• The Mandarin term “街头党” is a paraphrase of the English term “street gang”, and carries a tone of disapproval.
• Members of street gangs are typically youths who lack parental discipline and clear life goals. Feeling abandoned by society, they often form friendships and gangs while loitering in the streets, seeking thrills and a sense of identity and security.
• Singapore rolled out the Streetwise Programme in 1997 with the goal of getting youths between 13 and 19 years old who are associated with street gangs to stay away from the gangs.

To prevent youths from joining street gangs, stricter penalties will soon be imposed on street gang members who are caught recruiting or coercing youths. (Lianhe Zaobao, 17/11/2011)

• The Streetwise Programme lasts for six months and consists of two approaches. One is voluntary and the other mandatory.
• Under the voluntary approach, youths get to learn the dangers and consequences of joining street gangs through a series of group activities with individual and family counselling, which aims to ultimately steer youths away from street gang life.
• The mandatory approach is targeted at youths arrested for participating in street gang activities. If they successfully complete this programme, the police will only issue them a warning and will not press charges against them. Youths who take part in the mandatory programme have to be supervised and report their whereabouts to the police. This is to ensure they go to work or school on time, and do not meet with street gang members or visit places where street gangs gather.