Latino Gang Research Articles

Keeping it real: A signaling theory perspective on authentic claims of gang membership made on social media

The advent of social media has transformed the landscape of street gang dynamics. Although existing research has documented gang members’ use of social media—including identity performance, rival taunting, promoting gang culture, and conflict de-escalation—it often lacks a theoretical foundation and process-oriented view of these digital interactions. This study advances a signaling timeline approach to fill this gap. We apply it to a case study of Chicago Latino gangs and qualitative content analysis performed on 2849 posts and thousands more replies and comments web-scraped from a public Facebook page. Our theoretical framework decodes the intricate language of gang communications on social media to uncover the mechanisms behind interpretations and perceptions of gang members’ authenticity and the reasons behind the public nature of what might otherwise be considered clandestine activities. Ultimately this research contributes to understanding the digital negotiation of gang dynamics, highlighting the strategic use of communication in cyberspace.

Latino gangs in Spain: from the Latin Kings & Queens to the Dominican don’t play

ABSTRACT In October 2003, a young Colombian was murdered after he left the high school where he was studying in Barcelona after an alleged confrontation between two gangs composed of young people of Latin American origin – the Ñetas and the Latin Kings & Queens. This led to a wave of moral panic over the presence in Spain of the so-called ‘bandas latinas’ (Latino gangs). Eighteen years later, in February 2021, two further murders in Madrid linked to clashes between two other gangs – Dominican Don't Play and Trinitarios – generated alarm and led to a campaign with important media, political, legal, and criminal repercussions. This text offers a review of two decades of the presence of street youth organisations of Latin American origin in Spain, presenting the first results of the TRANSGANG project, focusing on experiences of mediation with these groups, and ends with a discussion on ‘Latino gangs’ as a symptom of ‘moral juvenicide.’

Willingness to sacrifice among convicted Islamist terrorists versus violent gang members and other criminals

Is terrorism just another form of criminal activity, as many nations’ justice systems assume? We offer an initial answer using face-to-face interviews and structured surveys in thirty-five Spanish prisons. Recent theories of extreme sacrifice inform this direct observational and comparative study. Islamist terrorists display levels of self-sacrifice for their primary reference group similar to that of Latino gangs, but greater willingness to sacrifice for primary values than other inmates (non-radical Muslims, Latino gangs, and delinquent bands). This disposition is motivated by stronger perceived injustice, discrimination, and a visceral commitment to such values (risk/radicalization factors). Nevertheless, state authorities, prison staff, and families are (protective/de-radicalization) factors apt to reduce willingness to sacrifice and keep foreign fighters, now being released in large numbers, from returning to terrorism.

The King: Diary of a Latin King

El Rey: Diario de un Latin King presents the autobiography of César Andrade, known as King Manaba, from the transcripts of his dialogues with Carles Feixa recorded over a period of 15 years. The book offers a look from within to those labeled as "Latino gangs" by the media and presents a deeply moral vision of its protagonist.

Parallel Citizenship: Southern Californian Latino Gangs and their Concept of Citizenship

For Salvadorans who relocated to the United States, the marginalization imposed by American society, the victimization enacted by Mexican gangs, and their negative experience with El Salvador’s practice of citizenship brought them to create the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and modify 18th Street gangs in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Living on the fringes of society, they were kept from attaining the social, civil, and economic benefits of a liberal democratic model of citizenship. This paper claims that, in order to survive, they took it upon themselves to create a parallel model of citizenship, combining anarchism with “citizenship as agency” under the gang structure. Following Philip Oxhorn’s analysis of models of citizenship, this study examines how Salvadoran refugees came to create such alternative citizenship in the framework of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. Analysis asserts that the structure and development of membership in the gangs is not a coincidence, but rather a response to their marginalization, negative experience of state citizenship, and their participation in public arenas modeled as an extension of social contracts. Understanding the views of these, now transnational, gangs in terms of citizenship can aid policymakers and Central American governments as they approach these groups, eliminating violence and promoting development.

Parallel Citizenship: Southern Californian Latino Gangs and their Concept of Citizenship

Parallel Citizenship: Southern Californian Latino Gangs and their Concept of Citizenship

Las bandas juveniles en la sociedad contemporánea: marginalidad y resistencia<br /><em>Youth gangs in contemporary society: marginalisation and resistance</em>

RESUMEN El artículo explora el universo de los grupos juveniles hijos de la marginalidad –denominados bandas– en los barrios de las periferias globales, reflexionando sobre el fenómeno en la época contemporánea. Se presentan estos grupos compuestos por los hijos del subproletariado metropolitano, caracterizados mayoritariamente por su condición inmigrante, y conformados por elementos tanto globales como locales. Se discute la imagen dominante socialmente construida sobre estos colectivos, que declara una visión estigmatizadora, cada vez más con la crisis. Al mismo tiempo, se remarca cómo estos grupos brindan a los individuos una pertenencia y una identidad a la cual poder hacer referencia. También, las bandas pueden verse como grupos de resistencia –aunque ambiguos y contradictorios– a la violencia estructural que padecen. El cuadro interpretativo que se presenta en el artículo es fruto de diferentes investigaciones etnográficas del autor sobre los grupos juveniles marginalizados –en particular sobre las bandas latinas en el territorio catalán– realizadas en los últimos diez años. PALABRAS CLAVE: bandas, nación, síntomas, estigma, resistencia ABSTRACT The article explores the world of so-called youth gangs from suburban neighbourhoods, children of marginalisation, and reflects upon this phenomenon in the contemporary context. These groups are primarily composed of children of the metropolitan sub-proletariat, primarily characterised by their immigrant status and defined by global as well as local elements. The dominant image of these groups constructed by society is discussed as being stigmatising, even more so during the recent financial crisis. At the same time, these groups provide a sense of belonging and an identity to which individual members can refer. Furthermore, despite their ambiguity and contradictions, gangs can also be seen as groups of resistance against the structural violence that they endure. The interpretative framework of the article is based on various ethnographic research studies that the author conducted over the last ten years on marginalized youth groups, bandas latinas [Latino gangs ] in Catalonia in particular. KEY WORDS: gangs, nation, symptoms, stigma, resistance

Guarding Secrets by Patrick Jones, and: Taking Sides by Darby Creek (review)

Reviewed by: Guarding Secrets by Patrick Jones, and: Taking Sides by Darby Creek Elizabeth Bush Jones, Patrick Guarding Secrets. Darby Creek, 2015 89p (Locked Out) Library ed. ISBN 978-1-4677-5801-7 $27.99 Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-4677-6038-6 $9.99 Ad Gr. 6-10 Taking Sides. Darby Creek, 2015 97p (Locked Out) Library ed. ISBN 978-1-4677-5800-0 $27.99 Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-4677-6037-9 $9.99 R Gr. 6-10 Jones’s new urban lit series, Locked Out, focuses on teens whose parents’ crimes and incarceration have sent their children’s lives into a downward spiral. Guarding Secrets, set in Anaheim, California, focuses on high school junior Camila Hernandez, who has spent the past ten years bouncing among relatives and trying to keep her family secret from classmates—her mother, once involved in a Latino gang, is on death row for the fatal shooting of a police officer. Appeals have been abandoned, the execution date is set, and Camila is torn between the fear that she may have inherited her mother’s propensity to crime and the impulse to find her way toward forgiveness before the opportunity is gone forever. The slight page count isn’t robust enough to fully support additional problems and themes, ranging from adoring her model citizen boyfriend, dodging the blackmailing attempts of a gang-banger classmate, shoplifting a new dress for her mother’s funeral, and seeking guidance from a parish priest. Taking Sides is more tightly focused and, consequently, more successful. Narrator Todd and his sister Tina witness their father stab their mother to death, but each attributes culpability to a different parent. Swept into the foster care system and separated from each other in advance of their father’s trial, the pair has a few opportunities for covert communication, and her father pressures his son to convince Tina to change her interpretation of the tragedy in her father’s favor. Both of the titles are quick reads, constructed with plenty of dialogue, controlled vocabulary, and a chronological trajectory that allows less skilled readers to concentrate on content rather than structure. The riveting plots, however, will have appeal well beyond the reluctant reader set. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

“Tagged as a criminal”: Narratives of deportation and return migration in a Mexico City call center

In this essay, I describe the nexus of global capitalism, the precipitous rise in US deportations and return migration over the last decade, and the criminalization of Latino youth and immigrants in Mexico and the United States as manifested in the “call center narratives” of call center employees in Mexico City. The call center is the setting for an emergent transnational subculture within the economic imperatives of neoliberal globalization. For a disproportionate number of returning and deported youth, the transnational call center figures as an uncertain safe haven, a community of support and a temporary economic safety net. Even as the presence of former and active Latino gang members threaten the seeming safety in numbers, the call center narrators deconstruct the dominant discourse of “every immigrant is a (potential) criminal” in both the United States and in Mexico. And, as testimonios, the call center narratives speak from the “elsewhere” of deportation and return to US-based readers, voicing new perspectives on transnational and immigrant identity and solidarity.

The Militarization and Madness of Everyday Life

This essay explores the militarization of everyday life in the United States today, following decades of unresolved cycles of wars fought at home (e.g., the war on drugs) and abroad. A “continuum of violence” is established, through which the tactics of war and war crimes gradually seep into domestic civilian life as the new norms. The gross abuses of presumed enemy combatants in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay come back to haunt us, as war crimes abroad impact behavior at home. The expansion and deformation of US prison culture—isolation, solitary confinement, and other dehumanizing practices—illustrate the militarization of US society. The mimetic recycling of war- and peacetime crimes is complete when the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantánamo Bay finds its parallel in the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Pelican Bay prison in California. The normalization of the abnormal and the militarization of everyday life appear in the proliferation of armed and dangerous gated communities, the presence of the invisible de rigueur house gun or house arsenal, invisible surveillance, and civilian passive acquiescence to stop-and-frisk encounters as well as in the mass incarceration (without mass protest) of “dangerous populations,” almost any young black man, Latino gang members, and small-fry neighborhood drug dealers. The normalization of long-term solitary confinement in Security Housing Units (SHUs) in US prisons crosses over into the realm of torture and crimes against humanity.

Texas Latino gangs and large urban jails: Intergenerational conflicts and issues in management

This is a qualitative exploration of the impact of newly emerging gang structures on the correctional setting. A purposive sample of detention and classification officers was obtained from four large urban jails in Texas. In-depth interviews were conducted about gang population characteristics and the facility management issues that they pose. Officers report recent, significant changes in Latino gang structures primarily, attributing the shifts to intergenerational conflict. At each of the four sites, this development has exacerbated many of the typical correctional challenges identified in the literature on jails and gangs. Despite the changing norms among occurring throughout Latino gang hierarchies statewide, with few exceptions, the jail management responses reported here have remained relatively stagnant over the past several decades. The paper addresses the evolving nature of jail-based gang activity as a neglected issue in correctional management policy and proposes a framework for continued investigation of the issues.

Latino Street Gang Emergence in the Midwest

This article explores the role of migration in the recent emergence of Latino street gangs in a large, Midwestern city. Like many other places in the region, Indianapolis, Indiana, has witnessed the growing presence of Latino street gangs over the past decade. Seizing on the opportunity to document and analyze the early stages of formation, competing theoretical perspectives on how and why these gangs emerged are evaluated. The work is supplemented by insights gained in ethnographic work with Latino gang members, nongang Latino residents, public school employees, and police. The result is a contemporary historiography of Latino gang emergence, framed by a description of the social and structural context in which these groups are situated.

No boundaries: Transnational Latino gangs and American law enforcement

No boundaries: Transnational Latino gangs and American law enforcement

No boundaries: transnational Latino gangs and American law enforcement

No Boundaries is a former journalist's disturbing account of what many consider the 'next Mafia' - Latino crime gangs. Like the Mafia, these gangs operate an international network, consider violence a matter of routine business, and defy U.S. law enforcement at every level, from city police departments to federal agencies. Also like the Mafia, the gangs spawn kingpins such as the notorious Nelson Varela Martinez Comandari, the man who nearly became the first 'Latin godfather' in the United States.Focusing on the Los Angeles-based Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang, and the Chicago-based Latin Kings, Tom Diaz describes how neighborhood gangs evolved into extremely brutal, sophisticated criminal enterprises. In tandem with this story, he tells how local and federal authorities have struggled to suppress the gangs. As Diaz makes clear, however, the problem of transnational Latino gangs is not merely a law-and-order problem. It involves complex national issues, such as racial tensions and immigration policy, as well as conflict in Latin America, world economic pressures, and other global forces.

Understanding Latino Family Attitudes in Relation to Latino Gang Members' Substance Abuse

This paper presents a content analysis of ethnographic interviews from long-term Latino gang members whose families have recently immigrated to the United States. Positive relationships within the family, parental support, a consistent and constructive parental discipline style and adult supervision tend to be related negatively to adolescents' deviant behaviors and their association with deviant peers. An expected positive relationship between the parent-child constructs, adolescents' deviant behaviors, and association with deviant peers was not found. Positive family attitudes toward deviance were associated with the number of drug type transactions and greater levels of drug use. This association has been overlooked in previous research. Our study expands the examination of the influence a family's positive attitudes toward deviance has on the apparent progression of drug use in a sample of Latino gang members with histories of drug use. An analysis of structured interview content differentiated family attitudes toward deviance as: encouragement and tolerance, imitation, and defining norms.

An Analysis of Risk Domains Associated with Drug Transitions of Active Latino Gang Members

Alcohol and illicit drug abuse is a serious problem among male Latino gang members. Research indicates that gang members increase their drug use while they are members, and use more drugs after they leave the gangs. This manuscript reports on data reflecting the influences of individual, familial, peer, and community factors on the number of drug use transitions that Latino gang members undergo during their drug using careers. Data from this study were collected from interviews conducted with seventy-six active Latino gang members. The study's results indicate that age at the time of interview and lower age of drug onset were associated with a greater number of drug use transitions. Positive family attitudes toward deviance, friend drug use, school truancy, conflict with parents, and living in neighborhoods with a high level of crime were also found to be associated with increased drug use transitions.

Transforming Latino Gang Violence in the United States

The traditional response to gang activity in the United States has been to employ social control mechanisms and physical coercion to stop “anti‐social” behavior. Similar efforts often come in the f...

Chapter 5: Onset of Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Latino Gang Members

SUMMARY Recent information from epidemiological studies of alcohol and other drug use among gang members has documented that alcohol and other drug use is a serious problem among Latino gang members. Despite the extensive body of research on the onset of alcohol and other drug use among high-risk adolescents and the drug-using behaviors of gang members, particularly Latino gang members, there is a limited amount of research on the onset of alcohol and other drug-using behaviors among Latino gang members. The study described in this paper explores the patterns of alcohol and drug use initiation among male Latino gang members. Data presented in this report is from a preliminary analysis of 40 male gang members from a larger study of 81 male gang members. This preliminary analysis suggests important age and drug of choice differences between Latino gang members and other populations. Understanding the differences will assist in developing more effective programs to prevent the onset of alcohol and other drug use among Latino adolescent gang members

Substance Abuse Among Puerto Rican and Dominican Gang Members in a Small City Setting

SUMMARY Joining a gang increases an adolescent's risk for substance abuse. To better understand the contextual development of drug use behavior, this retrospective ethnographic study describes a sample of 76 young small-city mainland Puerto-Rican and Dominican males who joined gangs when they were younger. Data is presented and discussed on the drug abuse behavior including their drug using progression and the context in which such use occurs. The young average age of onset 11.2 (sd = 2.6) combined with the rapid progression to more dangerous drugs, which generally occurs within six years, demonstrates the elevated risk associated with small city gang membership. Differences in the patterns of drug use were also found between the English and Spanish speaking groups. The authors discuss the implications of the study findings on the development of interventions. Recommendations address future research possibilities on drug abuse within Latino gangs.

Gang Membership and Acculturation: ARSMA-II and Choloization

Choloization, a staple in gang research on Latinos, asserts that gang members are less acculturated than non-gang members. However, the concept has not been subjected to a quantitative analysis. Using a sample of Latino incarcerated youths from Los Angeles County (N = 370), the veracity of the concept of choloization using the ARSMA-II Acculturation Scale is examined. It was hypothesized that gang members have more of a Mexican orientation than non-gang members. The hypothesis was supported, providing empirical evidence for choloization. The authors suggest that the findings can assist in delinquency intervention but caution that the results can also further disenfranchise Latino gang members.