‘It’s the adrenaline’: how gangs lure Liverpool’s marginalised young people

Criminologist Dr Robert Hesketh: ‘These are guys who are living in a highly marginalised area, with that day-to-day boredom. So it’s the excitement.’ Photograph: Jon Super/The Observer

“It’s sad to think that these are young people we’re talking about. A littered wasteland is part of their identity – they’re prepared to die for it,” says Robert Hesketh, a criminologist at Liverpool John Moores University.

He lives in North Huyton, an area he describes as very territorial – and he would know. He has spent his career researching Merseyside’s gangs.