Justice in the shadows : Gangsterism and underdevelopment in South Africa understood through legal consciousness and the legal culture of the criminal justice system

Gangsterism and its associated violent crime have long been a social phenomenon that characterizes public perceptions of fear and safety in South Africa, particularly in the areas surrounding Cape Town. Despite government efforts to curb widespread gang activity, it continues to persist as prison sentences fail to rehabilitate offenders, expose them to more violence and gang culture, and deprive and their offspring from the attainment of social, cultural, and economic capital necessary for social advancement. This study explores the role of the criminal justice system in the social reproduction of gangsterism and related criminality that characterize South Africa’s “lawless” society and lack of social development. The concepts of legal culture and consciousness are employed to examine the workings of the justice system as backed by the rule of law to find out how people’s agency and engagement with the law are shaped by legal structures and social realities. These findings explain how justice and development are inhibited by law, perpetuating a crisis of social reproduction in the form of widespread gangsterism and associated criminality. This reality is explained by the tension between social structures and agency expressed through varying degrees of legal (dis)engagement by legal actors as well as the wider public. The multiple forms of adherence to and systems of law result in legal pluralism that undermines the authority of legal legitimacy, or rule of law. Delivery of justice is omitted by artificial efforts made by the state that lack meaningful positive impact, instead maintaining oppressive power structures. Responsibilities ascribed to those working within the justice system are impossible to fulfil amongst structural shortcomings and power inequalities, so there is a pattern of outsourcing individual tasks and wider governance. Suggestions for legal actors to alter the current oppressive practice of law feature activated consciousness of one’s power to make a difference, and using it to shift norms and practices around the legal culture of criminal justice.