Many of his friends were in gangs but he wanted a different life and volunteered for the Manchester City community Kickz programme.
However, this was then used as an excuse by opportunist thugs in gangs, first in Tottenham itself, then across London and then in other cities.
By addressing the multiple causes of youth violence, the goal of these UNESCO projects is to focus on the prevention of youth violence, especially involvement in gangs.
The Home Office's report Ending gang and youth violence has already put a focus on early intervention to stop young people becoming involved in gangs as well as providing support to members wanting to break with their past.
The Chicago problem is crime-ridden neighborhoods in which gangs murder each other and anybody who gets in their way.
What if Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or his disciples were implicated in funding murderous militia gangs in Congo?
Intelligence is essential in combatting gangs, and deputies simply do not know individual gang members enough to be effective.
Some of the organised crime groups starting to use the net had the same rigid, hierarchical structure seen in offline gangs.
According to a report in The Guardian, the pickpockets work in organized gangs and are targeting both tourists and museum staff with "increasingly violent tactics, " including spitting and kicking.
The sweep began after army raids of gangs belonging to the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's strongest, led to the discovery of lists of officers in the gangs' pay, according to state judicial officials.
This has become even more difficult in recent times because of the increase of the kidnapping business in this city when the gangs found in Cite-Soleil the hiding place to put their victims.
In Chicago street gangs control 95 percent of the retail drug sales in Chicago.
The president warned that even as Mexico begins to make progress in tackling drug gangs, however, that won't spell relief in the overall fight against illicit drugs.
In his interview, Serino explained to the FBI agents that African-American gangs in the community "typically dressed in black and wore hoodies, " the report said.
Mr Perez Molina, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2007 election, made tackling Guatemala's high crime rate and combating the presence of Mexican drug gangs in the country his priorities.
This is the third time the race has taken place in the Complexo do Alemao, a vast area of interconnected slums once ruled by some of the most powerful drug gangs in Brazil.
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The Boston model has worked to greatest effect in tackling the teenage gangs responsible for a sharp rise in drug-related killings in the early 1990s.
But Mauser notes that gun homicides have actually been rising in recent years, from 151 in 1999 to 173 in 2009, as violent criminal gangs use guns in their drug turf wars and other disputes.
And their chiefs want to work with the National Crime Agency to take down the major gangs who are the global market-makers in crime - the gangs organising the theft of flash cars from our cities or the mass electronic harvesting of credit card numbers.
But that's why we have to work collectively towards addressing these issues in ways that reduce violence and include efforts to keep kids in school, keep them off the streets and from joining gangs, in efforts to, as the President has done through his Department of Justice, make it harder for criminals and others who should not have weapons under existing law from obtaining them.
Street gangs in the northern triangle also fight deadly battles often unrelated to the drug trade.
We have not focused on the gangs in the last 15 years, really, in Chicago.
They were arrested by police investigating a feud between rival gangs in Croxteth and Norris Green.
The meeting was set up to talk about guns and gangs in the area.
BBC: Shots fired 'three times in an hour' at Merseyside houses
Mr Evans said early testing of Dimitri placed two rival gangs in a bar.
It says western tourists have been victims of vicious unprovoked attacks by gangs in Koh Phangan.
His predecessor, Felipe Calderon, launched a war on the powerful drug gangs in December 2006.
BBC: Mexican soldiers, 1 Dec 2012, Pena Nieto's inauguration
Parents worried about their children joining street gangs in Nottingham are being offered a new helpline.
BBC: Street gang affected parents get helpline in Nottingham
He may try to hold local elections to install governments in towns where gangs hold sway.
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