ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the emergence of 'positive development' initiatives within the gang and discusses the reluctance of Group Employment Liaison Service field workers to work with the Mob, and their lack of understanding of the gang. At a subsequent national meeting in September 1992, it was decided that an Incorporated Trust be established to serve as a national organisation for coordinating positive development initiatives for Mongrel Mob gang members and associates. The gang mind-set accepts destructive behaviour and criminality as part of the everyday world. Its taken-for-grantedness undermines the ability of gang members to act constructively and to make positive changes in their lives. ‘The dark room’ is a metaphor for the gang members’ common experience of being physically isolated in jail, and the experience of social isolation, deprivation, and poverty. The police, members of the judiciary, politicians, and the media exacerbated public anxieties about the gang ‘threat'.
