Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs.

Police say at least five alleged Ottawa street gang members have been deported from the country after running afoul of Canadian law over the past seven years.
But a leading expert on Canadian street gangs says while deporting gang members is "politically a good move," past experience shows it has little or no effect on reducing or deterring gang activity.
"A hardened deportation regime is not going to make, for practical purposes, a difference on the street," said Michael Chettleburgh, author of the book Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs.
It has no deterrent effect. The chance of capture, the chance of incarceration, the chance of dying on the street, is a condition of employment for a street gang member," said Mr. Chettleburgh. "That's including a chance of deportation."
"A lot of people have this misconception it's a full stop, we've exported our problem back to the source country. It doesn't really work that way," said Mr. Chettleburgh.So far this year, two alleged members of the Ledbury Banff Crips have been removed from Canada. The first, Sharmarke Ali, 23, was deported to Ethiopia in January, while 27-year-old Remy Maliragora was removed to Rwanda in late July. Both men came to Canada as refugees and denied ties to the street gang, despite police evidence to the contrary.
According to Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Mike Callaghan of the guns and gangs section, the removal of Ottawa gang members is nothing new, as at least five members of city street gangs have been deported since 2001.Staff Sgt. Callaghan said he encourages the government to deport gang members "at any opportunity that avails itself." However, he acknowledged the sample size is too small to say if the deportations are having an impact on gang recruitment and activity.
Police have identified approximately 600 confirmed gang members in the city, including more than half that were born in other countries, so the number of deportations represents only one per cent of the known gang members.
Staff Sgt. Callaghan said police now routinely engage in case conferences with officials from the Canada Border Services Agency to identify gang members and associates in violation of immigration laws.
It's a "fantastic" partnership that has expanded in the past two years with the creation of a dedicated guns and gangs section, he said."We are in contact weekly, if not daily, with CBSA on investigations," said Staff Sgt. Callaghan, explaining how police advise border officials about anyone who there are "reasonable and probable grounds to believe are involved in gang activity."
Mr. Chettleburgh, who earlier this year presented a report he prepared for Crime Prevention Ottawa on local street gangs, believes deportations and tough prison sentences are "not an evidence-based approach that works."