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| 1 |
ID:
099865
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2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Most of the empirical research on Central American street gangs, called maras, has been published only in Spanish. Reviewing that literature, the American scholarship on gangs, and my own research on Central American gangs from the mid-1990s, this article depicts the processes through which the maras (Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street Gang) evolved from youth street gangs in the late 1980s to protection rackets with features of transnational organisations. Intense migratory flows between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the United States, and the hard-line suppression policies against youth gangs in institutionally weak Central American countries created the conditions that prompted networking and organisation among Central American street gangs. This article highlights the changes in the dynamics of violence and the transformations in the gangs' social spaces to illustrate the evolution of the maras.
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| 2 |
ID:
119503
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
There have been growing claims in media circles and law-enforcement settings that street gangs and criminal groups are turning to Internet-based social networking sites for various reasons ranging from the showcasing of their images and exploits to the suspected recruitment of members. The present study investigates whether such a trend is, in fact, in place. The presence of street gangs on these Internet sites is referred to as cyberbanging. While there is some anecdotal evidence suggesting that gangs are turning to social networking sites, there is little available research on exactly how street gangs and criminal groups use the Internet. Our main argument is that gang culture is in many ways an individualized phenomenon and this feature ties in directly with recent assessments of the Internet as a setting that is governed by a process of networked individualism. This theoretical link between the individualized gang setting and the presence of gang members on social networking sites helps us understand why recruitment is improbable even in a context where people are openly diffusing their image and exploits to a growing number of Internet users. The empirical segment of this research adds to this general outlook. Based on a keyword search of over 50 street gang names, the three main social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace) were monitored for street gang presence. Results illustrate that gang presence on social networking sites is linked primarily to promoting a general gang or street culture through individual displays. In regard to the visitors to such sites, there is no evidence that they are being tricked or manipulated in any way. They are, however, showing their curiosity in regard to such groups and, for those who share their comments and opinions, signs of support are evident. Thus, whereas criminal gangs are not proactively using the Internet to convert anyone into being gang members, social networking sites are creating a new venue for people who share or are sensitive to the values underlying street gang lifestyle to come together. These sites essentially create a new convergence setting for gang members to interact with a wider number of people who would probably never have been exposed to their lifestyles and exploits through physical interactions. The study's conclusion extends these findings toward further research in this area, as well as outlining the more relevant implications for law-enforcement monitoring of this growing phenomenon.
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| 3 |
ID:
109858
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines a grossly neglected area of the street gang literature: the nature and extent of gang organisation. Based upon fieldwork with gangs in London, UK, this article illustrates how recreation, crime, and enterprise are not specific gang 'types', but rather represent sequential stages in the evolutionary cycle of gangs. This article demonstrates not only how gangs typically begin life as neighbourhood-based peer groups, but also how, in response to external threats and financial commitments, gangs grow to incorporate street-level drug distribution businesses that very much resemble the multi-level marketing structure of direct-selling companies. Gang organisation, in turn, becomes a function of gang business. Gang organisation is conceptualised here on three levels: internal, external, and symbolic. This article examines, respectively, the presence of subgroups, hierarchy and leadership, incentives, rules, responsibilities, and punishments within gangs; how gangs interact with the local and larger community; and how gangs associate with symbolic elements of popular culture in order to convey reputation and achieve intimidation.
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| 4 |
ID:
117569
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2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the global dimensions of violent conflict and the parallels and links between violence in the diaspora and the homeland. It does so by discussing Tamil street gangs in London, Toronto and Paris. The Tamil diaspora played a key role in the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which raged between 1983 and 2009. In spite of being a marginal phenomenon in the Tamil diaspora, Tamil street gangs became part of a wider culture of fear within the Tamil community and possibly reinforced the LTTE's dominance over and fundraising in the diaspora. Although some of the rivalling gangs have been cast as pro- and anti-LTTE, gang violence cannot be interpreted as a direct continuation of conflict from Sri Lanka but has to be understood in relation to marginalization and identification in the city of residence. In everyday life in the diaspora, 'the gang' has been a way for some young Tamil men to strive for respect, riches and heroism, employing a mixture of references to gang culture and the LTTE and building on both ethnic and geographical identifications. The larger Tamil community, on its part, has been eager to dissociate itself from the street gangs as they threaten the image of the Tamils as law-abiding and well-adjusted migrants.
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