LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: You've seen all the headlines in recent months that Melbourne is in the grip of a crime wave and that gangs of mainly South Sudanese youth are behind it.

To understand what's happening, you need to speak to the young men involved, to victims of crime and to the police - and that's what our reporter, Andy Park, has spent 10 days doing.

What he has learned has shown that it's way more complicated than 10-second soundbites and tabloid headlines let on.

ANDY PARK, REPORTER: It's Australia Day on St Kilda Beach.

(Footage of people sunbathing on St Kilda Beach; footage of people riding on the Scenic Railway at Luna Park, St Kilda)

NEIL MITCHELL, PRESENTER (Radio 3AW, audio): Last time we had weather like this at night, there was enormous trouble on the St Kilda foreshore: gangs of youths, mostly of African background, rampaging and robbing and creating mayhem.

Please God, let's not go through that again.

ANDY PARK: African families in Australia are struggling to control their kids.

Victoria Police, who are hesitant to use the phrase "African gangs," are enlisting South Sudanese parents.

(Footage of Victoria Police officers in yellow high-visibility vests, walking along foreshore at St Kilda Beach, accompanied by people wearing high-visibility vests emblazoned with "South Sudanese Community Leaders")

PASSER-BY (to community leaders): Have a good day. Happy Australia Day, everyone.

ANDY PARK (to Stephen Mutton): So if there isn't, you know, a gang violence issue in Melbourne with the African Australian communities, communities, then why is this needed? Is this necessary?

STEPHEN MUTTON, INSPECTOR, VICTORIA POLICE: Oh, look, we do get large groups of youth. That's everywhere. But today we're here because we had certain intelligence.

ANDY PARK: The police and parents find a young man who looks drug-affected. He refuses to speak Dinka, one of the major South Sudanese languages.

(A young man sits with his back against the foreshore embankment, his face obscured digitally. His head rolls listlessly from side to side)

SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER {{{black-and-white top, check scarf}}}: What is your name?

YOUNG MAN: I don't have a name.

SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER {{{black-and-white top, check scarf}}}: You don't have a name?

YOUNG MAN: Leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you.

SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER {{{black-and-white top, check scarf}}}: Why, darling?

YOUNG MAN: F**k off and leave me alone.

SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER 2 {{{male, deep voice}}}: Hey.

ANDY PARK: It's unthinkable behaviour in African culture, which demands strict respect from children. But this son, like many, is Australian now and he has all the freedoms that come with it.

And the police soon have another situation on their hands:

AHMED HASSAN, SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER: No, no, no, come here. (To camera operator) No, no, no video. No video.

(The police officers and community leaders approach the St Kilda Pier)

JACOB BUGEJA, SENIOR SERGEANT, VICTORIA POLICE: We heard a couple of reports for a young guy that was down the beach, just causing a few issues and hassling people. We went and had a chat to him.

We took the community leaders down there with us, the South Sudanese community leaders. And he obviously smelled of alcohol and was being a bit, I guess, abusive towards one of the leaders.

AHMED HASSAN: I've known him. I haven't seen him for about a year or so.

(Footage of a young man stumbling along the shoreline beneath the St Kilda Pier)

ANDY PARK: Even Ahmed, one of the young Somali leaders, struggles to gain his trust.

(The young man stands on the pier, surrounded by officers and community leaders. Ahmed speaks to him in Dinka)

AHMED HASSAN (translation): This is for your benefit. Look at me. Look me in the eye. Look at me. I'm talking to you.

JACOB BUGEJA: We're talking about a really small percentage of the community that's obviously given them a bad name. And they're trying to help to fix it any way they can.

(Footage of young man arguing with community leaders)

JACOB BUGEJA: They relate a lot differently to what we do. We stand there as police officers and very disassociated to the people that we're dealing with a lot of the time.

RICHARD DENG, SOUTH SUDANESE COMMUNITY LEADER: They tend not to listen to the police because of the way things have been beaten up by the politicians.

ANDY PARK: A beat-up?

RICHARD DENG: A beat-up.

ANDY PARK: Beat-up or not, there are real problems in this community and this is a real test.

(Footage of young man being led away by police officers)

YOUNG MAN: No, I'm not drunk.

JACOB BUGEJA: You are.

YOUNG MAN: Hey, buddy, I'm not drunk.

JACOB BUGEJA: Come on.

AHMED HASSAN: It's obviously a challenging experience when you see them intoxicated and in different mentality. A bit off the rails, obviously. But it was a challenge that I was proud to be dealing with.

(Footage of young man standing against police breath testing truck, as officers attempt to find identification in his pockets)

JACOB BUGEJA: You just need to listen what's going on.

YOUNG MAN: Bro, you're locking me up for no reason. And I don't give a f***.

(The young man holds up his middle finger to the camera operator. Officers grab his hand)

JACOB BUGEJA: We had one of the leaders contact a family member of the male, tried to intervene in relation to getting him home safely. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that so he's had to be locked up.

JACOB BUGEJA: I'll give you one more chance to behave yourself.

YOUNG MAN (translation): I swear to God when I find you...

AHMED HASSAN: All right, all right, all right.

YOUNG MAN (translation): I will f*** you up.

POLICE OFFICER: Mate, put your hands away.

AHMED HASSAN: OK. You'll find me. Don't worry.

(The young man is led into the truck)

JACOB BUGEJA: Go have a seat for me, please, mate.

YOUNG MAN (off-screen, translation): When I get my hands on you, I'll f*** you up.

ANDY PARK: The young man would be held for four hours to sober up and cool off.

(Footage of youths of African heritage running across Flinders Street-Swanston Street intersection at night)

MALCOLM TURNBULL, PRIME MINISTER: We are very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria.

PRESENTER (ABC TV News): They're particularly worried about youngsters from Sudan and Somalia. Police crime figures suggest...

ANDY PARK: In Melbourne over summer, there was a moral panic over African Australian youth crime which, although unpredictable and sometimes violent, remains statistically low. Politicians, police, even community leaders all spoke for these young people.

But tonight we asked them to speak for themselves.

CAPTION: Footscray. Saturday, 7:02pm.

(Footage of barbershop. John Kuot and Andy Park enter)

JOHN KUOT, SOUTH SUDANESE YOUTH LEADER: These guys have been taking care of my hair for the last three years.

ANDY PARK: Nice.

JOHN KUOT (to proprietor): How are you, man?

ANDY PARK: John is the kind of South Sudanese young man that doesn't make the news. He's not wanted for crime, nor famous for sport. Rather, he's a 27-year-old MBA (Master of Business Administration) grad running a tech start-up.

(John Kuot speaks whilst a barber cuts his hair with an electric trimmer)

JOHN KUOT: I had somebody walk up to me and ask: he's like, "Mate, you know, Australia has been very welcoming. Why are you guys scaring everybody?"

I was like, "Look, if Australia is that welcoming, why do we, who are Australian - the majority of these young people are born here - why do you guys have to refer to us as 'African' whenever we do something wrong, but when we're doing something great: 'Oh, you guys are fair dinkum Australian'?"

ANDY PARK: Do you think there is any risk that the African Australian community here will fail?

JOHN KUOT: Every time we talk, people say, "Oh, Italians went through it. Vietnamese went through it. The Brits went through it. The Irish went through it."

If all other communities have gone through it, why haven't we learned? Why haven't we changed?

We are a very, very visible minority. Ninety-nine per cent of us contribute in more positive ways than the negative ways. However, it seems like that society only wants to put us under the microscope, just on the basis of a few.

(Security camera footage of youths of African heritage breaking into shop, fighting and vandalising)

ANDY PARK: But those few were behind a wild axe brawl in this same Footscray barber shop in June, which terrified the state of Victoria.

Twenty-one-year-old Somali-born Jamali Musa pleaded guilty to his role in the brawl, which he says started after a petty teen drama, the kind young men the world over use as an excuse for a fight.

I'm about to meet him: the man labelled by the media as a "gang thug".

CAPTION: Flemington. Monday, 6:21pm.

ANDY PARK (to Jamali Musa): When you were a boy, when you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

JAMALI MUSA: Soccer player, to be honest.

ANDY PARK: What happened in the barbershop?

JAMALI MUSA: Just about, ah, just a little issue that we had. It could have just been an "I'm sorry" and that's about it, but... I don't know, man. I can't really answer that question. It just came out. Everything just happened too quick. Now I'm just going to have to - you know what I mean? - face it.

ANDY PARK: With a criminal record, his employment opportunities are few and far between.

JAMALI MUSA: Pretty much: just think before you do. Before you do anything, think about it. Think about the consequences. Think about what could go wrong, what could happen.

ANDY PARK: If somebody had told you that then, would you have listened?

JAMALI MUSA: Of course.

ANDY PARK: Would you?

JAMALI MUSA: Of course I would have listened.

ANDY PARK: Would that have changed the outcome?

JAMALI MUSA: Of course it would have. Of course.

ANDY PARK: Scratch the surface with an angry young guy like Jamali, and you find that he's an orphan, living with his grandmother with few prospects for work.

Yeah, so that's the difference. So when you have someone as you - it could be a role model, could be a dad, could be an older brother, could be anyone, just telling you, "Hey. That's not the right way."

ANDY PARK: Back at the Footscray barbershop, I met a young man who arrived from Ethiopia five years ago. But right now he's dealing with issues, making him extremely vulnerable to the kind of social risks Jamali succumbed to.

CAPTION: Hoppers Crossing. Sunday, 3:52pm.

ASHRAF MOHAMED: My name is Ashraf Mohamed and I'm 18 years old.

(Footage of Ashraf Mohamed standing in doorway of motel unit)

Being a pilot to me is my dream. If I become a pilot, I'll get my dream job, my dream car, my dream house, my dream family and everything.

ANDY PARK: His young life has not been without trauma.

ASHRAF MOHAMED: My... my parents: they passed away when me and my twin sister were, like, really young.

ANDY PARK: Ashraf says he and his sister were thrown out of a nearby relative's home because of a lack of space. A social worker found them this motel for tonight.

ASHRAF MOHAMED: It's better than nothing. It's better than nothing. We appreciate for this. This is more than enough. But you still got to think about tomorrow. Where are you going to go? Where are you going to sleep?

ANDY PARK: Tomorrow he's supposed to begin the biggest year of his life.

ASHRAF MOHAMED: Going to Year 12 is a big responsibility. So, yeah. I was thinking of dropping out because of the situation I'm in right now. And I don't think I'm able to make it, you know, through this year. So it's best for me if I drop out and then just apply for a job.

ANDY PARK: How are you going to be a pilot if you don't finish school?

ASHRAF MOHAMED (sighs): I was... yeah.

ANDY PARK: A week later, Ashraf still hadn't been to school.

(Footage of Ashraf Mohamed lying on motel bed)

ANDY PARK: Life makes you angry: you know, just how life is sometimes. People always get angry. Everybody gets angry.

ANDY PARK: Do you have more to be angry about than other people?

ASHRAF MOHAMED: Getting thrown out of a house and nowhere to live.

CAPTION: Richmond. Wednesday, 9:03am.

ANDY PARK: Living in fear is also no way to live.

ELENA STROHFELDT: It's just: I have this feeling of anxiety all the time. And then, if I'm even out with someone else, like, I don't walk around on my own.

ANDY PARK: Elena Strohfeldt was allegedly bashed by three young South Sudanese at a busy morning bus stop last month.

ELENA STROHFELDT: After the first punch to the head, it's such a blur. I just remember fearing for my life.

ANDY PARK: And does that fear particularly attach itself to people of African appearance?

ELENA STROHFELDT: When I do see someone of African appearance, it is a trigger for me.

ANDY PARK: Obviously what you went through was very traumatic. But since then, have you found that, you know, media outlets have used your experience as a political tool? Do you feel like a political tool?

ELENA STROHFELDT: I do in some respect, but I also feel that it was really important for me to speak out, because I think people need to know that there is an issue at hand.

So yeah, I want to keep it away from race-baiting because I think that the issue is that they need to look at why these people are offending.

CAPTION: CBD. Wednesday, 12:03pm.

ANDY PARK: Detective Superintendent Patrick Boyle literally wrote the book on the Victorian Police response to gang crime.

PATRICK BOYLE, DETECTIVE SUPERINTENDENT, VICTORIA POLICE: Around 2003 there was an incident in Chinatown where there was a multiple shooting, which was very unusual.

At the time, I was head of the Asian Squad at the time. I was the inspector there. And I just got a bad feeling that this was something that was going to grow into something more.

So, with a gang there's a form of unity. There's antisocial behaviour and there's criminal behaviour. That's just one part of it.

But to actually be a gang itself, there has got to be, like, a durability: in other words, ongoing.

ANDY PARK: He still informs police thinking on African crime and says automatically labelling youth crime "gang-related" can be counterproductive.

PATRICK BOYLE: We could look: there's a tag behind us. And you could look at that tag and then suddenly say, "Oh, that's a gang." And you go, "Well, is it, actually? It's just a scribble on the wall."

You know, I challenge some things that are being said.

ANDY PARK: So in this context, is the word "gang" a policing word or a political word?

PATRICK BOYLE (sighs): Um... it's a word that should be used appropriately.

ANDY PARK: And you think it's been used inappropriately?

PATRICK BOYLE: Sometimes it can be.

CAPTION: Fitzroy. Wednesday, 2:57pm.

(Footage of young men playing basketball on outdoor court)

ANDY PARK: But that doesn't mean there aren't issues.

Kuon Gido never planned on getting into trouble.

I saw your brother at the police station the other day. I actually did. Yeah.

(Footage of wrecked car on road, with police officers nearby)

Kuon was behind the wheel, driving a stolen BMW full of teenagers over the West Gate Bridge, when he lost control. His cousin was badly injured when she was thrown from the car.

ANDY PARK (to Kuon Gido): So in the lead-up to those robberies and those car thefts, where were you going wrong? Like, how did it all happen?

KUON GIDO: Mm. That's a good question. I guess, for the thrill. Like, adrenalin. I don't know.

I don't know how to explain it, you know? I was young. And when we got into trouble, we didn't see it as a big thing, you know. Like, you don't think about it at the time.

But after you do it, you just regret it. You know what I mean?

ANDY PARK: Do you reckon it's been harder for you? Your teenage years have been harder for you than other teenagers?

KUON GIDO: Yeah.

ANDY PARK: Why?

KUON GIDO: I mean, really hard.

ANDY PARK: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

KUON GIDO: When I was little? (Laughs) I don't know. Long time ago.

ANDY PARK: You can't remember what you wanted to be when you grew up?

KUON GIDO: No. No.

I used to get angry a lot when I was younger.

ANDY PARK: Like, about what?

KUON GIDO: Like... I don't know. When my parents split up, I was a really angry kid, you know?

I was just adapting, like everyone else. Came to a new place. Don't know nothing about it. And it took me step by step.

(Footage of Kuon and friends singing along with rap recording they made on Apple Logic Pro)

KUON GIDO: When they see crime, when they see a Sudanese person do crime: like, they just put it on the news and say, "Look, African youths are back at it again." Armed robberies.

ANDY PARK: To be fair, I mean, you did commit crimes. So...

KUON GIDO: Yeah. In the past.

ANDY PARK: And what did your mum say when she found out about the robberies and the car thefts?

KUON GIDO: She was really disappointed, really shocked. She didn't expect that from me. Like, she couldn't believe it. Yeah.

CAPTION: Caroline Springs. Wednesday, 7:46pm.

(Andy Park is at the door of a suburban house, shaking hands with

ANDY PARK: Good to see you. How are you? Thanks very much for having me.

(Footage of Syama Ayup and Monica Majak in kitchen, cooking)

ANDY PARK: Syama and Monica are typical South Sudanese mothers, an experience marked by a lack of education and the frustration that society and the authorities won't allow them to parent in the same way they did in Africa.

SYAMA AYUP: You know, they don't swear. They talk nicely, very quiet, you know. But when we come here, things change. Things just get out of our hands.

ANDY PARK: They blame Social Services for enabling their kids to run away.

SYAMA AYUP: Kids: when they run away, they give them housing, you know?. Housing and they're all sitting down. Whoever got money go and get alcohol, get this and this and do the naughty stuff in there. Because they're just out of our hands.

But if they leave us with some other rules, we will discipline them in our own way.

ANDY PARK: So how many of the women here have had sons in prison or worse?

SYAMA AYUP: Many of us.

MONICA MAJAK: So all the time, when I go to the jail, I always cry.

ANDY PARK: Monica Majak's son is in detention for crimes he committed here on a temporary visa. He's now awaiting deportation in Western Australia. The last time she saw him was August last year.

(Monica Majak calls her son on smart phone)

SON (voice): Hello?

MONICA MAJAK: Yes, (inaudible).

SON (voice): Hello. How are you?

MONICA MAJAK: I'm good. Yourself?

SON (voice): We're all on lockdown, you know? Lockdown: you can't go nowhere.

MONICA MAJAK: Do you know where they can be sending you over there?

SON (voice): I don't know. Maybe they might send me to Christmas Island. I don't know. They just keep us here. The don't tell us anything, you know. We just sit there.

MONICA MAJAK: I know God will do something about that. And I think you have to be strong. I love you so much.

SON (voice): I love you too, you know?

SYAMA AYUP: You feel like there's a war again here. We want a safe place. Our kids need to get out of this situation.

(Andy Park sits to eat with men in house)

RICHARD DENG: So there are a few things we have changed in our culture. In our culture, there are things that we believe are not right. And already we are trying to omit them, you know? For example, I can cook myself a tea in Australia.

ANDY PARK: Oh, really?

RICHARD DENG: Really.

ANDY PARK: Well, that's how it is at my house.

I mean, does the community here need to modernise?

RICHARD DENG: Yes. There are young men who are struggling to adapt, or to fit in the system. And these are the people that need to be supported.

ANDY PARK: The young South Sudanese we speak to say that it's your generation, the parents' generation that needs to change?

RICHARD DENG: Doesn't matter what culture background you come from: a child can't tell the mother or father to change. What type of child are you? So...

ANDY PARK: An Australian child, (laughs) a naughty Australian child.

RICHARD DENG (laughs): Exactly. But they are Australian children...

ANDY PARK: But maybe that's the reality of it.

RICHARD DENG: ...which is just not right. You can't tell your parent to change.

ANDY PARK: And how is that working? Not very well?

RICHARD DENG: It is not working.

You've got to make sure you behave like and adult too, my friend.

ANDY PARK: That's an irony.

RICHARD DENG: That's not the freedom we expect.

CAPTION: Braybrook. Saturday, 9:20pm.

(African dancing and singing in community hall)

ANDY PARK: It's my last night with the South Sudanese community of Melbourne. Tonight's dance is essentially a courting ritual for young people who are attempting to bridge two cultures.

The African community has its problems. Some of them are from the inside; some come from outside.

(To Kuon Gido) Can you see your future? Do you know what your future looks like?

KUON GIDO: Yeah.

ANDY PARK: What's your dream? What do you want to do?

KUON GIDO: I want to run a business.

ANDY PARK: What sort of business?

KUON GIDO: A barbershop.

ANDY PARK: Yeah, really?

KUON GIDO: Yeah.

ANDY PARK: Youth crime is just one small part of the problem.

JOHN KUOT: Many of us are frustrated. Being demonised and being labelled and having certain narrative and rhetoric pushed upon your community when you're not by any part responsible for that narrative: it's is quite frustrating.

SYAMA AYUP: We are suffering, because seeing your kids like this: it hurts.

JAMALI MUSA: I don't blame the older generation. I don't blame them because they've been through a lot.

ANDY PARK: But they blame you?

JAMALI MUSA: But they blame us for putting them into a lot of pain, because we're bringing then a lot of pain now. They've already had pain. They don't want more pain. They just want to live. They want more happiness instead of pain.

LEIGH SALES: Andy Park with that report, filmed by Matt Marsic and edited by Fred Shaw.