You Don’t Choose Your Family: Analysing the Links between Incarceration, Gang Membership and Family Relationships in South Africa

In the Western Cape in South Africa, gangs are often described as substitute families for especially young men who are raised in difficult circumstances associated with precarious communities, vulnerable families and different forms of abuse. The powerful South African gangs within prisons (correctional centres) developed a strong hold on individual members which is well documented in popular and academic literature. As gang members grow older, they often have repeated stints of incarceration which may eventually lead to long incarceration periods (“lifers”) due to violent crimes which carry lengthy minimum sentencing periods in South Africa. Such incarceration patterns (trajectories) reinforce a particular form of “brotherhood” or loyalty to other gang members where a particular masculine hierarchy is cemented. Yet, incarcerated gang members may also have families outside of prison and this paper will focus on nuanced interdependencies between family life and prison gang membership over the life course. An in-depth analysis of selected face-to-face interviews with formerly incarcerated men in the Western Cape, together with a review of existing literature based on qualitative research with incarcerated men in South Africa, will form the basis of this paper. A life course perspective will be used as the theoretical starting point for this analysis as the transitions between developmental phases and dramatic turning points are useful indicators for a greater understanding of links between violence, vulnerabilities and the individual and family life course.