Media's Influence on Australia's Juvenile Delinquency

Have you ever been confronted by an "eshay"? Most likely you don't know what an "eshay" is. Well, they are your future: modern teens who have been inspired by the news media and music industry to wear name brand clothes such as Nike or Nautica, smoke weed, and gain status by going to jail. Teens, carrying machetes and tasers, Mass vandalism and rampant drug abuse: this is the media's depiction of teenage gangs. The media have indoctrinated them into believing that the gang life is 'cool' and, in the same way as Greasers and Parkour before them, have formed social groups, which appeal to the teens' need to rebel and to belong.

The media's promotion of child gangs, and the teenage obsession with Australian drill music from crews such as Onefour and 21 district, the inclusion of music videos that are violently linked to the gang lifestyle, creates a risk-taking trend among teens.

This is seen in similarly named teen gangs appearing in Brisbane and other metropolitan areas around Australia, most following the trend of naming the gang after the postcode or district such as the "Southside" and "4114".

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The rise in popularity of "eshays", is mainly due to the need to be accepted by others and the teens coming from low economic neighbourhoods with fractured families. This encourages them to value the crew as a second family as the news media portrays them as extremely violent and a threat to the public. It discourages them from leaving this hoodlum lifestyle as they value believe the fear is a sign of power and control and forces them to follow the stereotype as they are denied opportunities.

These "eshays" are teens from the lower to middle class, who are mainly of Polynesian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent.

This is mirrored by the hood in America with African Americans and Hispanics and Britain's street syndicates with low economic groups mainly of African and white descent. The Current Affair is a main perpetrator of this depiction. A Current Affair article on the 23rd of September 2019 about teenage hordes in Melbourne and their use of weapons. The article written by Ried Butler and Luke Mortimer in collaboration with a 15year-old gang member, a parent of a gang member, a criminologist and a concerned citizen turned vigilante. The headline "Spreading like cancer': Inside Melbourne's kid street gangs'" specifies that the gang movement has spread rapidly throughout the streets of Melbourne. In an interview with Zach, a 15-year-old teenager, he explains "In school, I wasn't the best kid. It didn't seem like they were trying to help me at all. I was like f--- school, I'm not going.

The boys take care of me now." And "Everyone just wants their name to get known. Like 'that's a tough C---, don't f--- with him.' They want to go to school and have the chicks and guys be like 'oh he's tough, you hear what he did on the weekend?'". The article also exposes the consequences that have already taken the communities, with an interview with Vivienne Loader, mother of Mitchell a "Reds" gang member, she recalls "They carried tasers, knives, nunchucks, wheel braces, bats. They stole cars, they dealt drugs. It just went from bad to worse,", "He was involved in an assault in Mornington with two other people. One of the girls in the group videotaped it and put it on Snapchat. Of course, police got hold of it and that's how Mitchell was arrested." Teens joining the gangs further perpetuates the cycle. This cycle started from petty theft to vandalism and has ultimately led to teen gang wars, robberies, deaths, and drugs.

This is nothing like past subcultures in Australia, it is more like the hood from America as it probably had laid the framework for the movement. The similarities between the "eshays" and the "hood" are as both groups are treated differently from the general public, from lower middle-class families and are normally associated with crimes and showing off their power. Journalist Laura Withers calling the bluff. An article by the Daily Mail UK written by Laura Withers from the Daily Mail Australia on the 28th of March 2019, explains "eshays" to the UK public. The article describes "eshays" as "Brazen teenagers who wear designer clothes and carry bum bags are taking to social media to boast about drugs, weapons and violent schoolyard brawls" and as a "part of a disturbing so-called gang sweeping across Australia and terrifying parents." The use of "wannabe gangsters" by Terry Goldsworthy a Bond University criminologist and former police officer, clearly states that Terry believes that the "eshays" are linked to the African-American gangsters in behaviour, another statement from Mr Goldsworthy was that "They're just bullies and just cowards and ultimately criminals, because they're committing criminal acts,"", this implies that law enforcement's view on "eshays" are quite low.

The article further explains that "eshay's" are fuelled by social media and often post images of them in branded clothing, concealing their faces and brandishing a weapon. Both sources portray teens similarly to 4 distinct subcultural theories, Stan Cohen's "Theory of moral panic and folk devil", Dick Hebdige's "resistance to hegemony theory", Acland's "ideology of protection" and Erik Erikson's "theory of Role confusion". Stan Cohen's "Theory of moral panic and folk devil", where it is easier for the media to portray teens as Folk devil and cause a moral panic due to them not having a reliable and consistent voice in the media, this is perpetuated by the media's exaggeration of teen's deviant behaviour,society ignores teens doing good or working hard as it is not as newsworthy or interesting as creating mass panic from misunderstood teens. This ties in with Dick Hebdige's "resistance to hegemony theory", which states that Subcultures stem from deviance, as an oblique challenge to the hegemony dominant social groups which influence over others.

These groups include, Parents, authority and the medial. Acland's "ideology of protection", reinforces the hegemony, the theory states that the youth need constant surveillance to protect themselves and others, this is the view that adults have as they expect the current generation to be similar to their generation, often criticising them for things that were expected of them. This is also seen the way the media has portrayed the teens as of to be feared. Erik Erikson's "theory of role confusion" refers to adolescents and teenagers between the ages of 12-19 years, as they are neither a young adult nor a child, they are represented as children behaving as violent adults.

The effects of the negative representation of teenager consequently results in the problem getting worse throughout the following generations. The effects include the acceptance of this gang culture, the increasing crime rate, teen unemployment and the increase of teen dropouts. This may negatively contribute to the fact that people between the ages of 14-20 are most likely to have behavioural disorders, 11-17-year old's are reportedly one of the most depressed age groups in Australia according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Adolescence committee of mental health. Contemporary media represent teenagers as violent drugged up menaces that are costing their communities, thousands of dollars a year and have no control over themselves. Controversially, the truth is that the current teenage generation in Australia are misled and pushed into a cycle of blame which further restricts their future.