Q&A: How bad is NZ's gang problem - and what do we do about it? Jarrod Gilbert and Jared Savage answer your questions

Members of the Headhunters and Black Power gangs clash at a tangi in Pukekohe in February 2022. Photo / Supplied

A report released today about gangs in New Zealand sounds alarm bells - about rising tensions on the ground, but also about our political response.

Written by University of Canterbury sociologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert, the report finds the gang scene now shares significant parallels with the situation in the mid-1990s, when "unprecedented" gang warfare dominated the news and became a high-voltage political issue.

As a result, a raft of new laws were introduced - most of which, Gilbert finds, have had little success in curbing gang activity.

As New Zealand heads into an election season, gangs and crime are likely to feature prominently in the public debate.

We asked Dr Gilbert to answer your questions about the threat gangs pose, what NZ can learn from history, and where we go from here. He's joined by senior Herald investigative journalist Jared Savage, who has reported extensively on the issue and also wrote the book Gangland in 2020.

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