang having more than 5% of the imprisoned gang population.