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The history of gangs and gang research.

Mark S. Fleisher Mark S. Fleisher Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, Case Western Reserve University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.418
Published online: 20 November 2018

Radical culture change instigated by conflict among diverse cultural groups has had adverse social and psychological effects witnessed by the rise of youth gangs. A close look at the processes of gang formation in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City illustrates that rapid changes in core cultural systems had a chilling effect on ethnic groups’ core cultural practices, such as adolescents’ rites of passage to adulthood. In the absence of culturally prescribed, ritual activities, adolescents have not been prepared to assume their culture’s prescribed adult roles. That radical loss in a core cultural tradition has adversely affected adolescents’ behavior. Research in the early decades of the 20th century in Chicago reported that adolescent gang members experienced depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and addictions as consequents of violence clashes between Chicago’s native white population and European immigrants and black migrants. Over the decades of gang research in America and Europe, sociologists and anthropologists have come to agree on cultural elements in theories of gang formation: American and European youth gangs are derivative of cultural clashes, which engender racism and fundamental antagonistic changes in cultural systems’ economic production and social control. Effects of hostile culture change include social discord, unemployment, gang, and violence.

Social network research on adolescent gangs has shown that gangs are not closed social groups limiting gang members’ interpersonal contact to co-group members. Gang and non-group adolescents differ in attributes (sex, age, education), but structural measures of adolescent gang groups and non-groups are similar. Network research has carefully examined gang and non-gang adolescents’ personal networks. A personal network of male and female gang members includes people they know who know them. A personal network’s composition can include a few friends, close friends, and best friends, and numerous others inside a gang group as well as members of other gangs and non-gang members. Personal network relations connect gang adolescents to their families, friends, and neighborhoods, despite gang membership. Gang ethnography describing youth gang members and their families has shown that gang youth have been victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, experience periods of episodic homelessness away their natal and extended kin, as well as fictive families, and suffer adverse mental health consequences.

Culture conflict
personal networks
acculturation
blocked assimilation
immigration
marginalization
language loss
rites of passage

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Gangs and society.

Alternative Perspectives

Edited by Louis Kontos, David C. Brotherton, and Luis Barrios

Columbia University Press

Pub Date: May 2003

ISBN: 9780231121415

Format: Paperback

List Price: $38.00 £32.00

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From the Jets to the Bloods to the Latin Kings, gangs have long symbolized the roughest parts of urban America. Still, argues this collection of essays, crime and theft are just a part of what fuels their existence; gangs' roles in communities is far more complex. City Limits

A refreshing anthology on gang life in the US. The editors have compiled fascinating, serious, and informative articles concerned with the theoretical and methodological contexts of gang research, women and gangs, links between gangs and politics, the problems of youth and gang life, and the social control of gangs... An excellent, very readable source. Highly recommended. Choice

The popular image that depicts gangs as nothing more than criminal enterprises is too restrictive a picture. Gangs and Society moves beyond this tradition and instead represents an important advancement in understanding the role gangs play in some urban communities.... this work is certainly a meaningful addition to the existing gang literature. Sean P. Varano, Contemporary Sociology

Finally! A solidly researched book that challenges the conservative academic dogma of gang members as incorrigible superpredators.... May this book provoke a great rethinking of all that is amiss in our society today. Tom Hayden, professor at Occidental College and former California state senator

The book's editors...do a remarkable job of highlighting the economic, political, social and cultural factors that impact the activities of gangs. Matthew T. Theriot, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

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Gangs & Crime Critical Alternatives

Alistair Fraser - University of Glasgow, UK
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See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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This is a comprehensive and engaging examination of gangs and crime. Drawing on a range of critical perspectives, this book enhances the existing gang literature by exploring the development of gangs in the UK context. It does a great job of consolidating existing literature and theoretical perspectives in a critical and well written manner, which is both easy to access and compelling. This is a 'must add' textbook for criminology and youth justice undergraduate reading lists.

Gangs and Crime is an excellent introductory textbook, it is both scholarly and informative and as such will appeal to undergraduate students and post graduate researchers alike.

Fraser has written a comprehensive, stimulating and thought-provoking book about gangs. Gangs & Crime covers themes such as the many definitions of gangs, the history of gang research and methods for studying gangs. Key themes include social harm, feminist approaches and the globalization of gangs. With this book, students will get an easy yet sophisticated insight into almost 100 years of gang research and debate. They will also get a thorough understanding of how to respond to gangs in an increasingly global world.

This is an exceptional gem for students and scholars interested in gangs. The book is packed with the essentials and much more , from a thorough review of the debates over definitions, to theoretical shifts and turns, and their connections to methodologies and policy, to the development of alternative and broader lens that take into account the global and comparative dynamics of youth, gangs and culture. It brings a refreshing and new edge to thinking about gangs. ?

In this comprehensive, well written, and up to date volume, Alistair Fraser offers an excellent introduction to the classic foundations of US and UK gang studies while simultaneously broadening the scope both globally and epistemologically. It is a prime example of a new wave of critical gang research that aims to disrupt stereotypical representations and provide alternative conceptual tools and perspectives through which to better understand gangs and their underlying dynamics.

Gangs & Crime ... is written by the foremost expert in global gangs, youth subculture and gang identity. Alistair Fraser is a world-renowned urban sociologist, bringing to his work a creative methodological approach and a genuinely international perspective ... Ali's energy, knowledge and passion for his subject leap off the page, and this book rewards close and attentive reading ... It is also, quite simply, a cracking read.

Gangs & Crime: Critical Alternatives is a holistic text that offers rich blends of classical and contemporary perspectives on the phenomenon of gangs. The ‘go to’ textbook for those who have a vested interest in acquiring a comprehensive understanding of gangs, the cultures they inhabit and their criminal identities. Put simply, this work deserves to be celebrated as a leading critical study on gangs.

A detailed global overview of gang culture covering Glasgow, Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and more
A chapter on researching gangs which covers quantitative and qualitative methods
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A World of Gangs

Armed young men and gangsta culture.

John M. Hagedorn Foreword by Mike Davis

John Hagedorn explores the international proliferation of the urban gang as a consequence of the ravages of globalization. Looking closely at gang formation in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown he discovers that gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression and provides vital insights into the ideology and persistence of gangs around the world.

A World of Gangs is an illuminating journey around the cultures, lives, tragedies, and dreams of millions of rebellious youth around the planet. It brings together the rigorous tools of social research with an extraordinary sensitivity for the human experience and an unusual analytical capacity to make sense of it all. It is an indispensable work to understand the world we live in and essential reading for students of cities and communities.

Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and City Planning, University of California, Berkeley

Sociology , American Studies , Anthropology , Geography , Political Science , Criminal Justice , Urban , African American , Culture and Society , Globalization

For the more than a billion people who now live in urban slums, gangs are ubiquitous features of daily life. Though still most closely associated with American cities, gangs are an entrenched, worldwide phenomenon that play a significant role in a wide range of activities, from drug dealing to extortion to religious and political violence. In A World of Gangs, John Hagedorn explores this international proliferation of the urban gang as a consequence of the ravages of globalization.

Looking closely at gang formation in three world cities—Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown—he discovers that some gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression. In particular, Hagedorn reveals, the nihilistic appeal of gangsta rap and its street ethic of survival “by any means necessary” provides vital insights into the ideology and persistence of gangs around the world.

This groundbreaking work concludes on a hopeful note. Proposing ways in which gangs might be encouraged to overcome their violent tendencies, Hagedorn appeals to community leaders to use the urgency, outrage, and resistance common to both gang life and hip-hop in order to bring gangs into broader movements for social justice.

$18.95 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-5067-5 $24.95 cloth/jacket ISBN 978-0-8166-5066-8 240 pages, 2 b&w photos, 2 tables, 6 x 9, 2009

John M. Hagedorn is associate professor of criminal justice and senior research fellow at Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is editor of Gangs in the Global City; co-editor of Female Gangs in America: Essays on Girls, Gangs, and Gender; and author of the highly influential People and Folks: Gangs, Crime, and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City.

MacArthur fellow Mike Davis is professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books, including Planet of Slums, City of Quartz, and Ecology of Fear.

Hagedorn is an undeniable authority on the topic. A well-organized, well-researched and sensitive study.

Publishers Weekly

A World of Gangs is an eye-opening account on a major international phenomena which will give one a new conception of gangs. Not only do the author’s accounts of gangs from around the world, the conditions out of which they emerge, and their activities conduce to a new perspective, but he also puts forth new principles for an intellectual comprehension of gangs.

Midwest Book Review

Hagedorn is to be commended for his policy implications and his candid hope in what he recognizes is an uphill battle. His novel suggestions direct researchers and community members to a potentially rich resource for political action.

Canadian Journal of Sociology

A World of Gangs is a dizzying journey around the globe in order to understand the contours of the contemporary gang situation. Hagedorn graciously escorts the reader through Chicago’s housing projects, Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Cape Town’s townships, and Mumbai’s slums. Hagedorn once again moves gang research and urban scholarship in a much-needed direction. This book takes a long overdue look at how macro socio-economic forces shape the highly localized life of gangs and gang members. Hagedorn boldly calls for the infusion of race, politics, and culture into the study of gangs—subjects that have been overlooked for far too long.

Urban Affairs Review

Hagedorn presents a searing study of the cultural phenomenon of gangs. His exploration demonstrates how globally entrenched gangs are, and how these bands of destructive youth cross country boundaries to threaten even international peace. From inner-city gangs to murderous political insurgents to international terrorists operating in cells, Hagedorn’s work characterizes gang life, culture, and its many violent illegal enterprises as a worldwide crisis that feeds off society’s counterproductive, predatory values of racism, sexism, and classism.

Hagedorn’s A World of Gangs will make a lasting impression on all who work with diverse youth populations.

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

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Gang Nation: Delinquent Citizens in Puerto Rican, Chicano, and Chicana Narratives

14 Contemporary Gang Ethnographies

Scott Decker is Foundation Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University.

David Pyrooz PhD, is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Associate of the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests are in the areas of gangs and criminal networks, incarceration and reentry, and developmental and life course criminology. He received the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology and New Scholar Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. His recent research has appeared in Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , and Justice Quarterly .

Published: 28 December 2012
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Until the middle of the twentieth century, research on gangs was ethnographic in nature, with a strong journalistic approach. However, there has been a shift in the ethnographic study of gangs from serious fieldwork in America to the European setting. This article focuses on the state of contemporary gang ethnography by analyzing three periods of ethnographic research on gangs: the classic era, the “interstitial” period, and the contemporary period. It traces the evolution of the ethnographic approach to the study of youth behavior in the United States over the past century. It also looks at the interstitial period to provide a contrast to the state of gang ethnography in Europe.

Perhaps no substantive area in criminology is as closely tied to a methodology as gangs are to ethnography. The earliest studies of gangs were ethnographic (Puffer 1912 ; Thrasher 1927 ), a tradition that continued through the middle of the 20th century (Whyte 1943 ; Miller 1958 ; Short and Strodtbeck 1965 ). There was a spate of gang ethnographies nearer the end of the 20th century (Moore 1978 , 1991 ; Hagedorn 1988 ; Vigil 1988 ; Decker and Van Winkle 1996 ). Throughout the study of gangs, there has also been a strong journalistic approach. This is reflected in work in the early part of the 20th century (Riis 1902 ; Asbury 1927 ) as well as at the end of the 20th century (Bing 1992 ; Shakur 1993 ). This journalistic orientation can be seen even in the work of serious academics (Venkatesh 2008 ).

There has been a shift, however, in the ethnographic study of gangs from serious fieldwork in America to the European setting. The number and scope of ethnographies of gangs in America has declined over the past decade. Fortunately, this decline has been accompanied by a precipitous increase in the volume and sophistication of fieldwork done with gangs in European settings. This European work has built on work done in the states, often repeating methodological and conceptual errors, but equally as often building on what had been learned. These continental gang ethnographies tend to be more detailed, of longer duration, and “deeper” than their counterparts in the states.

The central goal of this chapter is to examine the state of contemporary gang ethnography. We identify three periods of ethnographic research on gangs: the classic era, the “interstitial” period, and the contemporary period. All of these periods, and their key works, are detailed in table 14.1 . To qualify as an ethnographic work, three elements had to be present in each study: (1) direct observation, (2) interviewing, and (3) use of native terms and categories (Emerson 1983 ). Several themes help define these eras, including time period, macro-level structural changes, new conceptual paradigms, shifts in analytic strategies, and the emergence of gang phenomena.

Note: 1 descriptive or journalistic approach

US refers to ethnographies carried out in the United States

EU refers to ethnographies carried out in Europe

AU refers to ethnographies carried out in Australia

We begin, in section I , by noting the roots of the ethnographic approach to the study of youth behavior, tracing its evolution in the United States over the past century. We then move in section II to a discussion of what we label the interstitial period, an era of study that sits between classic and contemporary work. This analysis provides a contrast to the state of gang ethnography on the European continent, which is presented in section III . We conclude the chapter in section IV with a discussion of where this important line of work should go and how it can build on past work.

Our general findings include the following:

The use of ethnographic methods is closely tied with historical and contemporary gang research in the United States.

Ethnographic gang research has focused on issues of process, particularly group process.

We identify three distinct periods of gang ethnography: classic, interstitial, and contemporary.

While American research dominated the first two periods of gang ethnographic research, European research has been dominant in the third.

European gang ethnographic research can be distinguished by its emphasis on the role of culture, ethnicity and noncriminal activities of gang members.

I. The Classic Era of Gang Ethnographies

The classic era of gang ethnographies consists of early “descriptive” work and more sociological ethnographies. Classic ethnographic studies of gangs focused on immigration, urbanization, poverty, and ethnicity. Understanding the nexus of these topics is of considerable importance, not only to the study of gangs but also to the broader study of crime, culture, social disorganization, and population change.

In the early “descriptive ethnographies” of gangs, social exclusion and marginalization produced by ethnic bias and economic discrimination were claimed to further isolate new immigrant youth from the dominant society. Lewis ( 1912 ) documented the role of ethnic conflict between new immigrant groups in New York City. Ethnicity served as a key element for gang formation as well as gang conflict for the “Apaches” gang of young boys whose activities he described through portraits of several individual gang members. Furfey ( 1926 ) adopted a more psychological approach, but he too identified the role of city life and increasing urbanization in the lives of young men who became gang members. The themes of immigration, urbanization, and poverty are echoed as well in the treatment of gangs in Boston by Puffer ( 1912 ) and Riis ( 1902 ). Riis documented the difficulty new ethnic immigrants groups—especially Irish and Italian—had in penetrating the legitimate economy. Asbury’s ( 1927 ) work in the 1920s in New York, particularly the Five Points area, identified differences between the transience of gang members and more persistent offenders who became enmeshed in more organized criminal activities. Ethnic succession played a role in such distinctions, as well as in the evolution of young men from youth gangs to more conforming adult lifestyles.

In 1927, Thrasher’s monumental work was published. Solidly entrenched in the Chicago School of sociology’s emphasis on culture and neighborhood ecology, Thrasher described the lives of gang members. His primary focus was on gang transmission—the expansion of gangs across neighborhoods and generations, particularly focusing on the role of culture. Thrasher found Chicago gangs primarily in “interstitial” areas that were characterized by deteriorating neighborhoods, the changing ethnic composition of populations, and the disorganization of ethnic slums, fueled in part by ethnic differences but also by high rates of population change and mobility. A key theme in his work was the diversity of gangs—hence the phrase, “no two gangs are alike” (p. 5); they varied in important cultural, behavioral, and organizational ways. Thrasher described a process of gang evolution that reflected the broader cultural and neighborhood dynamics, as gangs moved from being diffuse and short-lived to becoming solidified and finally growing into conventionalized states where members enter conventional roles. These processes were conditioned by ethnicity, race, and immigration status, which isolated gang boys from mainstream society, an isolation that was both geographic and structural. Gang boys were insulated from the effective socializing power of institutions such as schools, the labor market, and the political system.

This analysis reflected the influence of the Chicago School of sociology. An important topic for this perspective was the relationship between crime and immigration. Early Chicago School studies of crime (Thomas and Znaniecki 1920 ; Sutherland 1924 ; Shaw and McKay 1942 ) emphasized the role of social disorganization and culture conflict present in the lives of immigrants, particularly the children of first-generation foreign-born parents. These children experienced considerable “isolation and segregation” (Sutherland 1924 , p. 130). Shaw’s ( 1930 , 1931 ) case studies documented the role that the ethnic isolation of Polish immigrants played in exacerbating criminal and delinquent involvement. His two life histories identified the critical role of culture in adapting to life in the dynamic city that was Chicago in the 1920s. In this context, Shaw ( 1931 , p. 229) emphasized the role of social disorganization in creating a setting where:

the conventional traditions, neighborhood institutions, and public opinion through which neighborhoods usually effect a control over the behavior of the child were largely disintegrated. Consequently, Sidney had very little access to the cultural heritages of conventional society and he was not subject to the constructive and restraining influences which surround the child in the more highly integrated and conventional residential neighborhoods of the city.

Rates of delinquency in neighborhoods characterized by such conditions were high and created additional opportunities for delinquency—and gangs—to flourish. Viewed from the perspective of culture conflict and competing forces of socialization, immigrant criminality, especially by youngsters, was to be expected. Shaw and McKay ( 1942 , p. 374) concluded that “most of the delinquents in Chicago have been produced, in turn, by the newest large immigrant or migrant groups in the city.”

This emphasis on culture conflict and isolation from mainstream patterns of socialization were key themes in William Foot Whyte’s ( 1943 ) classic study of Italian corner boys in Boston. His fieldwork emphasized the role of ethnic culture in isolating Italian boys from mainstream society. Owing to this isolation, the youth in the Italian slums studied by Whyte found themselves on the outside of the very social institutions that were seen as the path to becoming better integrated in the school, employment, and family structure of 1930s Boston. Walter Miller’s ( 1958 ) extended study of gang and delinquent youth in Boston underscores the cultural isolation of immigrant and ethnic groups from mainstream cultural values. From his perspective, delinquency is a natural outcome, as it is a consequence of socialization and commitment to values that are in conflict with those of conventional society. Miller identified six focal concerns (fate, autonomy, smartness, toughness, excitement, and trouble) that are learned as a consequence of living in lower-class communities. These values produce delinquency, because they are opposed to the values of conventional society. His book, City Gangs (2011), was recently published and also underscored the themes of culture and group process among youth isolated from mainstream society.

Three influential works—Klein ( 1971 ) in Los Angeles, Short and Strodtbeck ( 1965 ) in Chicago, and Yablonsky ( 1962 ) in New York—marked the end of the classic era of gang ethnographies. In particular, Klein and Short emphasized the group-based nature of gangs as a unit of analysis and called for the study of group processes. At the same time, these works symbolized two larger processes that were taking place in the new era of gang ethnography: individual-level research and macro-structural change. First, many of the themes drawn from these studies were based on the systematic survey of individual gang members. This was consistent with larger shifts in criminology from the study of structure and culture to individual-level contexts, correlates, and causes of offending (Glueck and Glueck 1950 ; Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 2011 ). Second, shifts in the labor market, documented persuasively by Wilson ( 1987 ), marshaled a new way of thinking about race, poverty, and inequality in criminology. These studies represented a shift away from the study of ethnic gangs and the assimilation of ethnic groups to the study of gangs and gang members who have been part of the community for many generations. Wilson’s study of the “truly disadvantaged” and underclass theory was particularly influential in gang research. We label this next period of gang ethnography the interstitial period.

II. The Interstitial Period of Gang Ethnography

The interstitial period, coming between the classic and modern eras of gang ethnography, focuses primarily on urban gangs. A number of field studies have concentrated on gangs in Los Angeles, but roughly the same number of field studies examined gangs in rust belt cities. This period of gang ethnography is marked by the emergence of interest in marginalization among the “underclass,” female gangs and gang membership, violence, drug dealing and illicit entrepreneurship, and gang structure and organization.

The influence of Wilson’s ( 1987 ) description of the underclass is evident in the ethnographic research of Moore ( 1978 , 1991 ), Hagedorn ( 1988 ), and Vigil ( 1988 ). Shifts in the labor market—from an industrial to a service-based economy—led to dramatic declines on good jobs in low-skilled industries. This shift has been particularly devastating for the undereducated and undertrained, which often consists of individuals with a history of gang involvement. These researchers highlight the role of such labor market changes for gangs. Earlier work in the Midwest (Thrasher 1927 ) and in Los Angeles (Klein 1971 ) characterized gang membership as transient; however, Hagedorn and Moore saw a longer term, often lifelong commitment to gang membership due to the marginalizing effects of the urban underclass. Vigil identified a broader theme of multiple marginalization (1988, 2002). He observed that Chicano males were marginalized in their efforts to fit in, whether in school, the job market, or the judicial system, or to win acceptance in routine activities. This is quite consistent with the theoretical approach of Albert Cohen ( 1955 ) who argued that minority residents of poor, inner-city neighborhoods were subjected to negative evaluations on white, middle-class standards. This led to status frustration, in Cohen’s scheme, and ultimately to deviance and delinquency. For Vigil, this process is labeled marginalization.

The concept of marginalization, introduced in the late 1980s, is one of the key theoretical advances in understanding gangs. Marginalization refers to the extent that certain groups—Chicano barrio men, for example—are excluded from and negatively evaluated by mainstream social institutions such as schools and the employment market. This was the “easy” observation. As Puffer, Thrasher, Whyte, and others had observed before him, Vigil found his research subjects to be excluded from the cultural and institutional reward system. But he took the concept an important step further. Vigil argued that these individuals were marginalized a second time, the victims of double marginalization, as they were also incapable of competing for status in their own communities. The concept of double marginalization is particularly important for this chapter as it both highlights the concepts of ethnic exclusion and immigration and foreshadows the European work to follow. The young Chicano men that Vigil studied were excluded both from mainstream culture—largely because of their ethnic and cultural differences—and from Chicano culture, largely because of their criminality and the negative effect they had on the community.

Serious study of female gangs and gang members began during the interstitial period (Campbell 1984 ; Moore 1991 ; Joe and Chesney-Lind 1995 ; Joe and Hunt 2001 ; Miller 2001 ). Moore’s work with female gang members has parallels in the work of Anne Campbell ( 1984 ) and Jody Miller ( 2001 ). Campbell did fieldwork with three female gangs in New York City: a biker gang, a street gang, and members of a religious cult. Her work examined the life of one girl in each type of gang, producing life histories akin to those done by Shaw and McKay in the 1920s. She described the lives of girls largely in terms of two roles, each defined by their gender. In the first role, many girls in these groups functioned as sex objects; their relationship to the group was largely defined by their availability to male members for physical gratification. In the second, girls who assumed “masculine” roles were referred to as “tomboys” and were relegated to denigrated roles. Miller’s ( 2001 ) work provided a decidedly different picture of girl gang members. In one of the few comparative ethnographies conducted to date, Miller contrasted the lives of girl gang members in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri. She found that gang life for girls is conditioned in part by the macro-environments they live in, with the deeper underclass of St. Louis producing more violence and exposure to crime and victimization than the underclass of Columbus. Miller found important gender influences on girl gang members in both cities, linked strongly to gender roles and victimization.

The overlapping themes of violence, drug dealing, and gang structure received considerable attention during this period of ethnographic research. The late 1980s and early 1990s could be described as a watershed time in the study of gangs, as cities struggled with record rates of youth violence and expanding street-level drug markets. Gangs were implicated as being key architects in these processes (Klein 1995 ). As a result, there was a “specialization” in the study of specific aspects of gangs. Ethnographic researchers examined the extent to which gangs organized violence and drug dealing. If a gang demonstrated the ability to efficiently and effectively coordinate activities such as violence and drug sales, they were considered to be a formal organization (for a review, see Decker and Pyrooz 2011 ). Findings came from diverse research settings, including various loosely organized black gangs in St. Louis (Decker and Van Winkle 1996 ), the majority-black Fremont Hustlers in Kansas City (Fleisher 1998 ), various black gangs in postindustrial Milwaukee (Hagedorn 1998 ), second-generation Puerto Rican gang members in Chicago (Padilla 1992 ), and the Black Kings in a now-defunct Chicago housing project (Venkatesh 2008 ). While the degree of gang organization varied greatly between settings, the processes of gang violence were consistent: gangs engage in violence that takes on epidemic and retaliatory features (Decker 1996 ; Decker and Pyrooz 2010 ).

We view the late 1990s as the decline of the U.S. gang ethnography and thus the start of the contemporary period. Indeed, as shown in table 14.1 , U.S. ethnographies with post-2000 publication dates decline substantially over the earlier period. It is our argument that the ethnographic research in the classic and interstitial period provided the conceptual foundation for the quantitative analysis of gangs and gang members, which has increased substantially over the last two decades. The shift in analytic strategy experienced in the United States is not evident worldwide; indeed, the contemporary period of gang ethnography is virtually defined by its lack of attention to U.S. gang contexts.

III. The Contemporary Period of Gang Ethnography

The decline in gang ethnographies in the United States since the beginning of the 21st century is notable. Equally notable is the increase in ethnographic studies of gangs in Europe. Indeed, European studies have increased in number and quality in proportion to the decline of such studies in the United States. It is ironic that so little gang ethnography was done in the U.K. given the classic book, A Glasgow Gang Observed (Patrick 1973 ). This book documented the presence of violent gangs in the U.K. at a time when there was little study of gang violence outside of the United States. The two main strengths emerging from the contemporary ethnographies are their focus on structural and cultural conditions. Structurally, population migration sets the tone for the ethnographic study of gangs in the contemporary period. Understanding population migration provides a backdrop for understanding marginalization and exclusion, ethnic-to-native cultural conflict, and processes of cultural transmission. For this reason, we begin by briefly discussing immigration patterns in Europe, and then we continue by discussing marginalization and social exclusion as well as cultural conflict and cultural transmission.

A. Population Migration

Many of the contemporary European studies that focus specifically on the role of immigration are reminiscent of early gang ethnography studies in the United States. There is a long tradition of studying the history, patterns, policies, and implications of migration in Europe and the states (see, e.g., Hammar 1985 ; Jacobson 1998 ). European migration has a decidedly different pattern because it is largely the result of the imperialism of Western European nations. The colonies established in Africa, Asia, North America, or South America became independent over time, and due to the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized, citizens were often free to travel between the European nation and the former colony. Many of the colonizers maintained a close relationship with the colonized countries—such as England with India, Pakistan, and the West Indies; France with Algeria, Morocco, and Senegal; Portugal with Brazil and Angola; and the Netherlands with Indonesia and Surinam. Each colonizing country has legal pathways to immigration for residents of these former colonies, and all of them have large and growing numbers of inhabitants with colonial roots.

Three factors have driven immigration in Europe since the end of World War II: economic growth and labor demand, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and dangerous or unstable conditions in the former colony. The rapid economic growth in Europe in the 1960s (Fetzer 2000 ) led many individuals to migrate to meet the newly created demands for labor. Several northern European countries recruited “guest workers” from Mediterranean countries to meet the demand for manual labor, primarily in low-paying jobs in factories and mines (Obdeijn, De Mas, and Hermans 2002 ). While this relationship was intended to be temporary, a large number of migrants did not leave when they lost their jobs as the economy slowed down, because their families preferred remaining in the host country. A second factor was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. When the former Soviet Union loosened its control over satellite nations, population movement within Europe and between former Soviet states and Europe was changed dramatically (Andreas and Snyder 2000 ). A third group of immigrants—mainly from African countries, the Middle East, and China—began to seek asylum in European countries. Many sought refuge from dangerous situations and wars, while others migrated for economic reasons (Van Wijk 2006 ; Engbersen, van der Leun, and de Boom 2007 ).

As a result of intercontinental and intracontinental population movement, many European countries have large numbers of first-generation and second-generation immigrant groups. These groups tend to be younger and concentrate in urban areas. In addition, they are mostly racially nonwhite and culturally non-European. Understanding patterns of population migration provides a backdrop for the following sections.

B. Ethnic and Cultural Conflict

Culture is often mistakenly equated with ethnicity, and ethnicity is often confounded with street culture, subculture, or global youth culture. A key finding in much of the classic and contemporary gang ethnography literature is the role of threats and conflict presented by new immigrant groups. Culture plays a central role in this process. In this context, culture refers to the shared norms, values, codes, and meanings within the group. These constitute the “Weltanschauung” or worldview of the gang. Because cultures are reactive and adaptive, many youth find themselves between two competing cultural imperatives. Where should their loyalty be committed? Do they stay loyal to family or adapt to the culture of the neighborhood gang? Many ethnic minority and immigrant youth encounter these demands, particularly first-generation immigrant youth, many of whom find the gang to be an attractive collective to affiliate with.

The decline in ethnographies of the American gang scene, as noted earlier, is paralleled by the increase in such work on the European continent. Van Gemert ( 2005 ) has done extensive fieldwork with Moroccan and Turkish immigrant youth in Rotterdam and has found that compared to Turkish youth, Moroccan boys are significantly overrepresented in police statistics and that 60 percent of gang members are reportedly Moroccan. Van Gemert argues that despite similarities in immigration status and marginalization, Turkish and Moroccan boys take different paths with regard to their involvement in delinquency and gangs. He attributes this to cultural differences between Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, particularly generational youth differences. These results are consistent with other studies of the cultural beliefs of these groups in the Netherlands (Junger 1990 ; Blom et al. 2005 ). Because each culture adapts differently to its circumstances, individuals from some groups engage more actively in gangs and other youth abstain.

Weitekamp et al. ( 2005 ) examined similar themes in Germany. They described the role of culture among repatriated Russians of German descent. Germans who migrated to Russia during the post–World War II separation of Germany into East and West were known as “Aussiedler.” Their repatriation was quite difficult as most of the former German citizens had lost most of their German language, customs, and relationships and had been immersed in Russian culture. These Germans had become more Russian than German. The transition from Russia to Germany paralleled that of many immigrant groups to a new country or culture. The Aussiedler fought with Germans and members of other ethnic groups. Ethnicity played a key role in the formation of gangs, which were based strictly on ethnic origin. Aussiedlers also faced social, economic, and cultural deprivation as they were repatriated to their “native” country. Because Aussiedlers were neither German nor Russian and found cultural and economic integration into mainstream German society to be quite difficult, their experiences fit the pattern of double marginality described by Vigil ( 1988 ).

Many of the contemporary gang ethnographies conducted in Europe have an explicit focus on the roles of culture and ethnicity in the emergence and activities of gangs. An excellent example of this is found in Bucerius’s ( 2007 ) ethnography of Muslim men in Frankfurt, Germany. Over a nearly 3-year period, she observed and interviewed 55 male second- or third-generation migrants to Germany who had ties to the Islamic faith. Just over half (27) of the subjects were from Turkey. All were born in Germany and participated in the street drug trade. Their Muslim faith and ethnic status produced a unique cultural combination of “honor” and “purity.” These concepts are of considerable importance to Muslims and serve to form the basis of how a “good Muslim” behaves and believes. However, in the process of adapting to their marginal status as migrants in Germany who hold no citizenship rights and likely never will, they make certain adaptations to their cultural values. They justified selling drugs because they sold only certain “less harmful” drugs and only to appropriate customers (those less vulnerable and dependent; “no sales to children”).

Bucerius argues that strict formal-rational business models (such as profit maximization) do not explain the drug-selling behavior of these young men. Rather, the drug sellers in her sample balance their entrepreneurial behavior with cultural values that have their roots in their religion, even if their beliefs do not strictly reflect the tenets of that religion. This has led to what Bucerius identifies as a “hybrid culture” (p. 682), consistent with the status of second- and third-generation Muslims who are stigmatized in both their home country (Turkey) and their country of residence. This situation reflects the marginality described by Vigil and produces a hybrid culture that conditions their drug selling. For example, drug profits could not be used for families as that would bring dishonor on a Muslim family; instead, they are used to support flamboyant lifestyles—for example, with flashy clothes. Bucerius masterfully described the evolution and adaptation over time of religious and cultural values as a consequence of the alienation of ethnic groups from their home and host cultures. As she noted (2007, p. 691):

The hybrid culture that they have created is driven by a fundamental need to belong somewhere, and it helps create a place where they belong. The traditional codes of purity still grant them the opportunity to differentiate themselves from other dealers and to form a certain identity in a society that does not leave them many options.

C. Marginalization

An especially ambitious ethnographic study, conducted by Aldridge and Medina ( 2008 ), spanned nearly 6 years in “Research City,” a large city in England. Their work was particularly sensitive to the complex nature of conducting ethnographic work among marginalized populations in a setting characterized by high levels of violence and the lack of a tradition of gang research (Aldridge, Medina, and Ralphs 2008 ). Their approach used observation, interviews, focus groups, and reviews of administrative data to build a picture of gang life. The gangs they observed were largely of mixed ethnicity, comprised primarily of males but with significant female involvement. Drug dealing was described as “the dominant almost defining gang activity” (2008, p. 6). Gang membership was transitory and rarely led to adult criminality or more heavily organized criminal activities. Migration status did not seem a particularly salient characteristic for the gang members they described. However, Ralphs, Medina, and Aldridge ( 2009 ) do describe the cultural consequences of a large gang presence in neighborhoods, both for gang and nongang members. They note that the presence of gangs makes all young people subject to increased police scrutiny as well as to threats of victimization. This labeling has consequences for behavior and perceptions of the safety of places as well as individuals. The social exclusion produced by these processes has implications for socialization by legitimate institutions such as employment markets, schools, and families and serves to isolate gang members and other youth from these institutions. In addition, youth were aware of the stigma associated with being identified with gang behavior.

Pitts’s ( 2007 ) multimethod work is an important statement about gangs in the United Kingdom. Working in Waltham Forest, an area of northwest London characterized by large numbers of poor black and minority ethnic residents, Pitts used survey data and interviews with key informants and youth in gangs or whose lives were affected by gangs. In Waltham Forest, much higher proportions of minority and ethnic residents lived in poverty than did white or mixed-race citizens, and the area had considerable levels of drug dealing and violence. Pitts examined a controversy over gangs in the U.K. and indeed across Europe, contributing to the understanding of the “Eurogang Paradox” (Klein et al. 2001 ). Simply stated, the paradox was that while visible symbols of gang activity (graffiti, drug selling, and youth affiliation) existed, many European scholars and policy makers were reluctant to identify these activities as gang-related and these individuals as gang members.

Pitts reviewed the work by Hallsworth and Young ( 2004 ) that describes English street gangs as “urban collectives” rather than gangs, and suggested that the Waltham Forest gangs share more in common with the gangs described by American scholars such as Klein ( 2001 ). This evolution in thinking suggests something about the gang situation in the U.K. as well as British thinking about gangs. It is clear from Pitts’s important work that race and ethnicity contribute to the poverty and isolation that characterizes life in Waltham Forest, particularly among the young men who participate in the drug and gang scenes there. There is an orientation to what Pitts calls “the style and manner dictated by popular, globalised, ostensibly ‘Black’ street culture” (p. 43). The intersection of ethnicity and gang culture is important, though Pitts is quick to point out that the globalization of American youth gang styles is only a part of the development and spread of gangs in London. The transmission of “Yardie” culture from Kingston, Jamaica, also played a considerable part in this process. Among the groups he studied, Pitts found a strong territoriality (he terms it “aggressive territoriality”) that was different from other descriptions of European gangs, or even gangs in the U.K. (see Aldridge and Medina 2008 ; Aldridge, Medina, and Ralphs 2008 ). He also found loosely defined roles for gang members, with fluidity between the roles. Pitts described many of the youth in the groups he studied as “reluctant gangsters,” referring to the direct and implicit coercion they faced in joining their groups.

D. Cultural Transmission

Why are there Crips in the Netherlands or Norway? Lien ( 2001 , 2008 ) and Van Gemert ( 2001 ) emphasized cultural explanations to account for the presence of gangs with American symbols and beliefs in Dutch and Norwegian society. Rather than assigning importance to the cultural conflict described earlier, they emphasized the role of the media in the cultural transmission of symbols as a key to understanding how gangs with similar affectations to American gangs evolve. Although the names and styles are largely the same, Crips in the United States differ from Crips in the Netherlands. Dutch gangs are much less organized, do not emphasize drug sales as a key behavior, and do not identify territory as gang territory. In other words, European Crips have more in common with U.S. Crips gang style and affectation than with their organization or behavior, thus providing evidence of the role of cultural transmission. This process is not unique to Europe in that a similar cultural process has taken place within the United States. Many rural and suburban communities found themselves faced with the affectations of traditional gangs from Chicago and Los Angeles in their communities (Maxson 1998 ).

A number of scholars have linked the globalization of gangs to cultural factors, particular media reports, videos, and social networking, which facilitate the dissemination of gang culture (Hagedorn 2005 , 2008 ). Decker, Van Gemert, and Pyrooz ( 2009 ) underscored similar processes whereby American cultural practices, including gang life, have emerged as a source of behavior that is culturally translated to and emulated by youth in many countries. Because these values and behaviors are copied around the world, we see Crips in the Netherlands and Liberian child soldiers throwing up American street gang signs. Peterson, Lien, and Van Gemert ( 2008 ) and Van Gemert ( 2001 ) all note the role of popular culture, largely spread through technology that is particularly fashionable with youth. Globalization spreads both socially approved forms of behavior and behavior that violates norms, and youth cultures are especially susceptible to the globalization of subcultures that challenge existing norms and standards.

The transnational diffusion of gang behavior and culture has received attention from Brotherton ( 2007 ) who found links between Latin Kings in the United States and gang members abroad, as well as from Feixa et al. ( 2008 ) who found evidence of gang culture diffusion among the United States, Spain, and South America. As Peterson, Lien, and Van Gemert ( 2008 ) pointed out, cultural traditions can play an especially prominent role where there is marginalization of new immigrant groups such as Pakistanis in Norway, Muslim communities in Sweden, and Latin American youth in Spain. The presence of gangs such as MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha, and 18th Street has garnered a good deal of transnational attention (Franco 2008 ) from law enforcement task forces and the media. These Los Angeles-based gangs are reportedly present in many American states and other countries (Savenije 2009 ). Immigrants from Central America are thought to have created new MS-13 groups in many parts of the United States (Johnson and Muhlhausen 2005 ; Papachristos 2005 ), and the mass deportation of Los Angeles gang members to Central America has been linked by some to the origins of the gang problem in Central America. Critics note that dire economic conditions and widespread violence in El Salvador created a situation where American gangs were seen as attractive role models for members of already existing local gangs such as pandillas (Savenije 2009 ). It is clear that the cultural images of American gangs were imported and adapted to local culture; unknown is whether the emergence of transnational gangs is the outcome of a coordinated movement of gang members. McGuire ( 2007 , p. 27) observed that it may be “movement not so much of members but of gang style and practices.” Deportation may have played a role, but the diffusion of gang culture—practices, symbols, and ideas—appears to have been instrumental as well.

As gangs have spread to new parts of the world, population migration, cultural conflict, marginalization, and cultural transmission have all been identified in contemporary ethnographies as playing a role in gang-related phenomena. We see strong evidence from recent European gang ethnographies that there is considerable variability in the structure of European gangs (Dekleva 2001 ; Gruter and Versteegh 2001 ; Lien 2001 , 2005 , 2008 ; Mares 2001 ; Salagev 2001 ; Tertilt 2001 ; Gatti et al. 2005 ; Van Gemert and Fleisher 2005 ; Weitekamp, Kerner, and Reich 2005 ; Pitts 2007 ; Aldridge and Medina 2008 ). Collectively, these studies have shed light on gangs in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Frankfurt, Germany; Genoa, Italy; The Hague, the Netherlands; Morocco; Manchester, Britain; Oslo, Sweden; Russia; and Slovenia. These contemporary ethnographies revealed a large amount of heterogeneity among European gangs. Ironically, this diversity parallels the American situation, where gangs and gang members vary considerably with respect to violence, structure, organization, delinquency, gender, race/ethnicity, culture, and status.

IV. Conclusion

We began this review by noting that the study of gangs has been closely tied to ethnographic or field methods. Three distinct eras of study were identified. The classic era of gang ethnographies focused on the experiences of first- and second-generation European ethnic groups as they arrived in the United States beginning at the start of the 20th century. These studies were highly descriptive, focusing on background characteristics such as ethnicity, migration status, gender, and family structure. In addition to these background characteristics, early gang ethnographies also focused on the structure of gang groups as well as on their criminal and noncriminal involvement. Culture, as such, was hardly mentioned, and these studies were largely silent about the role that values played in the formation of gangs or their activities.

This period of study was followed by what we label the “interstitial period” of gang ethnography. Spanning from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century, this expansive period saw a dramatic growth in the number of ethnographic studies of gangs and gang members. European ethnics gave way to African Americans and Hispanics as the central focus of these studies. There were parallels between the experiences of European ethnics and of African American and Hispanic gang members, particularly in their exclusion from mainstream institutions and concentrations in poor urban areas. Attention from these studies focused on the criminal activities—especially violence and drug dealing—of these gangs and gang members. Most gangs were characterized as loosely organized groups, with largely ineffective controls over the behavior of their members. Despite the important work of Short and Strodtbeck in Chicago and Walter Miller in Boston, little attention was paid to the role of cultural values in understanding the social processes of joining and participating in gang membership. This work stagnated toward the end of the century, and the descriptions of gang life took on a “flat” character, in which gangs and gang members lacked depth, largely owing to a lack of attention to cultural issues.

The third period of gang ethnographies we refer to as the contemporary period. This work begins toward the end of the 21st century and largely takes place in Western Europe. What makes this work interesting and important is its depth in describing gang members and gang activities. Based primarily in Europe, there is a much less “flat” description than tends to be found in typical American descriptions of gang life. This is seen most clearly in the work of Lien, Van Gemert, and Bucerius. Each of these ethnographers pays careful attention to three important issues.

First, there is an explicit focus on culture, the values, patterns, and behaviors that form the core for action and identity. Second, the focus on culture interacts with ethnicity, whether in the case of Turkish boys in Germany (Bucerius), Pakistani boys in Oslo (Lien), or Turkish and Moroccan boys in the Netherlands (Van Gemert). The interaction between these two concepts (culture and ethnicity) is quite important given that, in each case, ethnicity works to create isolation from the mainstream cultural patterns of the host country. Thus, youth who are second- or third-generation migrants to a new country find themselves raised by parents and in neighborhoods where the beliefs and traditions of the “old country” still exist. At the same time, many of their peers and the institutions that assess them—schools, sports clubs, members of the opposite sex, and the employment market—judge them by the values of the host country. What results, as described so clearly by Bucerius, is a “hybrid culture”—an amalgam of adaptive values that reflect both sets of beliefs and practices. This situation results in isolating youth in some way from both traditional and host cultures. A third explicit focus of these contemporary gang ethnographies has been their emphasis on social processes, especially the cultural transmission of gang images and gang habits. It is clear that gangs in the European context did not suddenly appear out of thin air. Many of their symbolic affectations have roots in an emerging global culture, often fueled by American or in some cases Caribbean popular culture. It is important to recognize, however, that gang values and behavior are conditioned by their context.

A final focus of modern gang ethnographies has been to create a better understanding of noncriminal activities. One of the frustrating aspects of gang studies is the near single-minded focus on criminal activities found in many of them. While this is especially true of quantitative studies, it also characterizes many field-based studies. In part, this may be due to the excessive mythologizing done by gang members, reflecting their age and gender, and a fascination with violence in popular culture. But careful ethnographies that fully contextualize the lives of young gang members accurately point out that the majority of time is spent “hanging out” in noncriminal or nondelinquent activities.

In addition to an expanded set of comparative field studies, the merger of ethnographic work with other forms of study should be high on the agenda of gang researchers. A fuller understanding of the demographics of population patterns and trends, merged with finely grained labor market conditions, would be important additions to broad scale ethnographic studies of gangs and gang members. While such studies would require considerable investments of time and money, a blueprint for conducting such research has been developed by the Eurogang Research Group at http://www.umsl.edu/~ccj/eurogang/instruments.htm . By combining multimethod approaches, a better understanding of gangs and gang members can be obtained.

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Van Gemert, Frank. 2001 . “Crips in Orange; Gangs and Groups in the Netherlands.” In The Eurogang Paradox: Street Gangs and Youth Groups in the U.S. and Europe , edited by Malcolm W. Klein, Hans-Jurgen Kerner, Cheryl L. Maxson, and Elmar G. M. Weitekamp. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.

Van Gemert, Frank. 2005 . “Identification and Self-Identification: Using a survey to Study Gangs in the Netherlands.” In European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups , edited by Scott H. Decker and Frank M. Weerman. Lanham, MD: Alta Mira.

Van Gemert, Frank, and Mark Fleisher. 2005 . “In the Grip of the Group: Ethnography of a Moroccan Street Gang in the Netherlands.” In European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups , edited by Scott H. Decker and Frank M. Weerman. Lanham, MD: Alta Mira.

Van Wijk, Joris. 2006 . Luanda-Hollanda: Irreguliere (Asiel) Migratie van Angola Vaar Nederland . Nijmegen: Wolff Legal.

Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2008 . Gang Leader for a Day . New York: Penguin Books.

Vigil, James Diego. 1988 . Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California . Austin: University of Texas Press.

Vigil, James Diego. 2002 . A Rainbow of Gangs: Street Life and Identity in the Mega-City . Austin: University of Texas Press.

Weitekamp, Elmar, Hans-Jurgen Kerner, and Kerstin Reich. 2005 . “Why Do Young Male Russians of German Descent Tend to Join or Form Violent Gangs? In European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups , edited by Scott H. Decker and Frank M. Weerman. Lanham, MD: Alta Mira.

White, Rob, Santina Perrone, Carmel Guerra, and Rosario Lampugnani. 1999 . Ethnic Youth Gangs in Australia: Do They Exist? Overview Report. Melbourne: Australian Multicultural Foundation.

Whyte, William F. 1943 . Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wilson, William J. 1987 . The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Yablonsky, Lewis. 1962 . The Violent Gang . New York: Macmillan.

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Youth Gangs in International Perspective

Results from the Eurogang Program of Research

© 2012
Finn-Aage Esbensen 0 ,
Cheryl L. Maxson 1

, Department of Criminology and Criminal J, University of Missouri- St. Louis, St. Louis, USA

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, Department of Criminology, Law, and Soci, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA

Explore Youth Gangs outside of the United States

Provides a consistent language and framework for comparing gangs across countries

Examines youth gangs from an interdisciplinary perspective, from risk factors and society causes to intervention and prevention

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

Front matter, the eurogang program of research and multimethod comparative gang research: introduction.

Finn-Aage Esbensen, Cheryl L. Maxson

Definitional Issues in the Comparative Context

Definitional issues in the comparative context, putting the “gang” in “eurogang”: characteristics of delinquent youth groups by different definitional approaches.

Kristy N. Matsuda, Finn-Aage Esbensen, Dena C. Carson

Counting Gangs: Conceptual and Validity Problems with the Eurogang Definition

Judith Aldridge, Juanjo Medina-Ariz, Robert Ralphs

Gang Member: Who Says? Definitional and Structural Issues

Hannah Smithson, Leanne Monchuk, Rachel Armitage

Five Decades of Defining Gangs in The Netherlands: The Eurogang Paradox in Practice

Frank van Gemert

Gang Organization, Offending, and Victimization: A Cross-National Analysis

David C. Pyrooz, Andrew M. Fox, Charles M. Katz, Scott H. Decker

Betwixt and Between Street and Prison Gangs: Defining Gangs and Structures in Youth Correctional Facilities

Cheryl L. Maxson

Group Processes in the Comparative Context

Group processes in the comparative context, gang dynamics through the lens of social identity theory.

Karen Hennigan, Marija Spanovic

Gang Membership: The Psychological Evidence

Emma Alleyne, Jane L. Wood

The Onset of (Euro)Gang Membership as a Turning Point in the Life Course

Chris Melde, Finn-Aage Esbensen

The Sex Composition of Groups and Youths’ Delinquency: A Comparison of Gang and Nongang Peer Groups

Dana Peterson, Dena C. Carson

The Impact of Globalization, Migration, and Social Group Processes on Neo-Nazi Youth Gangs

Revital Sela-Shayovitz

Typically Moroccan? A Group Dynamic Explanation of Nuisance and Criminal Behavior

Jan Dirk de Jong

Gang Depictions in Non-American Contexts

Gang depictions in non-american contexts, the danish gang-joining project: methodological issues and preliminary results.

Maria Libak Pedersen, Jonas Markus Lindstad

The Stockholm Gang Intervention and Prevention Project (SGIP): Introducing a Holistic Approach to Gang Enforcement

Amir Rostami, Fredrik Leinfelt

Are the Correlates and Effects of Gang Membership Sex-Specific? Troublesome Youth Groups and Delinquency Among Dutch Girls

Frank M. Weerman
Globalization
Juvenile Delinquency
Peer Pressure
School Violence
Youth Gangs

About this book

As a steady source of juvenile delinquents and an incubator for future adult offenders, the youth gang has long been a focus of attention, from their origins and prevalence to intervention and prevention strategies. But while delinquent youth form gangs worldwide, youth gang research has generally focused on the U.S.

Youth Gangs in International Perspective provides a needed corrective by offering significant studies from across Europe, as well as Trinidad-Tobago and Israel. The book spans the diversity of the field in the cultural and scholarly traditions represented and methods used, analyzing not only the social processes under which gangs operate and cohere, but also the evolution of the research base, starting with the Eurogang Program’s definition of the term youth gang . Cross-national and gender issues are discussed, as are measurement concerns and the possibility that the American conception of the youth gang is impeding European understanding of these groups. Among the topics covered:

Gang dynamics through the lens of social identity theory.
Defining gangs in youth correctional settings.
Gang gender composition and youth delinquency.
From Stockholm: a holistic approach to gang intervention.
Gang membership as a turning point in the life course.
The impact of globalization, immigration, and social process on neo-Nazi youth gangs.

Filling a critical gap in the literature, Youth Gangs in International Perspective will find a wide audience among criminologists, policymakers specializing in youth crime, and researchers and graduate students in criminology, political science, and youth studies.

From the reviews:

Editors and Affiliations

Finn-Aage Esbensen

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Youth Gangs in International Perspective

Book Subtitle : Results from the Eurogang Program of Research

Editors : Finn-Aage Esbensen, Cheryl L. Maxson

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1659-3

Publisher : Springer New York, NY

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law , Social Sciences (R0)

Hardcover ISBN : 978-1-4614-1658-6 Published: 13 December 2011

Softcover ISBN : 978-1-4899-9180-5 Published: 03 March 2014

eBook ISBN : 978-1-4614-1659-3 Published: 14 December 2011

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : X, 322

Topics : Criminology and Criminal Justice, general , Social Policy

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My unusual path to neuroscience, and research.

Picture of a Boston Children's Hospital sign placed across a stone wall.

I remember having a conversation with my mom where I essentially regurgitated my desire to research plants and plant medicine in college.

Picture of a small bamboo plant rooted in a bottle with water on top of a red wooden surface.

I've loved plants for as long as I've known. I've had plants like this one in my room since I first got my own room.

As a kid, I knew little about research, but I knew I wanted to be part of it when I grew older. Fast forward a few years, and I’m now working in the Faja Lab at the Boston Children’s Hospital as a student intern.

What happened in between? A lot!

Since I was little, I’ve always wanted to do research. As a kid, I thought scientists looked so cool with their bottles, lab coats, and bubbling chemicals. Later, I realized research was about so much more than that. In high school, I studied genetics through fruit fly experiments, learned about the lens through dissecting cow eyes, and wrote papers upon papers about literature and how the disconnect between agricultural science and farmers contributed to the Great American Dust Bowl.

In high school, I realized research was a limitless adventure where I could explore just about anything. It’s a curious kid’s playground, a skeptic’s dreamland. When I realized I had a passion for plants, chemicals, and psychology, I thought, “Why not research all of these?”

Close-up picture of a flowering lavender plant in a garden.

I was (and still am) particularly interested in terpenes and terpenoids in herbs like lavender.

So, I came into college ready to take on a unique branch of science: plant chemistry. But, when I arrived, I realized there were few labs studying plants, and no labs studying plant chemistry. My passion was a unique one at best.

It took a while to realize that my passions were not what I had thought they were. Through the past few years, I’ve learned so much about myself and what I am interested in. In this blog, I’d like to share my journey to choosing Neuroscience and working in a research lab.

An Unexpected Path to Neuroscience

Interested in plants and their chemicals, I came into college with one concentration (Harvard’s word for major) in mind: Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB). There are around 9 life sciences concentrations at Harvard, but I just knew I wanted to do MCB. I’d done my research. I’d get the chance to study how chemicals interact with the body and brain, I thought. I’d learn about how individual cells might interact with different compounds, I thought.

Well, I was wrong—in two ways. First, despite thinking I knew everything about MCB, MCB was not the only concentration that studied those interactions. If anything, Chemical and Physical Biology (or just Chemistry) might be better suited to studying those relationships. Second, after taking a few classes on molecular biology, I realized that MCB was awesome, but it wasn’t the only subject that interested me.

During sophomore year, I decided to take an intro neuroscience class called Neuro 80, one of the foundational MCB classes that double counts as a neuroscience class. I loved it! I realized I was fascinated by the brain and how it worked. My journey in neuroscience began with learning about neurons and the history of neuroscience and evolved into studying the molecular basis of behavior. I found myself drawn to the inner workings of the mind and brain. I took a psychology class, and since then, I’ve taken four more. By the time I realized I was interested in the mind and brain, I had already declared Neuroscience on the Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) track as my concentration.

Picture of a male-presenting student holding a brain.

Brains are cool!

Then, this year, I realized that my passion for plants and plant science had never disappeared. I took an MBB seminar called “Drug Use in Nature” (one of the best classes I’ve taken at Harvard!) where we learned about bugs that can sense chemicals released by rotting wood to find homes, cardiac glycosides and why monarch butterflies are resistant to them, and the role of terpenes and terpenoids in plant survival. The class was eye-opening. Somehow, it brought together everything I was interested in—plants, chemistry, psychology, the brain, and medicine. After junior fall, I realized my “passion” was not one thing, but rather a conglomerate of many things. Realizing that opened up my eyes to so many new possibilities, perspectives, and opportunities.

Close-up picture of a green and yellow dawn redwood leaf.

Like "Tree," a class on trees that I took my first year, this class brought me a new appreciation of plants and how they work.

A winding road to research.

I’d always wanted to do research, but I came into college set on doing one thing: plants. I realized later on that there were other interesting topics, too—like behavioral and developmental neuroscience! At the beginning of my junior year, I’d been thinking about joining a lab when, one day, I got an email about an opportunity at the Boston Children’s Hospital. The Faja Lab was a clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience lab studying individual differences observed in autistic children. I was fascinated by psychiatry, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, so this lab felt like the perfect match. I applied with great hopes, and was invited to join the team!

However, my journey to this point took a while. When I came in as a first-year, I was intimidated by research. After attending the annual Harvard Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Science (HUROS) fair, I realized research was far more complex than I had thought. Without any previous research experience, I didn’t feel ready. However, the fair seeded in me a hope to learn more.

By the end of my first year, I had reached out to several labs, but I realized that many of them weren’t the right fit for me. So, I waited. During sophomore year, I had found a few cool plant science labs, but, unfortunately, I was busy during the school year and already had summer plans, so the timing didn’t work out. Some of the labs were also at capacity, so I would have to wait. When my junior year began, I had started thinking more about ways to explore the intersection between psychology and neuroscience. That’s when I came across the Faja Lab!

Picture of a "Boston Children's Hospital" sign on a stone wall.

A picture I took the first time I visited the Boston Children's Hospital to get my badge.

I will never forget the first day I went to Boston Children’s Hospital. I was excited to work with children, and everyone on the team was incredibly kind, fun, and supportive. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of the team!

Meet Pompom, our lab mascot!

Reflections.

I remember receiving a letter that I wrote for myself last year. “Are you still studying neuroscience on MBB—are you now working in a lab?” Yes, and yes! It’s been a crazy ride, but I’m so happy about where I've ended up. I could never have imagined that after a few years, I’d be working in an awesome lab studying something I love. I’m excited for this summer and upcoming year when I’ll be working on a project exploring the relationship between executive function and play that will (hopefully!) culminate in a senior thesis. Here’s to a new beginning!

Picture of a drawing of a brain on a whiteboard with the words "Memory" and "#Braintree" written beside it.

A picture I drew in one of my psychology classes. Somehow, "Braintree" sums up what I'm interested in.

I’d like to shout out everyone at my lab and Ryan, my Neuroscience concentration advisor, for making my experience in research so great! I’m looking forward to this upcoming year and am excited about this summer.

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Psychopharmacology

Whistleblowers and medical fraud: a book review, a new book on the history—and price—of exposing corruption in medical research..

Updated May 15, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

What Is Psychopharmacology?
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In medicine, whistleblowers face institutional denial, stonewalling, retaliation, and other kinds of reprisal.
They expose coercive recruitment practices, conflicts of interest, weak protocols, and missing consent.
In revisiting some of medicine’s worst scandals, a new book details the efforts taken to block accountability.

“Nobody should indulge in the fantasy that they will be celebrated for blowing the whistle,” warns Carl Elliott in his riveting new book, The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No, published today by Norton. “It is more likely that they will be vilified, forgotten, or both.”

The more than half-dozen cases detailed in his investigation bear out that message with telling regularity. Whether from institutional denial , stonewalling, protection, retaliation, or other kinds of reprisal, whistleblowing in medicine is shown to carry a high risk of failure. Those seeking accountability are often the only ones to face any consequences, and they can be severe: demotion or job loss, hefty legal fees, unwanted notoriety, and a strong risk of being disowned by one’s coworkers.

“It's a demoralizing book,” Elliott tells me when I request an advance copy, “but, well, that’s what the subject demanded.” It does. The scale of injury detailed in each chapter—coupled with extensive evidence from archives and local media—is as daunting as are the many efforts by institutions to deny error and responsibility.

Even more tawdry are examples where the culpable feign unjust persecution, claiming that they are the real victim—of a witch-hunt or smear campaign. On several occasions, the fervor of denial is enough to persuade oddly incurious review boards and regulatory agencies that the malpractice is sound, even that the work merits praise and prizes (in one case, a Nobel).

Meanwhile, those driven to expose the fraud—whether of coercive recruitment practices, glaring conflicts of interest, failure to establish informed consent, or vague protocols and missing control groups—can end up fired, discredited, and rejected. “What we do essentially,” a manager concedes, “is put [the colleague] in a little boat, tow it out to sea, and cut the rope. We never think about [them] again.”

“I felt an antipathy against me,” one employee recalls after a well-considered decision to take his findings to the agency empowered to investigate them. “They feared I was opening my mouth too wide.”

Another is berated for confirming that two patients had recently died on the study protocol, a harbinger of dozens more: “Who the hell are you to question what we do around here?” A third remembers, “Everyone at work looked at me like I was a cobra. I couldn’t have been more alone if they put me in the toilet.”

While revisiting some of medicine’s worst scandals—examples include four decades of intentionally untreated syphilis in hundreds of African-American men, a hepatitis experiment on dozens of intellectually disabled children, a years-long series of deadly total body irradiation experiments involving the federal government, even a cover-up of egregious fraud at the same institute in Sweden that awards the Nobel Prize in medicine—Elliott provides nuanced portraits of each whistleblower, including their motivation and psychology.

Invaluably, Elliott ends up amplifying a larger theme of institutional cowardice in the face of well-evidenced corruption. One whistleblower marvels of his former coworkers, “It was astounding that nobody gave a damn,” even about a study associated with high rates of death. Others are baffled that so many peers and reviewers uncover the fraud but do nothing about it, asking: “How do you stand by and let these things happen?”

Atypical Antipsychotics and Forced Consent

Prefacing each example of medical malpractice is Elliott’s gripping account of his own seven-year ordeal after reporting on a research scandal at his home university, where for 11 years he had taught ethics in its medical school. In May 2003, the university’s Department of Psychiatry oversaw the study of second-generation antipsychotics that included a shockingly violent suicide . As reported by “Side Effects” in 2009 after further details were reported by a local newspaper, the patient had been enrolled in the study over the stated objections of his mother, since he was then in the midst of a full-blown episode and might pose a risk to himself or others. Elliott elaborates:

The study in which Markingson died was funded by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and designed to test its antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The study was marked by alarming red flags: conflicts of interest, financial pressures to get subjects into the study, a locked psychiatric unit where severely ill patients were targeted for recruitment. Most disturbing of all were the conditions under which Markingson was enrolled.… Not only was [he] psychotic when he signed the consent form, he was under a civil commitment order that legally required him to obey the recommendations of his psychiatrist. His mother wanted him to have nothing to do with the study. [The study leader ] enrolled Markingson anyway.

Further investigation unearths a disturbing number of malpractice cases in the same department: a nonconsensual addiction experiment on illiterate Hmong opium addicts, the injuries or deaths of 46 mentally ill patients under the care of a different faculty member. The professor leading the study in which Markingson died previously led a study on an experimental antipsychotic that, too, became associated with intense suicide ideation, previously unremarked. In that case, the patient managed to drop out of the trial, avoiding further risk of self-harm .

The reporting and investigation that Elliott felt compelled to pursue end up involving years of university stonewalling. Relations with even supportive colleagues sour. The intervention leads, eventually, to Senate hearings, an external review that faults the university’s oversight program and the passage of a new law in Minnesota meant to raise standards in medical research. But it generates no formal apology to Markingson’s mother. What she receives instead is a bill for legal fees sent by the same university that failed to sanction the forced participation of her son in a problematic clinical trial, even as it resulted in his death.

When Whistleblowing Backfires

Source: Ina Elliott. Used with permission.

This is the type of maddening pattern that repeats throughout The Occasional Human Sacrifice . Publicly stated concerns about misconduct are shown to backfire, sometimes spectacularly, leading to the demotion and discrediting of previously valued colleagues. In the process, review boards and sponsoring departments end up sullied and compromised—silent accomplices to malpractice—even as they may spend years fighting the charges and proclaiming the exposure to be the only cardinal sin.

The brilliance of Elliott’s book lies in the lessons it draws from overlooked detail. In the infamous Tuskegee, Alabama, experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service on hundreds of poor Black men with syphilis, where the agency “used free meals and burial insurance to lure them into an experiment in which they would receive no treatment for [the] potentially deadly disease,” the detail is that “ very few employees of the health service … saw anything wrong with this .”

The experiment ran for 40 years and took another seven to bring fully to light: “The public health establishment fought [discovery] at every turn. When the study was finally exposed, the federal government resisted paying for medical treatment for the victims. Another twenty-five years passed before the government apologized.”

“I think there is a ‘there’ there that we just maybe didn’t want to see,” an investigator tells Elliott of the staggering institutional blindspots that recur throughout, especially when reputations and significant funds are at stake. Concerning efforts to shield yet another study from investigation, Elliott adds: “It wasn’t just that they were unhappy to see their dirty laundry aired in public. Many of them didn’t think the laundry was dirty.”

“The force of social conformity is especially powerful in institutions that are driven by a sense of moral purpose,” notes Yale social psychologist Irving Janis, who is quoted in the book. “In academic health centers, that moral purpose is embedded in the dogma that medical research saves lives.”

“Since our groups’ objectives are good,” Janis continues, characterizing what the participants are said to feel, “any means we decide to use must be good.”

Elliott, C. (2024). The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No. New York: Norton.

Christopher Lane, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Medical Humanities at Northwestern University.

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Canadian Arrests Highlight Alleged Gang Role in India’s Intelligence Operations

India’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, has long been accused of tapping into criminal networks to carry out operations in South Asia. Is the agency now doing similar operations in the West?

People dressed in traditional Sikh attire sitting or walking in a courtyard, with a large ornamental gate in the background.

By Mujib Mashal and Suhasini Raj

Reporting from New Delhi

Months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada accused India’s government of plotting a murder on Canadian soil — plunging diplomatic relations between the two countries to their lowest level ever — the first arrests in the killing, which came on Friday, did little to demystify the basis of his claim.

The police didn’t offer clues or present any evidence that India had orchestrated the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh nationalist leader who was gunned down at the temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia, in June. What they did say was that three Indian men had committed the killing and that an investigation into India’s role was ongoing.

Before the arrests, Indian officials had maintained that Canada was trying to drag New Delhi into what it described as essentially a rivalry between gangs whose members were long wanted for crimes back in India.

After the arrests, a report from the CBC, Canada’s public broadcasting corporation , based on anonymous sources, also said the suspects belonged to an Indian criminal gang.

But analysts and former officials said that the possible role of a gang in the killing does not necessarily mean the Indian government was not involved in the crime.

India’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, has long been suspected of tapping into criminal networks to carry out operations in its immediate neighborhood in South Asia while maintaining deniability.

Canada’s accusation, if proven, that India orchestrated the Nijjar killing — and a similar accusation made soon after by the United States in a different case — may suggest that RAW is now extending its playbook of working with criminals to carry out operations in Western countries, analysts said.

U.S. officials have produced strong evidence in their accusation that an agent of the Indian government participated in a foiled attempt to assassinate a dual American-Canadian citizen. And Canada and allied officials have maintained that Canada has evidence supporting Mr. Trudeau’s claim that Indian agents carried out Mr. Nijjar’s killing.

But the Canadian failure to reveal any evidence that India took part, nine months after Mr. Trudeau’s explosive allegation, leaves the killing of Mr. Nijjar in the realm of accusations and counter-accusation in what is a highly tense political environment in both countries, analysts said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been flexing his muscles as a nationalist strongman, pitching himself during his ongoing campaign for a third-term in office as a protector of India who would go as far as it takes to target security threats.

During speeches, he has boasted about how his government eliminates enemies by “descending in their homes.” While he has made those references in relation to the country’s archenemy — Pakistan — right wing accounts on social media had celebrated the slaying of Mr. Nijjar in Canada as a similar reach of Mr. Modi’s long arm.

Mr. Trudeau, on the other hand, had been facing criticism of weakness in the face of Chinese election interference activities on Canadian soil, and his getting ahead of the Nijjar killing was seen as compensating for that.

Canadian police announced on Friday that they had arrested the three Indian men in Edmonton, Alberta, the same day and charged them with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Mr. Nijjar. The suspects had been living in Canada for three to five years but were not permanent residents of Canada, the police said.

The gang that the CBC reported that the hit-men are connected to is led by Lawrence Bishnoi, 31, who is accused of several cases of murder, extortion and narcotics trafficking. He has orchestrated much of it from an Indian jail, where he has been held since 2014 . His members are seen as being behind the murder of a popular Punjabi rapper, and threats of attacks on Bollywood celebrities.

Indian security officials have frequently arrested criminals connected to Mr. Bishnoi, often with allegations that the gang’s network stretched as far as Canada and overlapped with those promoting from Canadian soil the cause of Khalistan, a once deeply violent separatist movement with the goal of carving out the Indian state of Punjab as an independent nation.

A large Sikh diaspora resides in Canada, many of them having migrated there after a violent and often indiscriminate crackdown by the Indian government in the 1980s against the movement for an independent Khalistan. While the cause has largely died down inside India, it continues to have supporters among some segments of the diaspora. The Indian government has accused Canada, and several other Western countries, of not doing enough to crack down on the separatists.

Analysts and former security officials said that in India’s immediate geographic neighborhood, RAW has often been willing to venture into murky spaces to recruit killers. Senior officials of Mr. Modi’s administration, including Ajit Doval, the storied former spymaster who now serves as his longtime national security adviser, have in the past been accused of reaching into the underworld to find hit men willing to go after targets both inside the country as well as abroad.

Mr. Bishnoi has demonstrated enormous power from behind bars, even giving a television interview from jail last year to pitch himself as a nationalist warrior rather than a criminal mastermind. That, one former security official said, was a signal of his trying to align himself with the spirit of nationalism for a potential deal.

“I am a nationalist,” Mr. Bishnoi said in that interview. “I am against Khalistan. I am against Pakistan.”

Ajai Sahni, a security analyst who runs the South Asia Terrorism Portal in New Delhi, said the exploitation of criminal gangs by spy agencies to carry out operations with deniability was something that “happens all over the world.”

“It is definitely possible for agencies like RAW to use gang rivalries instead of exposing their own covert operators,” Mr. Sahni added. “But just because that is generally how one would expect it to be done, it doesn’t necessarily mean we know this is exactly the case in Nijjar’s killing.”

The failed plot on American soil had some of the sloppy hallmarks of an agency trying to extend an old playbook into a different, unfamiliar space.

A U.S. indictment in November laid out evidence, including electronic communication and cash transactions between the hired hit man — who turned out to be an undercover cop — a boastful middleman, and an Indian intelligence handler whom The Washington Post recently identified as Vikram Yadav .

The Indian government’s response suggested worry: India’s top diplomat said the action was not government policy, while the government announced an investigation into the matter and promised cooperation with the United States.

Canada’s case has played out very differently. The country has not publicly disclosed any evidence backing up Mr. Trudeau’s claim, even as allied officials said in September that Canadian officials had found a “smoking gun”: intercepted communications of Indian diplomats in Canada indicating involvement in the plot.

Indian officials have pushed back against Mr. Trudeau’s claims with the kind of aggression that suggested it either wasn’t involved or that it was confident of its deniability.

The Indian government expelled Canadian diplomats , and doubled down by putting out a list of individuals on Canadian soil that it said were long wanted as part of what it described as a crime and terror nexus.

Last week, officials in Mr. Modi’s government jumped on scenes of an event that Mr. Trudeau had attended to say it showed his accusations were simply to appease what they say is a Sikh vote bank for him. They pointed to videos of an event where Mr. Trudeau was the chief guest and where chants of “long live Khalistan” were shouted. Mr. Trudeau, in his speech, said he will always be there “to protect your rights and your freedoms, and we will always defend your community against hatred.”

After the speech, the Indian foreign ministry summoned Canada’s second highest ranking diplomat in New Delhi to lodge a complaint.

“His remarks to us illustrates once again the kind of political space that has been given in Canada to separatism, extremism and people who practice violence,” Randhir Jaiswal, the foreign ministry spokesman, said at a news conference.

Mujib Mashal is the South Asia bureau chief for The Times, helping to lead coverage of India and the diverse region around it, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. More about Mujib Mashal

Suhasini Raj is a reporter based in New Delhi who has covered India for The Times since 2014. More about Suhasini Raj

Special Collections & Archives
Special Collections

Book Collecting Contest

CWRU Students who have built a collection of 10-50 books based on a theme are encouraged to enter a book collecting contest sponsored by Kelvin Smith Library (KSL). Winners are eligible to participate in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest . Cash prizes for the top three collections will be awarded, including a $700 first prize for an undergraduate and graduate winner!

The Kelvin Smith Library contest is part of the larger national contest. See the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest website for more details about the contest and links to contests at other institutions.

The Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society (NOBS) is a co-sponsor of this event, offering a one-year membership in NOBS and a Loganberry Bookstore gift certificate to the two 1st place winners.

Congratulations to the 2024 KSL Book Collecting Contest Winners !

Check back in spring of 2025 for timelines and details for entering the next contest and explore contest guidelines below.

Contest Guidelines

“A collection should reflect a clearly defined unifying theme or interest. It may incorporate ephemera, maps, prints, autograph material as well as books, either hardcover or paperback, as long as they are germane to the collection's focus. How well a collection reflects the collector's intent is more significant than either the number of items or the monetary value of the collection.” - National Collegiate Book Collection Contest Rules and Submission Materials

Theme: This is the most important element of the collection. The books should relate to one another in some way, which could be based on the subject, author or illustrator, geography, physical aspects of the book, or some combination of those elements. Here are just a few examples of potential themes: Cuban poetry, illustrated children’s books, computer software manuals, zines produced in Cleveland, romance novels, books by William Faulkner, underground comix.
Number of books: Between 10 and 50. We welcome smaller collections in this contest! Even if you have a larger collection, please select no more than 50 books for this contest.
Ownership: You must own the books submitted as part of this contest. You can also include a “want list” of books you would like to add in the future.
Type of books: We define “book” loosely in this contest. Your collection could consist of cheap paperbacks, magazines, pamphlets, comic books, leather-bound encyclopedias, or any other bound paper media. It cannot consist of other media such as audio or video recordings. The books you select certainly do not need to be rare or expensive. The most important thing is that they relate to your theme.
Judging Criteria: We will judge submissions based on originality, coherence of the collection, and quality of the essay and annotated bibliography.
Eligibility: All students of CWRU (graduate and undergraduate) are eligible for the contest. If you were a winner in our contest previously, you are not eligible to participate this year. All winners are eligible to participate in The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest .

2022 Winners: 1st place Graduate: Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Expansion, Samuel Nemeth; 1st place Undergraduate: Scavenging the Revolution: A Collection of Second Hand Radical Works, Andromeda Vorndran; 2nd place: Reassessing Modernism: Women Writers and Publishers of the Lost Generation, Francesca Mancino; 3rd place: Epics: Vehicles of Culture, Carson Smith

On April 13, 2021 “ Mythbusting Book Collecting with Rebecca Romney ,” a virtual event, was held. The recording for this event is available on the CWRU YouTube channel. Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer, appraiser, and author. She is the co-founder of Type Punch Matrix , a Washington DC-area rare book firm specializing in pivotal works from every field.

2021 Winners: 1st place: A Case for Wider Recognition of Owen Wister, Meghan Schill, graduate student 2nd place: My International Treasure-Trove: Global Choral Compositions, Anna O’Connell, graduate student 3rd place: Opera Librettos, Paul Abdullah, graduate student The winners were announced and celebrated remotely due to the pandemic.

2019 Winners: 1st place: A Look at China History Through American Eyes: Chinese Elements on the Life Magazine Covers, Jianhong Guo, graduate student 2nd place: Editions and Adaptations of Dracula, Leah Davydov, graduate student 3rd place: Comics and Zines, Matthew Haberbusch, undergraduate student

Instead of a contest in 2018, John Buchtel, the former head of special collections at Georgetown University, now of the Boston Athenaeum, presented “Jane Eyre as Material Text: The Lives and Afterlives of a Classic.” The recording is available on YouTube: Jane Eyre as Material Text: The Lives and Afterlives of a Classic .

2017 was the inaugural year of the Kelvin Smith Library Book Collecting Contest.

1st place: Virtuoso String Performers and Pedagogues of the Twentieth Century, Katherine Rogers, graduate student; 2nd place: Submarines, Evan Cerne-Iannone, undergraduate student; 3rd place: From Joan of Arc to Richard III: War and Peace in Late Medieval England and France, Dominica Rollins, undergraduate student

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George stephanopoulos talks jimmy carter’s psychic briefing and grilling trump endorsers.

The ABC News personality and White House vet has a new book about the Situation Room — and thoughts about the potential presidential debates maybe coming this fall.

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George Stephanopoulos attends the 2024 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on April 20, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Following that wunderkind tenure on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and ensuing roles within the Clinton White House, George Stephanopoulos has been a mainstay of American political media. But he hasn’t, in the 25 years since memoir All Too Human: A Political Education , revisited the beltway — or anything — in a book.

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An introduction to gangs by George W. Knox
The Gang Book by Chicago Crime Commission
On Gangs
The Gang: A Study Of 1,313 Gangs In Chicago (Phoenix Books) by Thrasher
Youth in Gangs. What Do We Know
The Best Books on Gang Crime

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Street Gangs Of The Lower East Side Book By Jose “Cochise” Quiles & Clayton Patterson
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Book Shelf Tour #1 Research books

COMMENTS

The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society
Abstract. The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society is the premier reference book on gangs for practitioners, policymakers, students, and scholars. This carefully curated volume contains 43 chapters written by the leading experts in the field, who advance a central theme of "looking back, moving forward" by providing state-of-the-art reviews ...
The Handbook of Gangs
Scott H. Decker is Foundation Professor of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. His most recent books include European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups (edited with Frank Weerman, 2005), Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling: Lessons from the Inside (2008), and Criminology and Public Policy: Putting Theory to Work (with Hugh Barlow, 2010).
Gang Homicide: The Road so Far and a Map for the Future
Gang violence and homicide has been a part of gang research since its beginnings in the late 1920s. Early attention to the topic comes from Asbury (1927) who spoke about gang murders moving from one location to another, from continents to neighborhoods. Similarly, Thrasher (1927; citing Yarros, 1926) identified Chicago as "the murder capital of the world" largely as a consequence of gang ...
Introduction to the OUP Handbook of Gangs and Society
Abstract. This chapter introduces readers to The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society and its central theme of "looking back, moving forward." The chapter reflects on the past, present, and future of gangs and gang research and discusses the process of curating and editing more than 40 chapters written by over 80 scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, criminology, geography ...
The History of Gangs and Gang Research
Research in the early decades of the 20th century in Chicago reported that adolescent gang members experienced depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and addictions as consequents of violence clashes between Chicago's native white population and European immigrants and black migrants. Over the decades of gang research in America and ...
The Handbook of Gangs
gang violence, and criminal justice policy. G. David Curry, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri‐St. Louis. He earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1976. His research addresses issues dealing with gangs
Gangs in America's Communities
Gangs in America's Communities, Third Edition blends theory with current research to help readers identify essential features associated with youth violence and gangs, as well as apply strategies for gang control and prevention. Authors Dr. James C. Howell and Dr. Elizabeth Griffiths introduce readers to theories of gang formation, illustrate ...
Gangs and Society
The product of a landmark conference on gangs, Gangs and Society brings together the work of academics, activists, and community leaders to examine the many functions and faces of gangs today. Analyzing the spread of gangs from New York to Texas to the West Coast, the book covers such topics as the spirituality of gangs, the place of women in ...
US and UK Gangs: Research, Policy and Practice
In the 'golden era' of US gang research (Pyrooz & Mitchell, 2015), the time of Cloward and Ohlin (), Cohen and Miller (), gangs were the study of delinquency and gang theory was criminology theory.There is a reluctance among UK criminologists to truly embrace gang research (see Pitts, 2012), but really UK gang studies should be viewed as foundational to UK criminology.
Gangs & Crime
Gangs & Crime covers themes such as the many definitions of gangs, the history of gang research and methods for studying gangs. Key themes include social harm, feminist approaches and the globalization of gangs. With this book, students will get an easy yet sophisticated insight into almost 100 years of gang research and debate.
Gangs and a global sociological imagination
Within the field of gang research, however, ... His first book, Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. John Hagedorn is Professor of Criminology, Law, & Justice at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He has been doing research on gangs for more the 30 years.
A World of Gangs
Hagedorn once again moves gang research and urban scholarship in a much-needed direction. This book takes a long overdue look at how macro socio-economic forces shape the highly localized life of gangs and gang members. Hagedorn boldly calls for the infusion of race, politics, and culture into the study of gangs—subjects that have been ...
An Introduction to Gangs and Serious Youth Violence in the United
Ross Deuchar is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the West of Scotland and a Visiting Professor at the University of West London's National Centre for Gang Research. He is the author of six books, including Gangs and Spirituality: Global Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
Social Psychology of Gangs
This chapter focuses on social psychological processes that may be operating when youth decide to join a gang. First, it argues that gang membership can be an alternative attractive option for youth who lack a clear sense of their social identity and are marginalized by their peers or community. Then, it discusses why young people join gangs ...
Youth Gangs and Community Intervention: Research, Practice, and Evidence
Covering key themes and debates, this book explores the role of social capital and collective efficacy in informing youth gang intervention and evaluation, the importance of focusing on youth development within the context of community opportunities and pressures, and the possibilities of better linking research, policy, and practice when ...
(PDF) Youth Gangs: An Overview of Key Findings and ...
definition, youth street gangs can be defined as "any durable, street oriented youth group whose. involvement in illegal activity is part of its group identity" (Klein & Maxson, 2006, p. 4 ...
Gangs, Methodology and Ethical Protocols: Ethnographic ...
Gangs have been described as an episodic phenomenon comparable across diverse geographical sites, with the US gang stereotype often acting as the archetype. Mirroring this trend, academic researchers have increasingly sought to survey the global topography of gangs through positivist methodologies that seek out universal characteristics of gangs in different cultural contexts. So, research ...
Historical Gang Research Methods: An Overview
Abstract. This chapter gives an overview of the many historical research methods that have been neglected by gang researchers. Contrary to the longstanding view that historical research is not "scientific," this chapter demonstrates numerous types of historical research methods, ranging from using archival materials and other primary sources to oral history and newspapers.
14 Contemporary Gang Ethnographies
This article focuses on the state of contemporary gang ethnography by analyzing three periods of ethnographic research on gangs: the classic era, the "interstitial" period, and the contemporary period. It traces the evolution of the ethnographic approach to the study of youth behavior in the United States over the past century.
Youth gang affiliation, violence, and criminal activities: A review of
These included: (a) Ovid PsychINFO and Criminal Justice Abstracts; (b) Juvenile Justice Bulletin (not peer reviewed); and (c) Juvenile justice and gang research websites (e.g., The Eurogang Project, the National Gang Crime Research Center, the Office of Juvenile Justice in the U.S.), and (d) a Google search for unpublished articles available ...
Youth Gangs in International Perspective
The book spans the diversity of the field in the cultural and scholarly traditions represented and methods used, analyzing not only the social processes under which gangs operate and cohere, but also the evolution of the research base, starting with the Eurogang Program's definition of the term youth gang. Cross-national and gender issues are ...
My Unusual Path to Neuroscience, and Research
A Winding Road to Research. I'd always wanted to do research, but I came into college set on doing one thing: plants. I realized later on that there were other interesting topics, too—like behavioral and developmental neuroscience! At the beginning of my junior year, I'd been thinking about joining a lab when, one day, I got an email ...
Whistleblowers and Medical Fraud: A Book Review
Meanwhile, those driven to expose the fraud—whether of coercive recruitment practices, glaring conflicts of interest, failure to establish informed consent, or vague protocols and missing ...
Canadian Arrests Highlight Alleged Gang Role in India's Intelligence
India's external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, has long been accused of tapping into criminal networks to carry out operations in South Asia. Is the agency now doing similar ...
Ethics book recommendations from the Poe Business Ethics Center
This book examines the importance of "military ethics" in the formulation and conduct of contemporary military strategy. Clausewitz's original analysis of war relegated ethics to the side-lines in favor of political realism, interpreting the proper use of military power solely to further the political goals of the state, whatever those ...
Gangs in School: Exploring the Experiences of Gang-Involved Youth
However, youth with some exposure to gang life are, perhaps, best suited to speak on their activities in school, how gang youth are identifiable in school, and the reactions of students to the presence of gangs. Moreover, research suggests that youth gang affiliation is more common than generally believed with national prevalence rates of 2% ...
Book Collecting Contest
2017 was the inaugural year of the Kelvin Smith Library Book Collecting Contest. 1st place: Virtuoso String Performers and Pedagogues of the Twentieth Century, Katherine Rogers, graduate student; 2nd place: Submarines, Evan Cerne-Iannone, undergraduate student; 3rd place: From Joan of Arc to Richard III: War and Peace in Late Medieval England and France, Dominica Rollins, undergraduate student
George Stephanopoulos Talks New Book, Trump Lawsuit, Debates
George Stephanopoulos has a new book, The Situation Room, and the most surprising research revelation involves Jimmy Carter and psychics. George Stephanopoulos Talks New Book, Trump Lawsuit, Debates
Country Bookshelf Book Fair Handbook
Updates The latest news from our faculty and research staff Research Areas Core topics of iSchool research ... The creation of a book fair handbook aims to build upon the successful book fair program that Country Bookshelf has been able to implement and guarantee continued opportunities for students, librarians, and booksellers. ...
An Introduction to Gangs and Serious Youth Violence in the United Kingdom
county lines, desistance, gangs, knife crime, violence. Work on this special issue began in 2018, which was a watershed year for serious violence in the United Kingdom. After a decade of declines, homicide, knife and gun crime, and robbery began rising in 2014 and in 2018 reached their highest point for more than 10 years (HM Government, 2018).