ANTH40012: Do ‘African Gangs’ Exist in Melbourne: The African Australians Narrative - Arts and Humanities Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Task:

Tittle :

Do ‘African gangs’ exist in Melbourne: The African Australians Narrative?

INTRODUCTION

The media allegations of a ‘African gangs’ has been integral in shaping public perception and policy making.(Baak, 2019). For example, in 2007, after the murder of a young African Australian, the former Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Kevin Andrews, reduced immigrant intake for Africans, citing the South Sudanese Australians' failure to integrate(Spinks, 2009).

In 2018, some politicians, including Australia's home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, claimed that Victorians were scared to go to restaurants at night because of the ‘African gangs.’(Kommalapati, 2018; Preiss, 2018). Likewise, the Victorian Liberal Party’s 2018 election campaign focused on ‘African gang'  asserting that “only the Liberals will stop [African] gangs hunting in packs”(Willingham, 2018). This research empirically explore the African Australians narrative, provide a platform for their voices and raise awareness.

Aim:

To investigate the ‘African gang’ narrative from the African Australians’ perspective.

Objectives:
 

Based on the above information and rationale below, the main research objectives are:

1. To give African Australians a platform to tell their narratives about African gangs, to have their voices heard and listen to by stakeholders. 
2. To generate evidence-based knowledge to inform policies and practices and contribute to the existing academic literature evidence.
3. To examine how different key stakeholders (the Victoria Police, criminologists, policymakers etc.,) define the term 'gang'. Then explore the scope of this definition in the African Australian collectivist culture context.
4. Conduct focus group and interviews with young African Australian people, their families and community leaders to gain insights into their lived experience relating the ‘African gangs’ narrative.
5. Identify knowledge gaps through comprehensive review of related literatures and bridges them to enhance community voice and encouraging critical conversations.

By achieving the above objectives, African Australians will be participants (by sharing their life realities, experiences and perspectives) rather than observers. The result of this study will be valuable to the policymakers, practitioners as well as criminologists in developing better understanding of African Australians narrative. Such a research-based knowledge will inform policies and evidence-based practice.

RATIONALE

The African Australians’ narratives are critical in 'African gangs' debates. However, African Australian narratives about the 'African gangs' are missing entirely or over-represented negatively in media(Gaffey, 2019). Furthermore, much of the narrative rebutting the ‘African gangs’ story has been written by non-African-Australian scholars (Benier et al., 2018; Windle, 2008). Alternatively, it is told through 'expert voices', which is solely (based on) Eurocentric standpoints rather than African Australians' perceptions (Majavu, 2020,p28). The importance of this research is to listen to and give African Australians a platform to tell their narratives about ‘African gangs’ and have a well-balanced discussion so the audiences can form their own opinions. The impact of this study would have on society is a greater awareness of the issue from both sides as African Australians add their voices to this debate for a better representation of their interests. In this way, this study will generate evidence-based knowledge to inform policies and practice, fill the gaps in the literature, thereby contributing to the existing academic literature evidence.

In summary, if ‘African gangs’ issue affecting African Australians is to be fully understood, their voices must be heard directly from them. Particularly, the following research questions need to be addressed:

1. What are the accepted literature criteria for classifying groups as gangs?
2. Do individualistic cultural values influence Australia criminal justice's definition of the term ‘gang’?
3. How does the African Australian community define the term ‘gang’?
4. What is the role of the news media in defining and spreading the 'African gangs' narrative? 
5. How the media affects public opinion and what are the impacts of the media's ‘African gang’ narrative upon the African Australian community?

PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW

As shown above, this research highlights the importance of the African Australians’ perspectives on the media ‘African gangs’ narrative being investigated.

A preliminary literature review shows that the 'African gangs' narrative has attracted research attention in recent years (Benier et al., 2018; Gaffey, 2019; Windle, 2008). Many of these studies highlighted the (danger in) politicisation and racialisations of crime in Australian media (Benier et al., 2020, 2018; Windle, 2008). Scholars have underlined the highly unjustifiable nature of media generalisations and ethnic criminal narrative in media where young African Australian people are vilified (Mapedzahama and Kwansah-Aidoo, 2017; Windle, 2008).

Also, the literature suggests that young African Australians people are overrepresented in media crime reporting as lawbreakers and outsiders by stressing their 'Africanness' (Majavu, 2020; Mapedzahama and Kwansah-Aidoo, 2017). Furthermore, their cultural heritage, tribal culture, ethnicity and former refugee status are emphasised as explanations for the crime causation (Benier et al., 2020; Gaffey, 2019; Windle, 2008). Therefore, it is suggested that such racialisation has been used to render the entire African Australian community criminal and morally suspect due to individual African Australian youth's criminal behaviours (Windle, 2008). What is missing from the past studies is a complete academic understanding of the African Australian narrative about the 'African gangs’ debate. The gaps in the body of knowledge are because previous research focused on racialisations and politicisation of offending by young African Australians. This research is being done on (and will be building upon the current research literature by) exploring the African Australians' perspective on the racialisations and politicisation of the 'African gangs' debate.

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