I wouldn't got so far as to relate movies, tv and music to any of these crimes.... it's no different then blaming rock and roll or hippies for everything.
When I moved to Halifax in 98, these swarmmings, muggings by a group of teens, etc. didn't happen. Everybody walked around at all hours of the night, including myself and the worse thing you had to worry about was either someone shouting at you from a patio to come join the party and have some drinks, or a hooker asking if you wanted some company for the night.
By about the mid-2000's, teens and younger adults seemed to have stepped up in these robberies and swarmmings. Yes, there were gangs here and there, but mostly in areas like Highfield, Spryfield and Fairview..... now it's moved to the North end of Halifax, the south end of Halifax and most of Dartmouth.
When the swarmmings began, a lot of research and studies were done on why they were happening a lot, kids in schools were interviewed and many have said they were to get into little gangs and groups in their schools. They'd get some of their friends together, find someone walking alone and when they got up to them, they'd beat the crap out of them simply just to get on the news the next morning. It was an initiation if you want to call it anything. The reports would tell what happened, where and when, and then they'd brag to their buddies that they did it, tell some snippet of the incident that wasn't reported in the news, and they'd be considered cool enough to join one of these punk ass gangs.
It was like joining a gang in a prison. You were one of them, therefore if anybody picked on you or tried to beat you up in school, you'd have all your other goons after whoever was causing you crap.
Now it's all increased to the point where it's not just violent attacks, they also end up taking anything they can from their victims, like their wallet, money, Mp3 player, IPhone, smokes, etc.
Indeed, the HRM is increasing in population, and condos/apartments are popping up everywhere you look and popping up very fast. The problem is that while all of these places to live are popping up, there's still hardly anything done towards providing decent jobs to those who move to the city..... then you end up with people working crappy part-time jobs with low income for an extended period of time and children are brought up into that environment too..... whom go to these same schools where all of this is going on.
Put one and one together and you have a recipie for young kids/adults without a decent future, very little money, not much to do and resorting to joining in punk gangs with their buddies to deal some drugs and beat people up who seem to have a better life then they do, and take their money, smokes, phones, music players, and sell them at pawn shops for some quick cash or to trade for some drugs to keep them entertained.
And before someone jumps in here, in my early/mid 20's I hung around some of these clowns, so I do know a bit about what I'm talking about. I've seen the mentality first hand and I've also been subjected to a swarmming a few years ago as well...... They do it because they don't expect anybody to go to the police because it's considered "ratting" and even if someone, such as myself, does go to the police, the police won't do much about it because they know that with a large group of people attacking one person at once, it's difficult to make a positive ID on anybody, which is also why they do it at night (among other obvious reasons).....
And what's more, the other reason why these types of crimes have increased and gotten worse, is the simple fact that all teenagers are fully aware of the youth justice system, how they will never face any serious penalties for their crimes and when they hit 18, it's all forgotten about..... so it's basically a free-for-all until then..... and even when they hit 18, in many cases, they're still treated at a young offender or given the whole "well it's their first time" excuse and left off easy.
