The myth of success: the emergence and maintenance of a specialized gang unit in Stockholm,Sweden |
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Authors: | Amir Rostami Stefan Holgersson |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden;2. Department of Management and Engineering, Link?ping University, SE-581 83 Link?ping, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Street gangs and organized crime groups pose a unique challenge to police departments across the globe. Given their penchant for public displays of affiliation through well-recognized signs and symbols, their presence is often associated with media attention and public scrutiny, which threatens the legitimacy of the police and creates added pressure to generate a specific and public response to the threat these groups pose. The current study documents how the Stockholm County, Sweden, police developed and maintained an anti-gang operation in response to an emerging gang problem. While police officials labeled the anti-gang initiative a success in the news media, analyses of prosecution statistics and internal police documents demonstrate a less than ideal effect of this operation. Potential reasons for the discrepancy in public pronouncements of programmatic success relative to evaluation of official data are discussed. |
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Keywords: | gangs policing evaluation media police legitimacy police cynicism |
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