From Criminal Gangsters to Men of God

Abstract

In this chapter, I draw on additional insights from follow-up interviews and discussions with the same men I referred to in Chapter 9, as well as from feldnotes constructed during participant observation and from interviews with staf and volunteers within HKCS. I explore and examine the nature of the Christian support sessions the men engaged in and their apparent impact in terms of supporting them with addiction issues, and enabling them to challenge their entrenched beliefs regarding criminal lifestyles. Te insights are used to make inferences about the extent to and ways in which Christian-based interventions can potentially play a valuable role in supporting and enabling Hong Kong gang members to re-direct their entrenched beliefs about loyalty and obligation to brotherhood in non-criminal directions.