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.     

Central American maras: from youth street gangs to transnational protection rackets

Most of the empirical research on Central American street gangs, called maras, has been published only in Spanish. Reviewing that literature, the American scholarship on gangs, and my own research on Central American gangs from the mid-1990s, this article depicts the processes through which the maras (Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street Gang) evolved from youth street gangs in the late 1980s to protection rackets with features of transnational organisations. Intense migratory flows between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the United States, and the hard-line suppression policies against youth gangs in institutionally weak Central American countries created the conditions that prompted networking and organisation among Central American street gangs. This article highlights the changes in the dynamics of violence and the transformations in the gangs' social spaces to illustrate the evolution of the maras.     

Crime,youth gangs,and urban transition: The social dislocations of postindustrial economic development

On the basis of a multivariate analysis of quantitative data from all U.S. cities of 25,000 or more in 1970 and 1980, this paper investigates the impact of recent economic changes and population shifts on the levels of violent and property crime. Further investigation of a subset of cities yields information on the effect of these shifts for the development of youth gangs. The findings illustrate the criminogenic consequences of transition from a manufacturing to a service economy, where changes in technological conditions undermine the comparative locational advantages of cities as industrial centers and worsen economic opportunities for the unskilled urban poor. The results suggest that higher crime rates and more youth gangs are among the unintended consequences of the nation's patterns of postindustrial development.     

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.     

Friends,status symbols and weapons: the use of dogs by youth groups and youth gangs

Recent UK media reports and government responses evidence a rising concern over irresponsible dog ownership, particularly the use of so-called status or weapon dogs. Youth criminal and antisocial behaviour using these dogs has been widely reported in urban areas and associated with street-based youth groups, in particular, the growing phenomenon of UK youth gangs. This article reports on the findings and implications of a small-scale study, comprising interviews with 25 youths and seven animal welfare and youth practitioners, which aimed to identify the nature of animal use and abuse in youth groups and gangs. It found that over half of the youths belonged to a youth gang and the remainder a youth group, with the majority owning an animal which was most often a ‘status’ dog (e.g., bull breed/type). Analysis revealed that dogs were used mainly for socialising and companionship, protection and enhancing status. More than 20 types of animal abuse were described by youths and practitioners.     

Gender dynamics in youth gangs: A comparison of males' and females' accounts

Based on interviews with 58 gang members in St. Louis, this paper compares males' and females' perspectives on the gender dynamics in street gangs. Feminist scholars have long criticized traditional gang scholarship for its reliance on male gang members to gain information about young women. We suggest that it is useful to revisit what male gang members say about gender dynamics in youth gangs because these accounts provide insights into the normative features of these groups. Research has consistently shown that gangs are largely male-dominated in structure, status hierarchies, and activities. Research in other male-dominated settings—for instance, fraternities, athletics, and the military—has shown the importance of examining peer and organizational dynamics in shaping the treatment of women. We argue that insights into young men's accounts of gender provide important information for understanding more clearly the milieu in which young women in gangs must negotiate.     

Transitional narratives of identity among ethnic minority youth gangs in Denmark: from collectivism to individualism

Current literature often depicts the street cultures of ethnic minority youth as forms of collective cultural resistance to experiences of marginalization from mainstream society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews in 2014 with 23 young men attached to a rehabilitation centre for criminal offenders in Denmark, this article focuses on ethnic minority youth who desist from such street culture and their former gang life, criminality and drug use and how they describe this shift within their narratives. More specifically, we show how this shift can to some extent be characterized by a move from collective to more individualistic self-narratives re-articulating broader individualistic discourses existing in contemporary society. Among these more individualistic self-narratives, we find extensive reference to ideas of self-responsibility and also individual pragmatic interpretations of Islam. Such re-articulations can be seen as a way to create feelings of agency in severely disempowering circumstances.     

Measuring community social organization: Sense of community as a mediator in social disorganization theory

The current study utilized an updated systemic model of social disorganization to investigate neighborhood effects on both positive and negative youth outcomes. Although empirical support for updated social disorganization models has increased in recent years, the field continues to rely too heavily on behavioral indicators of community social organization. Unfortunately, these measures do not assess the truly important social processes and dynamics that result in cohesive and supportive neighborhoods. It was proposed that sense of community (SOC) was a more valid, comprehensive, and applicable measure for the mediating variables in social disorganization theory. Results supported the hypothesis that SOC mediates the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on youth outcomes and implications for the field are discussed.     

The organization of work as a factor in social well-being

Even though innovations in the organization of work have prompted a transition in work systems, the effect of the organization on employees is often not considered. Using personal interviews, direct observations, and relevant documents over a 17-month period, this case study of a worker-owned and -managed producer cooperative was undertaken to understand how fundamental changes in the organization of work affect workers and their families. The findings affirm that the organization of work is a pivotal aspect of individuals' quality of life, principally in that expanding personal choice--in a context of income security and an absence of formal hierarchy--enhances personal and familial well-being. From a policy perspective, the study demonstrates the potential for organizing work so that market demands are balanced with concerns for social well-being     

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.     

Commentary on "the organization of work as a factor in social well-being"∗

The work cooperative as a social institution offers us a radical alternative to transnational market-based workplaces. Models such as the Mondragon coop network in Spain tell us it is possible for people to have their work-life's cake and eat it too. The coop movement is part of a movement to transform power-based work arrangements into a cooperative commonwealth in which the needs of all are met.     

Gangs and governance in Russia: the paradox of law and lawlessness

ABSTRACT

The paper addresses the nature of gang governance. It questions the notion that gangs regulate social and economic transactions and create stable orders in certain territories. It shows that, while presenting themselves as upholders of the ‘law’ in their territory, the gangs also create a climate of uncertainty and fear. The gangs manipulate their own unwritten rules and set up traps for residents and businessmen. These traps are designed to deprive non-gang civilians of presumed rights and identities and extort their money. The paper uses Schmitt’s notion of ‘state of exception’ and Agamben’s idea of ‘bare life’ to explain how gangs function.     

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.     

Bound for the Golden Mountain: The social organization of Chinese alien smuggling

This paper describes and analyzes the structural and operational features of Chinese alien smuggling. Interviews with aliens, smugglers and law enforcement officials in China, Hong Kong and the U.S. reveal this activity to be a complex process comprising a number of distinct operational stages. Our data suggest Chinese alien smuggling groups vary in their level of organization but most are best understood as task forces, or small groups of people assembled to perform a particular piece of work. These task forces are typically linked to international social networks characterized by overlapping, dyadic relationships; a high level of role differentiation; and a limited degree of hierarchy. Such groups are highly responsive to changing socio-legal and market constraints.The study was supported in part by a grant from California State University. The authors are grateful to John Galliher for his comments and suggestions, and would like to thank Jorge Guzman and Darwin Chen of the U.S. INS for their assistance with the project. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Miami, 1994.     

Patrol officer arrest rates: A study of the social organization of police work

The study discussed in this paper examined the variation in felony arrest rates among patrol officers performing similar duties in the same patrol area. Data were obtained by records review, self-administered questionnaires, unstructured interviews and participant observation during a two-year field presence in a New York City Police precinct. Analysis of the data led to the conclusion that the patrol officers control their enforcement patterns through a process of role adaptation. This functional division of labor serves the individual needs of the officers as they mediate conflicting demands of police bureaucracy and community.     

The social organization of masculine violence in nighttime leisure scenes

Recent scholarship on masculinity and crime suggests that men who have difficulty asserting their masculine status due to social marginalization (across age, class, and racial lines) have a higher likelihood of engaging in violent behavior to offset their lack of social power in other areas. While marginalization can abet the development of masculine violence, in this article I suggest more attention to the mitigating effects of structural changes and cultural contexts is necessary for a richer understanding of how masculine violence plays out. Drawing on multi-method ethnographic data from a case of one major US city with a thriving nighttime cultural economy, I aim to show how the structural characteristics of nighttime leisure scenes create situations for the enactment of particular forms of violence that reflect a number of subterranean convergences with the masculinization of the cultural economy.     

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.