A leading chief constable has issued a stark warning that tribal loyalty has replaced family ties for an “almost feral” generation of angry young people.

A gang culture based on violence and drugs has become a way of life in deprived parts of many larger English cities and cannot be tackled by policing alone, she says.

Barbara Wilding, the longest-serving female chief constable, said that social breakdown was giving rise to “enormous concerns about the future of young people”. Ms Wilding, the Chief Constable of South Wales, said:“In many of our larger cities, in areas of extreme deprivation, there are almost feral groups of very angry young people.

“Many have experienced family breakdown, and in place of parental and family role models, the gang culture is now established. Tribal loyalty has replaced family loyalty and gang culture based on violence and drugs is a way of life.” Disaffected young people were also a prime target for terrorist recruiters, she said.

Hundreds of teenagers gathered in London yesterday to protest at Britain’s knife culture after the murder of Ben Kinsella, 16, at the weekend.

Ms Wilding’s speech, at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London, was delivered to an invited audience in May but The Times has obtained a transcript. Her comments reflect wider concern within the criminal justice system at the entrenchment of gang culture among young people in deprived areas. In response, the Home Office has set up an initiative aimed at tackling gangs in London, Birmingham and Greater Manchester.

It is unusual for a chief constable to express concerns that could be seen as criticism of the criminal justice system and government policy. But Ms Wilding’s remarks coincide with a shift in government thinking. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, and Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary, have emphasised the need for early intervention to stop children drifting into a life of crime.

Ms Wilding, a former deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, said that the police and courts could provide a short-term but only temporary solution by taking prolific offenders into custody. Any policies that were based primarily on enforcement were “set on sand”. Instead the focus should be on tackling complex social and economic causes that underlie criminal behaviour.

“In an age of cost-benefit analysis . . . there is no appetite for solutions that have no visible return and no patience for any which will not bear immediate political fruit,” she said.

Enver Solomon, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said that alternative “social and cultural substructures” were emerging in urban areas. “Norms and rules of behaviour (respect, territoriality, honour) develop in which violence can be seen as acceptable. Through their entrenched alienation the young people involved foster different forms of psychological understanding, sometimes developing a kind of combat mentality.”

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