Girls, guys, and gangs: Convergence or divergence in the gendered construction of gangs and groups

Despite recent efforts to examine and understand female gang membership, the research literature lacks a complete picture of how gender and gang membership work to shape perceptions of the structural characteristics of gangs, gang values, and gang activities. A questionnaire was administered to 103 youths (seventy-four male and twenty-nine female juvenile detainees) in St. Louis, Missouri, to disentangle the effects of gender and gang membership on perceptions of values, activities, and organizational characteristics of gangs. Gang members differed from nongang members more than males from females. This suggests that gender alone may not be able to account for differential perceptions of gang and nongang youth and that underlying social processes affect both groups.     

The organisation of London's street gangs

This article examines a grossly neglected area of the street gang literature: the nature and extent of gang organisation. Based upon fieldwork with gangs in London, UK, this article illustrates how recreation, crime, and enterprise are not specific gang ‘types’, but rather represent sequential stages in the evolutionary cycle of gangs. This article demonstrates not only how gangs typically begin life as neighbourhood-based peer groups, but also how, in response to external threats and financial commitments, gangs grow to incorporate street-level drug distribution businesses that very much resemble the multi-level marketing structure of direct-selling companies. Gang organisation, in turn, becomes a function of gang business. Gang organisation is conceptualised here on three levels: internal, external, and symbolic. This article examines, respectively, the presence of subgroups, hierarchy and leadership, incentives, rules, responsibilities, and punishments within gangs; how gangs interact with the local and larger community; and how gangs associate with symbolic elements of popular culture in order to convey reputation and achieve intimidation.     

论国际犯罪与国内犯罪的关系

国际犯罪是指由国际法创设或者推动因而被国际社会普遍确定为犯罪、严重危害国际社会共同利益的行为,跨国性、涉外性、违反公约性都不是国际犯罪的基本特征。国际犯罪不是从国内犯罪发展而来的,它们是两个互不隶属的并列范畴,是"犯罪"这一共同上位概念之下的子概念,从渊源上讲,两者基本上分属国内法与国际法两大法律体系。国际犯罪与国内犯罪之间有明确的界限,主要体现在犯罪危害的性质、针对的法律关系和法律制定者不同三方面。     

Chicano youth gangs and crime: the creation of a moral panic

The relationship between Chicano gangs, crime, the police, and the Chicano community is complex. Neither the problem of youth gangs nor the specialized police units created to cope with this problem arises in a social vacuum. Rather, both emerge from a particular historical structuring of social, economic, and political relations. This paper investigates how and why a moral panic arose concerning Chicano youth gangs in Phoenix in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A variety of qualitative and quantitative data from media reports, interviews, and juvenile court records are used to assess whether it was the actual behavior of Chicano youths or the social imagery surrounding them that formed the basis for the gang problem in Phoenix. I suggest that the image of gangs, and especially of Chicano gangs, as violent converged with that of Mexicans and Chicanos as different to create the threat of disorder. In addition, it was in the interests of the police department to discover the gang problem and build an even greater sense of threat so as to acquire federal funding of a specialized unit.     

North American transnational youth gangs: Breaking the chain of violence

Youth gangs are nothing new. They appeared in New York City and Philadelphia at the end of the American Revolution. Their numbers and violence correspond to peak levels of immigration and population shifts that occurred in the early 1800s, 1920s, 1960s, and late 1990s. Entrenched in American culture, gangs are romanticized in movies while rap artists copy their dress and jargon. However, because of their growing membership and globalization, gangs have become a public security threat that must be addressed.     

论犯罪构成与犯罪阻却事由的关系

从刑事立法角度而言 ,犯罪阻却事由与犯罪构成是基于同一虚拟事实所设定的具有不同内容要求的法律规范形式 ,两者是一种并列关系 ;从刑事司法角度而言 ,犯罪构成与犯罪阻却事由是基于同一事实而引用的具有不同价值取向的价值评价体系 ,两者是一种基础与上层的关系     

Unmasking the Crimes of the Powerful

Even in formally open, liberal, democratic states, a series of barriers exist as obstacles to critical criminologists who wish to conduct research that scrutinises the activities of powerful states and corporations. Much evidence suggests that in the current political climate, the barring of access to sources of data, neo-liberal re-configurations in the funding of research, and the narrowing of publishing and dissemination opportunities to counter-hegemonic voices are severely limiting the ability to conduct critical research. This article reports on recent experiences of researchers concerned with unmasking the crimes of the powerful and argues that, despite the obstacles power sources use to obscure and mystify the illegal and violent practices engaged in by states and corporations, there remains fertile space around research agendas, and in universities, for critical researchers to exploit. To gain insight from the ways in which researchers can, and do, establish alternative agendas, this article seeks to explore some of the principles that might inform and encourage those forms of resistance, and to establish how critical criminologists might continue to subject the powerful to scrutiny. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Fear of gangs: A test of alternative theoretical models

On the basis of data on 800 randomly selected residents in a large south-western metropolitan city, we assess the influence of four theoretical models on fear of crime and fear of gangs. In doing so, we compare general fear of crime to specific fear of gangs to delineate whether the same factors influence each or whether different fears are the product of different factors. The results indicate that while many of the factors that influence fear of crime and fear of gangs are similar, there are significant differences in the magnitude in which these factors influence our measures of fear.     

Perceptions of gangs among prosecutors in an emerging gang city

Gangs were a target of widespread political and social attention during the 1990s, and despite a short-lived lull in policy focus, gangs are recently receiving increased attention from policymakers. In spite of political concern about gangs, very little research had examined perceptions of gangs. By conducting face-to-face interviews with thirty of thirty-five county prosecutors, this study was among the first to examine prosecutors' perspectives of gangs in Gainesville, Florida, an area that could be considered an “emerging” gang city. Themes from the interviews were extracted and included prosecutorial perceptions of the: (1) definition and prevalence of gangs in Gainesville, Florida; (2) personal and social characteristics of gang members; (3) reasons people join gangs; and (4) best approaches to stop or eliminate gangs. The ways in which prosecutors' perspectives mirror prior research on gangs is highlighted.     

Asian gangs in the United States: The current state of the research literature

Since the late 1980s, criminologists have been interestedin analyzing Asian gangs. Despite the rather sharp increasein books and articles published on the subject in the1990s, there appears to exist no consensus on the nature and etiologyof Asian gangs. This paper describes the current state ofresearch on Asian gangs and assesses whether or not thereis a dominant criminological theory on their cause. Itcompares and contrasts African American and Asian gangs,and closes with research and policy recommendations.     

Death by motorcycle: background, behavioral, and situational correlates of fatal motorcycle collisions

Motorcycle fatalities in the United States continue to increase on both crude and adjusted bases. This paper examines fatal motorcycle accidents as a cause of death, using a retrospective analysis of motorcycle operator fatalities from 2003 to 2008 in the state of Indiana. During these six years, out of more than 18,000 motorcycle operators in crashes, 601 were killed. Based on police report data, motorcycle operators during this period are examined to reveal key factors that are in place when a motorcyclist is killed in a collision. The major correlates of death identified were objects of impact, risky behaviors, and speed. The largest positive effects on the chances of death were linked to trees, posts-signs-poles, bridge-guardrail-median, and other motor vehicles. In conjunction with speed, these objects were the primary mechanisms by which fatal injuries were sustained by motorcyclists. Various types of risky behavior were also major correlates of death by motorcycle.     

涉人工智能犯罪中研发者主观罪过的认定

对涉人工智能犯罪中研发者主观罪过的研究和准确认定,有利于防范人工智能技术风险,促进人工智能技术发展进步。研发者设计以实施犯罪行为为主要目的的智能机器人时,对于智能机器人造成的一切严重危害社会的结果,其主观罪过应被认定为直接故意。研发者设计以实施非犯罪行为为主要目的的智能机器人时,对于智能机器人造成的严重危害社会的结果,当研发者违反了注意义务且有刑法明文规定时,其主观罪过应被认定为犯罪过失。应根据智能机器人的“智能”程度分“直接过失”、“管理过失”、“监督过失”三种类型来确定研发者犯罪过失的认定标准。     

论犯罪标准体系

主流的平面型犯罪构成理论在指导司法实践时应改造为递进式的标准结构。依据我国刑法规定 ,犯罪标准应具有罪行和刑事责任两个基本层次。各层次内部还包含一些具体方面和要素。各类要素应按照刑事司法实践的内在逻辑作有序排列 ,形成逐级深化的开放式立体体系。     

恐怖主义犯罪的界定

恐怖主义犯罪的界定应当立足于犯罪学的角度 ,而不应限于刑法学或者政治学的范围 ;恐怖主义犯罪的目的具有层次性和多样性的特征 ,而不应锁定为纯粹的政治性目的 ;恐怖主义犯罪是有组织犯罪的一种表现形式 ,个人不能成为恐怖主义犯罪的主体 ;恐怖主义犯罪的手段不限于传统的暴力范围 ,而是日益呈现出高科技化的发展趋势 ;恐怖主义犯罪的袭击目标是特定的 ,但受害对象却具有广泛和不确定的特征。恐怖主义犯罪与恐怖犯罪、政治犯罪与黑社会性质犯罪等相近概念之间的界限有必要加以明确。     

The Asian factor: Methodological barriers to the study of Asian gangs and organized crime

This paper examines methodological barriers that confront the study of Asian criminal gangs and organized crime. Researchers need to address definitional issues, appreciate the pluralistic nature of Asian communities, incorporate region as a unit of analysis, enhance the reliability of interviewees’ responses, and recognize the impact of news media on the public perception of Asian crime. A research agenda is offered to deal with these issues in future research endeavors.     

Gangs as contractors: the social organization of American Taiwanese youth gangs in Southern California

This paper examines the organizational structure and operations of Taiwanese organized crime and youth gangs in Southern California. In-depth interviews were used as the principle method of research. In contrast to transnational criminal conspiracy claims and the La Cosa Nostra model of vertically integrated organizations, our findings suggest that these criminal groups consist of discrete local Taiwanese youth gangs which operate as largely independent economic units that show no substantive and operational ties to criminal organizations in Taiwan. The formation of Taiwanese criminal organizations and gangs in Southern California is primarily governed by the availability of financial opportunities. Furthermore, both the inter-gang relations and intra-gang structures exhibit a distinct form of contractor arrangement which consists of market-like weak ties that are simultaneously circumscribed by the criminal embeddedness. We argue that that these economic weak ties, which seem to render conventionally understood criminal organizational boundaries administratively less meaningful, still function as an operationally significant governance mechanism of the organizational structures of American Taiwanese youth gangs. In addition, the paper discusses the implications that the embeddedness has on the somewhat paradoxical and incoherent organizational structure.