Alliances, Conflicts, and Contradictions in Montreal’s Street Gang Landscape

Abstract

This study proposes an analytical framework for examining the network of street gangs in Montreal. The objectives are twofold. One aim is to describe the core features of Montreal gangs. The second aim is to examine the structure of social relations between these gangs. These analyses allow us to assess whether the city’s gang landscape is structured around popularized rivalries between the Crips and the Bloods. Data for this research were gathered during focus group interviews involving 20 youth gang members residing in the Centre jeunesse de Montreal–Institut universitaire, the city’s main youth correctional institution. These gang members identified a total of 35 active gangs in Montreal. The network does reveal a relational setting that supports the popular Crips versus Bloods rivalry, with intercoalition conflicts and intracoalition alliances accounting for the vast majority of intergang relations. However, the study also revealed some important exceptions to this popular outlook. Such exceptions must be taken into consideration in order to arrive at a more complete and nuanced understanding of Montreal’s street gang landscape. The authors suspect that the conflicts and contradictions that emerge in the Montreal scene are also relevant for other major North American cities.