With unemployment and boredom rife in Mega-City One, many citizens, especially juves, join gangs. Many gangs identify with and recruit solely from a single block, whilst others pull in members from all across the city, attracted to the gang’s philosophy, colours, or charismatic leader. Many gangs will simply protect their own territory and try to take control of the local ‘black economy’ of illegal drugs and other banned substances such as tobacco, sugar, Umpty Candy and 20th-century comic books. Other gangs identify with causes or crazes, including the many anti-robot and anti-mutant outfits such as the ‘Neon Knights’ and ‘Purity First’ or anti-Judge and pro-democracy terrorism like the ‘Total War’ group. Others go on to specialise in organised crime such as body-sharking, organ-legging, alien- and perp-running!

For millions of Mega-City One’s citizens there can be no greater symbol of the law than Judge Joe Dredd, not even the Statue of Judgement itself. The mere mention of his name is enough to give even the most hardened criminals pause. Dredd has been appointed a temporary member of the Council of Five on several occasions. However, he is only truly content when patrolling the streets dispensing the law directly and his well-known dislike of bureaucracy keeps him well away from the Hall of Justice. If it is true that a man can be measured by the quality of his enemies then Dredd will take some beating. Over the years, he has clashed with mad Chief Judges, transdimensional denizens of Deadworld, super agents of the Sov Bloc, necromancers and powerful mutant pre-cogs. Yet it’s probably safe to say that from Dredd’s perspective bringing one of these individuals to justice is no more important than the prosecution of a citizen for littering or a juve for spraying graffiti on a wall. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law!