Seminar presented by Dr Jarrod Gilbert at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage on 5 March 2014.
Rape, murder, violence and
drugs: gangs are synonymous with them all. Despite having a significant
presence in New Zealand since the 1950s, though, our gangs have been
under-researched and remain poorly understood. One reason for this is the
difficulty of doing fieldwork.
This seminar looks at the
problems of researching gangs, but also the problems encountered when research
findings clash with popular and official understandings.
Between 2002 and 2010 Jarrod
Gilbert undertook the most comprehensive study ever done on gangs in New
Zealand, and in 2013 he published Patched:
The History of Gangs in New Zealand. Patched
won the Peoples Choice category at the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards and
was a finalist for best non-fiction book.
Jarrod lectures at the
University of Canterbury and is the lead researcher at Independent Research
Solutions. He is currently working on a book titled Murder: A New Zealand History.
