Gangs, Drug Dealing, and Criminal Governance in Marseille, France

Youth gangs are a major part of the urban landscape. Gang members always have been involved in collective and individual violence and, in recent years, in drug use and drug dealing. Involvement in drug dealing recently has been associated with increased violence among gangs. However, variation in organizational and social processes within gangs suggests that there also will be variation in drug‐crime relationships among gang members. Analyses of the drug‐crime relationships were conducted from interviews with 151 gang members in three cities. Four types of gangs were identified, and similar gang types were observed in the three cities. All gang types had high involvement in drug use, but drug dealing varied. The severity of collective gang crime was associated with the prevalence of drug use within a gang. Drug dealing occurred among gangs with both high and low involvement in violence and other crimes. Involvement in cocaine, opiates, and PCP occurred among both violent and nonviolent gangs, as well as among gangs with different involvement in drug dealing. The results suggest that the drug‐crime relationship is skewed and spurious for gang members, similar to relationships among nongang inner‐city adolescents. Members of violent gangs more often reported the existence of several features of social organization and cohesion in their gangs, independent of gang involvement in drug use and dealing. Similar to other urban adolescents, for gang members violence is not an inevitable consequence of involvement in drug use or dealing.

This chapter analyzes the conditions that have allowed street gangs in El Salvador to play an oversized role in the dynamics of security and electoral politics in that country. This case study reflects the increasing importance that criminal organizations have in governance and in the organization of political order in the region. Following the growing literature on criminal governance and non-state armed actors, the chapter makes three theoretical claims. First, street gangs are an essential part of daily local governance in several countries in the region. In practice, any effort to alter the living conditions of the population goes through the tacit or formal acquiescence of local criminal groups. Second, the ability of criminal groups to influence policy and politics at the national level is a function of their capability to translate their local, territorial control into leverage in relation to the national exercise of power. And third, such capacity stems from operational coordination across the territory.

This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang members/ex-gang members suggested that the gang is a loose social network with little recognisable formal organisation. Although individual gang members sell drugs, the gang should not be viewed as a drug dealing organisation. Rather it is a composition of individual drug dealers who cooperate out of mutual self-interest. Therefore, some gang members are best described as independent entrepreneurs while others are subcontractors looking to ‘go solo’. The seven practitioners, however, tended to describe a more hierarchically structured gang, with formal recruitment processes. This divergence of perspective highlights an important consideration for policy and research.

BACKGROUND The Problem There is evidence of gang violence in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia, and the prevalence of gangs is particularly well documented throughout Central and South America (Decker & Pyrooz, 2010; Gatti et al., 2011). Official estimates of gang membership in Central America estimate approximately 69,000 members, while academic estimates believe this figure to be closer to 200,000 (UNODC, 2007). Some estimates are as high as 500,000 gang members in the region including South America and the Caribbean, and gangs have been identified as “the primary threat to regional stability and security” (Muggah & Aguirre, 2013). While reporting and recording issues make it difficult to estimate rates of gang violence, the homicide rate in Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador and Guatemala are substantially higher than those of European and North American countries (Decker & Pyrooz, 2010; UNODC, 2007). Gangs are also active in South Africa, with an estimate of 100,000 members in Western Cape alone (Reckson & Becker, cited in Decker & Pyrooz, 2010); however, to date, there is limited research examining gangs in Africa and Asia...

Objective To examine several risk and protective factors as predictors of future gun violence among male juvenile offenders. Method Data came from a longitudinal cohort of 1,170 male juvenile offenders (42.1% Black; 34.0% Latino; 19.2% White) ages 14–19 who were adjudicated for a serious offense. Interviews were conducted with participants every 6 months for 3 years and then annually for 4 years. The outcome was self-reported gun violence assessed at each follow-up. The time-lagged predictors included several self-reported risk factors (i.e., gun carrying, non-gun violence, drug dealing, heavy drinking, poor impulse control, rewards for crime, peer gun carrying, peer non-gun delinquency, gang membership) and protective factors (i.e., concern for others, expectations, and aspirations for work/family, religious beliefs, adult social supports). The data were analyzed using generalized estimating equation models. Results There were 266 participants who reported engaging in gun violence at one or more assessments. Gun carrying was a significant predictor of future gun violence; however, nearly half (49%) of the juveniles who reported gun carrying across the repeated assessments did not report engaging in gun violence. Besides gun carrying, several risk (i.e., drug dealing, heavy drinking, rewards for crime, gang membership, peer gun carrying) and protective (i.e., concern for others, aspirations for work/family, religious beliefs, adult social supports) factors significantly predicted gun violence, after controlling for their co-occurrence (Risk factor odds ratios = 1.18–1.50; Protective factor odds ratios =.44-.87; ps<.05). Conclusions Interventions designed to prevent gun violence among juvenile offenders should reduce targeted risk factors, while strengthening protective factors that may offset these risks.

Part I: Introduction and Methods. Introduction and Key Questions. The Pittsburgh Youth Study: Its Design, Data Collection, and Early Key Findings. Measurement Instruments and Constructs. Part II: Epidemiology of Violence, Serious Theft, Substance Use, Drug Dealing and Gang Membership. The Age-Crime Curve in Reported Offending. Comparing Arrests and Convictions with Reported Offending. Substance Use, Drug Dealing, Gang Membership, and Gun Carrying and Their Predictive Associations with Serious Violence and Serious Theft. Part III: Prediction of Violence, Serious Theft and Desistance. Promotive and Risk Processes at Different Life Stages. Developmental Trajectories of Violence and Theft. Desistance From and Persistence in Offending. Part IV: Conclusions. Conclusions and Policy Implications.

This chapter examines drug dealing and gang membership, and to a lesser extent sex offending and homicide, with respect to age of onset and desistance, correlates and causes, and offense specialization and persistence during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. Prior studies and research indicate that initiation of criminal activity is not rigidly fixed in enduring biological or developmental processes, but is contingent on crime type, time period, and perhaps other features of social context. Although most criminal offending begins in adolescence, the chapter finds some evidence of initiation of serious violence and drug dealing in early adulthood, whereas gang membership almost always begins during adolescence. The chapter's analyses also indicate comparatively strong persistence from adolescence into young adulthood of drug dealing and gun carrying, less persistence in serious violence and theft, and little persistence in gang involvement. In general, the evidence suggests that special types of offenders do not tend to specialize in a single offense type to the exclusion of others, although prior research does indicate somewhat greater specialization among sex offenders who victimize children than those who victimize peers or adults. Additional research is needed to formulate effective interventions for these special offenders.

Serious the and violent oending have been linked to many other problem behaviors, such as substance use, drug dealing, gang membership, and gun carrying. One advantage of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS) is that it has collected annual data on all of these problem behaviors. erefore, it is possible to examine the prevalence, onset, and duration of them between ages 7 and 25. Further, the data make it possible for us to examine the onset of the problem behaviors in relation to the onset of violent and the oending, and investigate which of the problem behaviors dierentially predict violence or the, or both.

In this article, we explore how and to what extent it is useful to think about drug dealing through the conceptual lens of intimacy. Such an approach both complements and challenges mainstream views on drug dealing, which see the phenomenon as based on ‘formal-rational’ organisation and practices. We explore the intimacies of drug dealing along three axes: the involvement of kin and family, ‘governing intimacy’ and as embedded in culturally intimate models and ideas. Drawing on our collaborative ethnographic research in Nicaragua and South Africa, we illustrate first how family and kin are implicated in drug dealing, both voluntarily and against their will. Secondly, we explore how drug dealing institutes or produces particular forms of order, often entangled with state and policing governance, folding itself into communal and family relations. Finally, we consider the extent to which drug dealing enters into local notions and rationalities, from models of how to be a ‘good’ drug dealer to how one’s daughter should conduct her love life. These analyses allow us to suggest new avenues for research on drug dealing that foreground social embeddedness and gender relations.

Journal Article Drug Dealers, Robbery and Retaliation. Vulnerability, Deterrence and the Contagion of Violence Get access Volkan Topalli, Volkan Topalli All correspondence regarding this work should be directed to Dr Volkan Topalli, Department of Criminal Justice, College of Health and Human Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA. 30302–4018, via e‐mail: vtopalli@gsu.edu (www.cjgsu.net). Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Richard Wright, Richard Wright Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Robert Fornango Robert Fornango Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 42, Issue 2, 1 March 2002, Pages 337–351, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/42.2.337 Published: 01 March 2002

This study explores criminal governance among urban gangs operating in a large European city. It does so by introducing the Crim-Gov questionnaire, a novel survey tool purposely designed to systematically capture key governance-related dimensions of criminal groups’ activities, and applying it to the case of London. It identifies instances of criminal governance among gangs operating in the city and shows that governance activities are only carried out by a subset of groups, thus suggesting that a more complex set of skills is required to provide criminal governance, particularly beyond illegal markets. Governance-type gangs are spatially clustered and impact 4.7% of all London communities. Next, the paper explores the neighbourhood structural conditions associated with governance and non-governance gang presence. It shows that, while socioeconomic disadvantage increases all types of gang presence, barriers to local services, including affordable housing, only increase the probability of governance-type gangs. Criminal governance is more likely to emerge when services provided by local and central authorities are of lesser quality. Results also indicate a negative association between residential mobility and criminal governance, suggesting that a certain degree of residential stability is needed for criminal governance to emerge. These findings point to the importance of separating different types of gang activities, lending support for a broader theory that situates (some) urban gangs within the spectrum of organised crime governance. It is also crucial for law enforcement and local stakeholders to identify governance-type gangs and treat them separately from non-governance ones. When developing interventions to tackle the emergence and persistence of governance-type gangs, particular emphasis should be placed on improving access to and quality of public services.

Problems related to gangs have been noted in large cities and in many schools across the United States. This study examined the patterns of alcohol, drug use, and related exposures among male and female high school students who were gang members. Analyses were based on the Youth Violence Survey, conducted in 2004, and administered to over 80% of eligible public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N = 4131) in a high-risk, urban school district. The self-administered survey, completed during a class period, included measures of alcohol and drug use and related exposures. Tests of associations were determined using chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses. In this study, 8.8% of students reported gang membership. Students who initiated alcohol use prior to age 13 (OR = 4.90; 95% CI: 3.65-6.58), who drank alcohol 3 or more times per week (OR = 9.57; 95% CI: 6.09-15.03) and who used drugs 3 or more times per week (OR = 6.51; 95% CI: 4.59-9.25) were more likely to report gang membership than students who did not report alcohol or drug use. Boys were more likely than girls to report alcohol-related fighting and drug selling. Gang members were significantly more likely than non-gang members to have initiated alcohol early, to have reported a high prevalence of alcohol use, to have engaged in alcohol-related physical fighting, peer drinking, drug use, drug selling, peer drug selling, and having seen drug deals in their neighborhood. Schools may serve as a critically important source for intervention and prevention efforts for gang members, especially those in 7th grade, who still attend school.

This paper explores drinking by girl gang members. Sociologists and criminologists have tended to concentrate on both male gang members and their involvement in drug dealing. This pre-occupation has tended to overshadow not only the role of female gang members but also the importance of drinking within youth gangs. In spite of a growing interest in female drinking, ethnographic and qualitative research on female drinking is still much less developed than that devoted to male drinking. In analyzing the culture of drinking in the lives of girl gang members, we uncover the extent to which alcohol plays a central part in their everyday lives. Data for this paper are drawn from the results of an on-going study of street gangs in the San Francisco Bay area, in which 97 female gang members were interviewed using both a quantitative and qualitative interview schedule.

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Cromwell et al. was to identify and discuss several issues affecting the formation of competent public policy and the implementation of effective gang intervention strategies in the 1990s. METHODOLOGY: The authors employed a non-experimental design in which information was collected from both past research in gang formation and regional statistics on gang activity. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: The authors began by outlining the scope of the problem of youth gang activity and the difficulty of gathering reliable and valid information regarding the extent, nature and seriousness of the gang problem. Moreover, almost every academic study as well as law enforcement agency report have utilized varying operational definitions of what constitutes a gang or gang-related incident. Tautological definitions of gang and gang member as well as gang activity have further confused the problem. Consequently, gang research and data on gang activity from different jurisdictions should be interpreted and compared with caution. The classical gang studies of the 1950s and 1960s are now outdated insofar as the nature, organization, motivation and activities of gangs have since changed. While the membership of gangs have historically been male with females playing marginal roles, the authors suggested that increased gang violence committed by female members indicates that gangs are no longer a male phenomenon. The membership of contemporary gangs have a wider of age and are also reporting older members. According to the authors, these findings suggest that gang members are no longer maturing out of gangs into legitimate occupations but rather establishing careers in criminal gang activity. The motivation towards joining a gang has also evolved. The authors found that where gangs of yesteryear fulfilled an expressive function for its membership, the motivation behind joining contemporary gangs is more instrumental. The authors cited early gang studies which argued that the identity, recognition, status, safety and security, power and excitement offered by gangs attracted members who were afflicted by the poverty and alienation of urban immigrant areas. Instrumental gangs, on the other hand, primarily satisfy economic concerns and many times don't display many of the standard features of the expressive gang (eg.,the use of symbols, rituals, oaths and names as well as territorialism). Contemporary gangs' activities range from low level street dealing to sophisticated, highly organized, and heavily armed networks for the distribution of cocaine (p. 29). To conclude, the authors found evidence which suggested that contemporary youth gangs might provide its younger members with the contacts and preparation for later criminal career efforts. AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors emphasized the need for reliable and valid data about gangs and gang activity in order to develop informed and effective public policy. Therefore law enforcement agencies, the media and citizens groups must come to an agreement on a standardized definition of gang and gang-related activity. Furthermore, traditional wisdom about the causes, structure and organization of gangs needs to be reevaluated such that it reflects the juvenile gang of the 1990s. EVALUATION: The authors present a thoughtful discussion of the changing nature of gang activity and the difficulties associated with evaluating gang research. They utilize both past and present research to formulate their arguments in an organized and well written paper. It would have been helpful, however, if the authors had addressed the changing ethnic makeup of gangs in order to establish a better understanding of the dynamics of gang involvement. Overall, the authors offer a valuable discussion of contemporary youth gangs with implications for both policy decisions and future research efforts. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Public Policy KW - 1990s KW - Juvenile Crime KW - Juvenile Gang KW - Juvenile Offender KW - Juvenile Violence KW - Violence Intervention KW - Gang Violence KW - Gang Intervention KW - Intervention Recommendations KW - Research Recommendations KW - Policy Recommendations Language: en

Objective/context: After the paramilitary demobilization in Colombia, Cali and Medellín—major cities with a long history of political and criminal violence—saw a decline in violence despite the continuing operation of criminal groups. Yet, while Cali remained more violent than the national average, with criminal groups displaying less ability to regulate local affairs and security, Medellín became less violent than the national average and criminal groups engaged in more intensive governance. Methodology: I compare these cities using case studies constructed through fieldwork and interviews with security officials, NGO and social leaders, and former members of groups, drawing on my long-term, ongoing research engagement in both locations. Conclusions: The contrast between these cities exemplifies varied manifestations of post-conflict criminality. I argue that this variation in criminal governance is connected to the wartime balance of power, specifically, the level of territorial control and political connections armed groups had before the demobilization. Where control and political connections of paramilitary before demobilization were high, post-conflict crime groups were more likely to engage in governance behaviors. By contrast, disputed territories during wartime were likely to experience less criminal governance. Drawing on path dependence ideas, I introduce an overlooked mechanism through which wartime orders affect criminal behavior: learning processes inside and outside criminal groups. Originality: I show that to fully understand post-conflict criminality, it is crucial to consider armed actors peripherally involved in the war but essential for territorial control, whereas to understand criminal governance, the mid-ranks of armed groups and learning processes are crucial.