Street Culture Research Articles

Cybercrimes on the Streets of the Netherlands? An Exploration of the Intersection of Cybercrimes and Street Crimes

ABSTRACT This article explores the intersections of street crimes and cybercrimes. Fourteen Dutch criminal investigations into networks that committed cybercrimes were analyzed to gain insight into offline and local dimensions of these activities. Firstly, we examined whether the networks in these cases are also involved in other criminal activities than cybercrimes. Secondly, we analyzed the origin and growth of these networks, with specific attention for the role or offline interactions on the physical streets. Thirdly, we explored whether the cases contained information that would indicate the presence of a street culture informing the activities of the offenders. Our analysis of both the criminal activities and the origin and development of the cybercriminal networks highlights the ongoing importance of the offline world. However, our results shed light on more than just the “hidden face of cybercrime.” Based on their linguistic practices and motives and neutralizations, we see examples of how core members, recruiters, and money mules in different cases are embedded in Dutch street culture. Our findings, therefore, indicate that cybercrime cases could also be interpreted as digital diversifications of traditional street (economic) street crimes and, thereby, as empirical examples of street offenders adapting to the rise of technology.

“I’ve seen my friend get chopped”: The Influence of Peer Networks on Exposure to Violence Among Homeless Young Adults

Homeless young adults report being exposed to substantial violence and victimization. This often arises through street culture and norms associated with subcultures of violent behavior. In this exploratory study, we applied a decolonizing lens to conduct semi-structured interviews with 18 young adults experiencing homelessness in Victoria, Australia. In this study, we provide a contemporary description of peer relationships among homeless young adults. We examine how these relationships influence exposure to violence, and how young adults perceive and respond to injuries sustained by their peers because of exposure to violence. Findings showed bonds and relationships between homeless young adults appear to imitate the rapport and functions of sibling-kinship that typically exist in supportive family environments. Despite the care and protection provided within close peer relationships, these relationships may also contribute to exposure to violence by way of young adults witnessing violence perpetration and incidences of peers being physically victimized. There is an important duality between the perceived normalization of witnessing peers’ experiences of violence and young adults’ self-reflexive disclosure of vulnerability and helplessness in witnessing these incidents. Study findings have important research and practice implications for recognizing the influence and importance of peer relationships in the delivery of homelessness support programs.

Femme Fatales: Girl Gangsters and Violent Street Culture in Cape Town

This article examines the ways that 21 girl gangsters perform violent street culture in Cape Town, South Africa. It examines their participation in the city’s township gangs, with a particular focus on female involvement in gang-related acts of aggression and violence. Research looks to move beyond portrayals of girl gangsters in Cape Town as either victims or accessories. It shows how they leverage street cultural performances in reaction to intersectional oppression, and in an attempt to empower themselves. Young women in this study joined gangs and took part in violence for many of the same reasons that men do—protection, income, status, and so on—as well as due to threats of sexual violence faced specifically by females. But street cultural participation for females in Cape Town also often perpetuates cycles of violent victimization, incarceration, and substance abuse that keep girl gangsters trapped in a life on the streets. In this way, females in this study broke from the binary view of girl gangsterism as either totally liberating or totally injurious, embodying both simultaneously.

Impact of sugar-sweetened beverage tax on dental caries: a simulation analysis

BackgroundThe tiered sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax was implemented in Thailand to encourage industries to reduce sugar content in beverages, and consequently reduce sugar consumption in the population. The aim of the study is to explore the expected impact of the new SSB tax policy in Thailand, a middle-income country in Asia, and other alternative policies on oral health outcomes as measured by the prevalence and severity of dental caries among the Thai population.MethodsA qualitative system dynamics model that captures the complex interrelationships among SSB tax, sugar consumption and dental caries, was elicited through participatory stakeholder engagement. Based on the qualitative model, a quantitative system dynamics model was developed to simulate the SSB tax policy and other alternative scenarios in order to evaluate their impact on dental caries among Thai adults from 2010 to 2040.ResultsUnder the base-case scenario, the dental caries prevalence among the Thai population 15 years and older, is projected to increase from 61.3% in 2010 to 74.9% by 2040. Implementation of SSB tax policy is expected to decrease the prevalence of dental caries by only 1% by 2040, whereas the aggressive policy is projected to decrease prevalence of dental caries by 21% by 2040.ConclusionsIn countries where a majority of the sugar consumed is from non-tax sugary food and beverages, especially Asian countries where street food culture is ubiquitous and contributes disproportionately to sugar intake, SSB tax alone is unlikely to have meaningful impact on oral health unless it is accompanied with a comprehensive public health policy that aims to reduce total sugar intake from non-SSB sources.

Digital Street Culture Decoded: Why criminalizing drill music is Street Illiterate and Counterproductive

AbstractAuthorities in the United Kingdom censure ‘drill rap’, the artistic expression of disadvantaged urban youth, citing its connections to serious violence. This is shown to be based on a thin, ‘street-illiterate’ understanding of the genre that ultimately rests on stereotypes of young black men as violent ‘gang’ members. In place of this misreading, a street-literate interpretation of drill is offered from a deep and nuanced analysis of YouTube videos and below the line discussions. It is demonstrated that it is inaccurate and unhelpful to view drill videos as evidence of violent crime or as attempts to glorify or precipitate it. Instead, the stylized videos and violent lyricism are shown to be forms of artistic performance that reveal an ambiguous relationship to criminality. Marginalizing the excluded further, video removals and restrictions on performance are shown to be counterproductive from a crime-reduction perspective. New developments in technology and culture can take shape around existing patterns of criminalization.

SKOLOMBO AND THEIR CONTINUED EXISTENCE: REVISITING LOST HUMANISM AND PARENTIFICATION IMPULSE

This paper examines the Skolombo-street children of Calabar. It also investigates the reason for their continued existence, the derivatives in form of social and economic insecurity, inequality and other monstrosities visible in their presence. It questions the oblivious role of the institutions responsible for the care of the child, and parentification impulse as well as the lost humanism which existed in high premium in traditional African society resisted and reflected by text and language. The study is anchored upon Theo Van Leeuwen’s perspective on Critical Discourse Analysis which primarily studies the way social-power abuse and inequality are enacted, reproduced, legitimized, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. The study is a qualitative research conducted with the eclectic research methodologies such as biography, Participant Observation and Conversation. Among other findings, this study reveals that the Cross river state government has not provided enough fair ground to fully tackle the social and economic needs of the street child, that the desired comfort has not been provided for the girl child and that they have not been able to fully integrate the Skolombo into the echelon of the privileged. Conclusively, this has created spaces for youth delinquency, thievery, moral laxity and decadence. In the light of the findings, it is recommended that the government needs to put alternative and effective measures to play with the aim to curbing the menace of Skolombo and the street child culture. There ought to be an implementation of the child right boy and girl child. Stringent punishment should be meted on parents, religious leadact in the global space in order to reduce the molestation and marginalization of the ers and guardians who subject children to unnecessary molestation. Religious leaders and parents should be sensitized about the need to integrate their children within the family, intervention should be made compulsory.

Influence of Visual Proportion of Urban Street Cultural Landscape on Crowd Aggregation —— An Empirical Study on Street Space in Downtown Chengdu

This paper explored the correlation between the visual proportion of urban street cultural landscape and crowd aggregation. In the study, the relevant theoretical assumptions and measurement scales were established first; Then the street panoramic images of 535 sampling points were obtained through systematic sampling and field shooting; Easygo and POI (Points of Interest) data of the research area collected every two hours within one week were picked up through big data capture; Finally, the driving force of geographical differentiation was detected by using the geographic detector. The results showed that: (1) in the artificial landscape, the visual proportion of architectural landscape had a significant impact on crowd aggregation and the explanatory power q was 0.15. Neither the visual proportion of roadway landscape nor that of sidewalk landscape had significant impact on crowd aggregation; (2) In the natural landscape, both the visual proportion of greenery landscape and that of sky landscape had significant impact on crowd aggregation and the explanatory power q was 0.09 and 0.05 respectively; (3) The interaction between the visual proportion of architectural landscape and that of greenery landscape or between the former and that of sky landscape showed a two-factor enhancement and the interaction between the visual proportion of greenery landscape and that of sky landscape showed non-linear enhancement; (4) There were significant two-factor enhancement effects in the interactions among the the visual proportion of architectural landscape, that of greenery landscape, of sky landscape and aggregation of POI facilities, of which the biggest q value was 0.76.

A invasão dos espaços escolares pela cultura de rua - o que o sarau realizado em uma escola pública do bairro Restinga, em Porto Alegre, tem a mostrar

The text analyzes the manifestations of the so-called street culture as a way of valorizing Afro-Brazilian culture, rescuing ancestry, form of protest, racial valorization and social justice through a report of the practice of the project denominated xxxxxx held in a school public school of Restinga district in Porto Alegre, which culminated in the presentation to the teachers of this school by the students of said class in the year 2016. The project applied in a class of 5th year used the interdisciplinarity, working with poetry recital, graphite and hip hop and valued the protagonism of the students, stimulating the ideas and the individual and collective organization. But, the work speaks, especially in the enchantment,  in the dream lived in the classroom, in the reflection and the discovery, in the possibilities of these young people. The reflections and historical searches permeated the process, bringing research in a forceful way to the classroom. His findings and creations were recorded in a video of the presentation, whose link will be made available at the end of the work. &nbsp

Efervescências musicais e noturnidades no Beco das Artes

In the most liquid environments that characterize nightlife and parties, we generally live in a slower and more marked time: on the one hand, by relevant, varied and often intense sensitive experiences; and, on the other hand, for expectations of more freedom and social interaction between the actors. This article sought to problematize the direct and indirect repercussions - not only socioeconomic, but especially in the imagination of the city - of the nightly cultural experiences that take place at the festive events held at Beco das Artes (in the city center of Rio de Janeiro), which it presents itself as an open territory for serendipities, capable of mobilizing an expressive segment of actors who gravitate towards a musical production associated with the local alternative scene (and who, in general, participate in the current street culture in Rio). In view of the objectives outlined, our investigation is not only based on the theoretical-methodological procedures of the Sociology of Senses (and of the Imaginary) founded by Georg Simmel, but also employs cartographic methodological strategies (in the process of carrying out fieldwork and monitoring the dynamics aggregation of actors in the territories) inspired by the Actor-Network Theory, noted in Bruno Latour's seminal work.

An Amalgamation of Power and Paint: Gajin Fujita, Los Angeles Street Art, and Images of Edo Japan

The paintings of Gajin Fujita (b. 1972) express the urban Asian diasporic experience in vivid images filled with historic and contemporary cultural references. Creating an amalgamation of contemporary sports figures, hip-hop culture, historic Japanese painting conventions, street art, and the visual language of Edo Japan (1600–1868), Fujita reflects his diverse experiences as a citizen of twenty-first century Los Angeles in his paintings. This article introduces the artist and provides a nuanced examination of his works vis-à-vis an understanding of the larger issues addressed in both Edo artistic practice and contemporary street art culture. By specifying the agents of power and performance in Fujita’s works, a greater understanding of the hybrid world of his colourful graphic paintings can be found.

The Good, The Bad, and The Street: Does ‘street culture’ affect offender communication and reception in restorative justice?

This article examines whether and how ‘street culture’ affects offender communication and reception in restorative justice. Drawing on an archival dataset of police-led restorative justice conferences, we analysed the relationship between street cultural capital and offenders’ ability to communicate during restorative justice. We explored how offenders’ social background, measured by street cultural capital, and/or communication abilities affect third-party perceptions of offender sincerity and their likelihood to reoffend. Results indicate that the embodiment of street cultural capital may affect offender participation in restorative justice. Socioeconomically disadvantaged offenders appeared more likely to experience communication difficulties, and were less likely to be perceived by third parties as sincere or willing to desist from offending. These findings are considered within a theoretical framework that draws on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, Skeggs’ notion of inscription and Loftus’ research on ‘attitude tests’.

Meningkatkan Literasi Melalui Bahan Ajar Tematik Saintifik Berbasis Kearifan Lokal

The literacy movement is being carried out by the government nationally in various circles ranging from families, schools and communities. It is also entitled to be felt by all people including street children. For street children literacy culture also needs to be grown because their literacy is still low. This effort was carried out by increasing literacy in "Lotus" street children in the Social Barracks of Demaan Village, Kudus Regency, Central Java. Lack of interest in learning because teaching materials in schools are not easy for them to digest, making them less desirable and a burden on them. Teaching materials that are made thematically presented in the form of reading about local wisdom around them are expected to improve their literacy culture. The PKM is carried out by mentoring educational programs in the form of tutoring and training in improving literacy. In mentoring using teaching materials that have been developed by applying several methods. Like learning methods based on study groups according to age with approaches such as scientific, thematic, tutorial, drill and lecture. while the implementation of literacy training delivered good reading and writing methods. From this PKM activity, it was found that the level of enthusiasm of attendance was very high %80%, literacy ability had experienced an increase of> 10% with a significant.

Class, Style and Territory in the Drari Microcultures of Brussels

Much like Parsons’s notion of “youth culture,” the tradition of subculture developed by the Birmingham School was criticised as being too romantic, too general, and too dependent on a simplistic model based on the inside/outside binary. Since the 1990s, “post-subcultural” studies have developed which prefer to focus on agency rather than structure. A “third school” of youth cultural studies focused on medium sizes groups and their attachment to place, which they called “microcultures”. This paper, drawing from fieldwork undertaken in Brussels between 2013 and 2016 with young people, studies members of the Brussels “street culture” called the drari, while zooming in on the combinations of personalities, the events they share and the locations they make their own. Specifically, this paper argues that the drari microculture does not fit in the binary model of (post-)subcultural theory, nor in the criminological frame of urban youth gangs, by focusing on the affective and class-related phenomena internal to their practices of territory-building.

Passing on gang culture in the theatre of the streets: ‘They’ll grow out of it, then our age will grow into it and then we’ll grow out of it’

ABSTRACT Gang members and membership are oft displayed as fixed and stable entities that are only understood in the context of the gang. This paper purports that membership is a role learned through the process of street socialisation and that gangs should be understood as fluid entities situated within the larger context of street culture. Through member’s perspectives, it reveals the main cultural transmitters which facilitated membership in Glasgow, Scotland as street socialisation, territorial othering and storytelling. In discussing the role of these transmitters, the journey into gang membership in Glasgow is told. Exploring the transmitters of membership allowed the meaning making process that members engaged in to emerge which allows gang membership to be understood as a meaningful social activity.

City Streets in Rural Places: Emerging Cities, Youth Cultures, and the Neoliberalization of Guatemala

Abstract This article traces the emergence of “agro-urban” cities in rural Guatemala from the genocide of 1981–83 to the end of the millennium, paying special attention to the multilingual Mayan highlands. It weaves together a study of changes in the political economy and the built environment with an examination of the cultural transformations associated with urbanization, ethnic politics, and youth countercultures, including an outbreak of small Maya street gangs in the highlands in the late 1990s. It argues that one of the most “rural” regions on earth became home to a new, agrarian modality of the global city as the result of a stepwise process of neoliberalization and that, as part of this process, youth street cultures moved to the fore as a site of contested cultural production. Behind this surprising urbanization and cultural cosmopolitanism was massive public investment that worked to neoliberalize military structures of counterinsurgency and change the nation’s agricultural portfolio in the midst of a war that lasted until 1996. Organizations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, scores of NGOs, and the United Nations all played roles in these processes, just as they promoted a burgeoning Mayan Movement and helped to foment “neoliberal multiculturalism” as the politics of race came to overshadow the politics of class. In neoliberalizing Guatemala, the globally inflected city “street,” once a territory almost exclusively restricted to the capital city, took on national dimensions. It became a national commons, a social space in which youth negotiated the terms of their belonging.

The Fluid Nature of Street Culture: Non-Violent Participation, Changes in Adult Life, and Crumbling Ethnic Barriers in Germany

This paper examines changes in the practice of street culture among non-violent young adult men. Many individuals who participate in street culture behave and talk in a pretty rough way among each other and act almost aggressively. This is done for establishing a certain reputation and self-image that relates to street culture rules and it is even widespread among non-violent players of this milieu. A comprehensive look on their behavior includes modifications of street culture practices in adult life. Another aspect of the fluid nature of street culture are crumbling ethnic barriers in this milieu in Germany. The latter contributes to further modifications, for instance, in social contacts and language use. The author provides supportive evidence from the existing literature and field work he has done in Germany.

The Street Ideology: Sexual Contours in Nigerian Hip-Hop Music

Nigerian hip-hop thrives on open discussion of sex and sexuality. Although it is generally viewed as unacceptable to engage in uninhibited sexual discussion or behaviour in Nigeria, especially where females are concerned, Nigerian female hip-hop artistes freely indulge in blatant sex-talk and overt sexual display in their music and videos. This study examines sexual ideologies in the lyrics of Nigerian female hip-hop artistes with the aim of teasing out the sex and sexual themes portrayed in relation to the prevailing Nigerian cultural attitude towards sex and sexuality. In this regard, ten song excerpts of seven Nigerian female hip-hop artistes are selected for analysis, using ideological strategies and an aspect of Halliday's systemic functional linguistics—the ideation function of language. The analysis reveals that the success of hip-hop music lies in its lyrical appeal to, and the existential representation of, the subculture of sex and sexuality of the artistes on the street. The study also notes the need for rethinking the concept of sexploitation since women themselves exploit sex (as reflected in their music) and their sexuality to wield power against male hegemony and dominance. On balance, the significance of survival, as a vital human instinct, comes to the fore; and this instinct, which is embodied in the street culture of sex and sexuality, can help the Nigerian female hip-hop artistes thrive in a music industry that operates in the context of male domination and a culture that discourages open expression of sex and sexuality.

Clarifying street culture: integrating a diversity of opinions and voices

ABSTRACT Scholarly fields are meant to be dynamic to accommodate new information that is infused with old. One of these areas is the notion, subject, subfield and process of street culture. Despite the frequency of its usage in the social sciences, urban planning, and selected areas of the visual arts, rarely is the term street culture defined and when it is, the definitions are often conceptually lacking. This article synthesizes current ideas about the study of street culture by examining six major questions that street culture researchers currently grapple with. The article outlines suggestions for improving scholarship in this field.

The Impact of Segregated Diversity on the Code of the Street: An Analysis of Violence-related Norms in Selected Post-Industrial Neighborhoods in Germany

Youth violence remains a concern in Germany, particularly in specific “risky” neighborhoods that tend to be socially segregated and ethnically diverse. In this paper we critically compare the results of twenty-seven qualitative interviews conducted in three risky neighborhoods in the German Ruhr area with the code of the street. While this theoretical framework is frequently cited in explaining youth violence, it was based on research in an ethnically homogenous neighborhood in the United States and thus does not engage with questions of diversity. Our findings show that the core of the code of the street is also applicable in heterogeneous contexts, thus extending the generalizability of the theoretical framework. Manifestations of manhood, reputation, and symbolic power were found to be major elements of street culture, although characterized somewhat differently than in the original work.

Dying to live: Youth violence and the munpain

This article engages with accounts of the everyday experiences of young adults living in London who have been involved with road life (street culture) and how their narratives might help us to better understand issues of youth violence in the UK. Through an exploration of their experiences, this article argues that deeply embedded structural contradictions are leaving a generation of marginalised young people dying to live as they become locked in an existential struggle against a sense of malaise permeating many of their everyday experiences. These experiences of social suffering are conceptualised through ‘the munpain’. The munpain is a psychosocial concept which articulates the impact of structurally routed violence, inherent in late-modern neoliberal states, within the everyday lives of marginalised young adults living in a contemporary urban context. This article draws on interview data from two young men, Stephen and T, who have both been victims of knife crime and have spent much of their lives involved with youth groups self-identifying as gangs. In this article, I demonstrate some of the often unspoken struggles that saturate their lives. These experiences induce agentic responses as people seek to alleviate their suffering, at times affecting them in ways that lead to acts of violence. Moreover, I also elaborate on the inductive methodological approach employed to denote how ‘the munpain’ was developed while working alongside marginalised young adults.