Street Gangs, Migration and Ethnicity

Abstract

by Frank Van Gemert, Dana Peterson and Inger-Lise Lien ( eds ) Cullompton : Willan , 2008 ISBN 9781843923961 , 286 pp, £25.00 (pb) Street Gangs, Migration and Ethnicity is an edited collection of essays that provides an international perspective on deviant street gangs. The book contains 16 chapters and is structured into four thematic parts: Introduction and methods; Migration and street gangs; Ethnicity and street gangs; Issues and challenges of migration and ethnicity in dealing with street gangs. There are around 30 contributors to this book, who are all studying durable, street-oriented youth groups whose active involvement in criminal activity forms an important part of the groups’ identity. The contributors present findings from qualitative and quantitative research studies conducted on street gangs in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia and Russia. Broadly, the book explores how ethnicity and migration – referring to both the movements of people and cultures – affect street gang formation and behaviour. The introductory chapters provide the reader with an outline of the book’s structure and a more in-depth discussion of the key issues that it covers. They also provide an interesting discussion around the ethical and methodological difficulties of researching marginal groups and the wider communities from which they hail, which are vulnerable to stigma and prejudice. Through several fascinating examples of street gangs found across the globe, the authors identify a series of pressures and social conditions affecting both migrant and indigenous populations, which appear conducive to street gang formation. The migrant groups, discussed by the authors, are often found living in deprived communities, facing hostility and negativity from sections of the indigenous population, the media and the various social institutions responsible for integrating them. The authors argue that it is often second generation migrants who are more likely to join deviant gangs, as they struggle to maintain a connection with the cultures of both their new and their old countries. While racist discourses, negative reactions to migrants and changing political, social and economic contexts, are identified as possible contributing factors in the appearance of indigenous street gangs. Migration is also explored in this book as the movement of cultures, ideas and symbols via the media and internet. Images of gangster styles have become interwoven with youth cultures and popular culture more broadly. In an age of global interconnectedness, the authors argue that these have become easily accessible to young people. The authors consider ethnic background to be relevant and useful for understanding street gangs. The chapters dedicated to the impact of ethnicity describe not only contrasting but also similar experiences for gang members, which seem to transcend racial and cultural differences. The authors conclude that street gangs are not comprised solely of ethnic minorities. Where differences do occur along ethnic lines, the evidence presented points towards differences in gang behaviour; the attitudes of members towards their group; and in the justification for joining a gang – where racism, prejudice and stigma were cited frequently by ethnic minority gang members. The authors also discuss the relationships that street gangs and their members share with their family and the wider community. They stress that a strong, close-knit relationship between street gangs and those around them, does not often provide the means to disrupt their criminal activities, as some policy-makers often assume. The authors conclude by outlining some of the shortcomings of their approach. They also direct the reader’s attention towards possible future research agendas and the ways in which policy-makers might tackle something that remains a consistent social problem for many societies. Overall, this is an excellent book: well written and very accessible. The authors have taken as their focus for this book, a set of issues that are sensitive and highly contentious – given the ways in which crime and ethnicity have been discussed historically in some academic, political and media circles (Phillips and Bowling, 2002). They deserve praise for approaching these issues with requisite diligence and for producing an extremely thought-provoking examination of deviant street gangs.