Gangs, Violence and Followership
Sweden is currently facing a significant surge in organized crime and gang-related violence, triggering a political debate on how to address the issue. To instil confidence, several political parties try to display strong leadership by proposing quick and forceful solutions. Unfortunately, this involves suggesting traditional measures such as longer prison sentences, lowering the age limit for life imprisonment, and increasing police presence on the streets.
In my view, this so-called leadership approach is misguided. Several studies demonstrate that toughening punishments won't prevent crime or gang violence (for example: Research Shows That Long Prison Sentences Don’t Actually Improve Safety | Vera Institute and Rethinking Prison as a Deterrent to Future Crime - JSTOR Daily)
One reason for this is that, as noted by a Swedish scholar, individuals engaging in criminal activities simply don't believe they'll get caught and arrested. So, why would they worry about the severity of punishment?
Of course, political parties are not oblivious to these facts. They're well aware of the limitations of these suggested solutions; however, they need to appear as proactive to their constituents. In other words, they want to come across as leaders. Ironically, many of their solutions are reactive; they deal with the problem after it has occurred.
I believe that if we seek real change, we must adopt a followership approach to the problem. This means shifting our focus from “how to punish criminals” to identifying (and removing) any factors leading children and adolescents into crime in the first place.
As I’ve mentioned many times before, natural followership is based on the ability to choose whom to follow. Additionally, we follow those we believe are best suited to help us achieve our goals. In other words, natural followership is driven by personal interests.
With this in mind, we must ask ourselves why we see an increase in young people joining criminal networks. The reality is that at some point, these youngsters stood at a crossroad. They could choose a law-abiding life, but instead, they chose a life of crime and violence.
It’s easy to blame the kids' personality, genetics, or upbringing, but the truth is, criminal networks are proving to be far better at understanding the power of followership. They recruit our young by meeting (or claiming to meet) their needs, goals, and interests. No punishment in the world can outmatch that.
We must re-think our approach to gangs and organized crime. It’s a huge problem and it can’t be solved by people in power playing leaders. It can only be solved by understanding the complexity of natural followership.
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