Enquiries revealed that the four were known members of an urban street gang and the youth they had targeted was linked to a rival gang. The group had walked three miles into an area associated ...

Amid rising joblessness and blighted urban cores, gangs provided youths validation and a chance to make money. The late 1980s brought the crack cocaine epidemic and the expansion of street gangs.

It was like a scene from a gangster movie. As 17-year-old Tyler McDermott emerged into the night after a party, he was shot in the head at point-blank range before being slashed by a machete as he ...