Gangs in New Zealand

There are numerous gangs in New Zealand, of varying criminality, organisation and ethnicity. The New Zealand Police have distinguished between "New Zealand gangs", outlaw motorcycle gangs and local street gangs. They named the three most prominent "New Zealand gangs" as Black Power (not related to the African-American movement); the Mongrel Mob, and the Nomads. Examples of local street gangs are the Junior Don Kings (JDK) and Dope Money Sex (DMS) in Central Auckland.

According to the book Gangs by Ross Kemp, New Zealand has more gangs per head than any other country in the world, with about seventy major gangs and over 4,000 patched members in a population of 4 million people.

According to sociologist Jarrod Gilbert, New Zealand has had youth and street gangs since the 1950s. By the 1960s, there were four established gangs, Black Power, Mongrel Mob, Head Hunters and Stormtroopers, they had friends in high places with prime minister Robert Muldoon partying at a Black Power pad in 1976 and Wellington Mayor Michael Fowler stumping bail for seven of them after an altercation with the Mongrel Mob. However organised crime gangs such as those which currently dominate the New Zealand scene mostly date from the 1970s. 'Gangsta' style gangs have been a presence in New Zealand since the early 1990s but individual gangs of this type are typically short lived. New Zealand gangs have generally been heavily influenced by their American counterparts. Although Black Power takes its name from the black liberation movement of the same name, in many ways it and similar gangs are much more akin to white American motorcycle gangs such as the Hell's Angels. Since the early 1990s newer gangs have primarily been influenced by African American street gangs such as the Crips and Bloods.

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