MORE THAN 70 young faces stare out of the BBC webpage: UK teenagers knifed or shot in 2008. Headlines shout of "feral youth" and "knife culture".

Inner-city areas, hotchpotches of high-rise flats, maisonettes and terraces, are portrayed as concrete labyrinths of death. Behind every corner lurks a potential young murderer with the street-name "Bonez" from the "Blood Set" gang.

But what is the reality behind the media hype? Beyond growing public fear and the demonised epithet "gangs" - who are these young people?

One youth leader, who asked not to be named, gave Jesus Life a snapshot of his work with young people in Battersea:

"Our '13s group' had been invited to play football in an estate - two miles away. Only three went. One of them, Zac, complained on the way home that I shouldn't have taken him onto 'Otray' territory. And didn't I know that Mac would be there and he, although a former friend, had badly beaten up one of their mates? They 'didn't want the hype'.
"They call it 'slipping': if you slip into the wrong area things can go wrong."

Mike Jervis, Chief Executive of the Damilola Taylor Trust (set up in the wake of Damilola's violent death in November 2000), told Jesus Life how, typically, an area can become the territory of a gang:

"Territories often come about as a result of drugs. Take a local housing estate or deprived area. Let's say there's a large tower block housing 1,500 people and 150 of them are buying drugs, spending £50 a week on them. If a person 'controls' that tower block (and it's only one block remember) they have an earning potential of £390,000 per year. That's a lot of money if you are a 22-year-old young man - with the bottle to hold the territory and a few friends around you.

"So you have a group of 'antisocial' youths who now have a financial reason for violence. How do you protect your 'monopoly'? You stop the person across the road with the same amount of friends from coming across your road. How? You create fear, create conflict."

Such conflict can spiral. Jervis adds, "The momentum builds and builds. Gang fighting gets out of control and becomes a situation where everybody - not just gang members - just wants to protect their block, their territory."

All too often this paranoid sense of local loyalty creates what Jervis calls a "wall of silence" - no-one will speak out or give evidence to try and reverse the cycle of violence. Fear closes people in; they look after themselves - silence is seen as the best defence.

"It may be that in the early days the wall of silence was designed to protect communities," says the Damilola Taylor Trust website. "Now, it is clear that criminal elements are working behind the wall in order to recruit and abuse our young people."

Take Zac in Battersea. Described by his youth leader as "not really the gang type" he is nonetheless "curious; something about gang culture lures him".

Zac plays each week in a football team, and is always smiling and polite to his youth leaders. But last year he was standing next to an older youth when he was shot from close range; it didn't result in too serious an injury, but is an indication of the kind of violence that is around on London's streets.

And last autumn, Zac attended some street meetings called by a local gang, aiming to rally support and widen the circle of commitment. Yellow bandanas were handed out to signify identity with the gang.

The Government maintains that the situation is not out of control. A Home Office spokesperson told Jesus Life, "Gang crime in the UK is a localised problem," but added, "where it does occur it causes real problems for police, individuals and communities."

The government's "Tackling Gangs Action Programme" was initiated in September 2007 - a "coordinated national campaign to put in place targeted enforcement alongside intervention and prevention activates in areas most affected by gang crime". So far some £3.5 million have been invested in these efforts. But is throwing money at the problem the answer? No-one would deny that government-funded "intervention and prevention" has a part to play. But what about change at the grass roots?

Mike Jervis speaks of how a lack of positive role models is an important factor. "There are negative leaders on the street, showing the young people how attractive it is to be on the street and how strong the bonding is in a gang.

"Imagine you're a boy from a single-parent family. When you're 15 or 16 and rude to your mum, the discipline available to her is going to be very limited. You become the man of the house and you've got responsibilities. Sudden pressures are put on you - you've got to deliver."

But boys without positive male role-models "haven't been trained to be a man, haven't been trained to go out and get a job - and they're still young. So they associate themselves in something through which they can find their own self-esteem."

The pattern is oft-repeated. Shem is a Jamaican hairdresser living in Wandsworth, South London. He told us: "I work in a barber's shop and over time have got to know many of the young people from the area. I know some who, when they were at school, joined a gang just to fit in with their mates and find an identity. As they got older, things got more serious as drug related crime and violence became part of their lifestyle."

So is positive role-modelling a key to change? And could this be where the Christian church has a role to play? Some young Jesus Fellowship members in London are making a start at reaching out to disaffected youth on the streets of the areas they live in - mainly Acton and Camden. And Andy Gregory, a young leader in the Jesus Fellowship, spoke to Jesus Life about his efforts to reach out to young people in the Midlands.

For him, it's very much about grass-roots change: "I'm not pretending to be an expert on today's 'postcode gang' culture. I am interested in what God wants to do with the crews I meet. God sees things very differently from the conclusions we can jump to: He sees the heart, the pain, the mess - we tend to love those who love us and judge by outside appearances."

Andy is clear that any attempts to reach out to gangs of young people must be fostered through real relationships:

"God's not patronising and nor should we pretend we're the 'sorted' ones helping out the 'screwed up' ones." With others, Andy has been meeting groups of young people on the streets of an estate in Northampton.

"Most of the young people we meet are looking for the answers," he says. "Well, we believe Jesus is the answer to the world's needs. If Jesus can't do anything for them, then Jesus is irrelevant today. I don't believe that.

I don't want church to be irrelevant, full of religious people without love, missing the point. We show love - unconditional acceptance. That's what leads to real conversion of lifestyle.

"I've seen this happen in reality: God changing the lives and softening the hearts of the hard lads and bad girls we meet. Obviously there are disappointments. But we haven't chosen to follow Jesus for an easy life."

Mike Jervis agrees that grass-roots positive relationships and role-modelling, such as those to be found in the church are important - wherever you are: "young people in a church will see the church as a bonding agent for them."

And Jervis, like Andy Gregory, is keen to remind us that gang members are not monsters - just young people: "My advice to any church group wanting to get involved on the street is: get rid of the mindset of 'I'm trying to talk to a gang'. You don't know the gang. Anyway, just because it's a group doesn't mean it's a 'gang'. Just go out there and talk to young people as young people."

Acceptance goes a long way to break down barriers. Mike Jervis tells a disarming anecdote to illustrate this on a small scale: "I remember seeing a gang blocking an entrance. Nobody could get by; they were standing there, smoking drugs. Then an old lady walked across, with 10 cans of coke and said 'Have a coke. Don't sit on that lady's wall - she's frightened of you. Why don't you come and sit on my wall?' A few days later that woman was walking down the road and the boys were picking up her bags and walking down the road with her. Nothing could have happened to that woman from that moment on!"

The future for young people like Zac in Battersea is in the balance. "Will we soon see him with his roll of cling film, portering drugs?" asks his youth leader. "Is he doing it already for a little 'change', or is there enough fear or sense of right to keep him as a spectator?"

No-one wants to see 70 more faces looking out of the death toll pages this year, or next. It's time for action - and Christians can be at the grass roots where a difference can be made. As Andy Gregory put it: "God's working among these guys; it would be rude to ignore."

Read these stories:

Winning souls
Getting in with the gangs
Scream until they go away