Gang Research Articles

Questionable relations: On aggressive financialised ‘assemblages’ in creative and ecologically-challenged space-economies

In this contribution, the interest is in three things, arising from a project on ‘dark’ F-KIBS clusters. This has already resulted in critical papers on management consultancy and accounting ‘assemblages’ in which such clusters are embedded (Cooke, 2023a; 2003b). Questions posed are: first, why is there so much financial crime being punished with huge fines? Second has there been a significant rise in such prosecutions in recent years? Third, which jurisdictions or clusters display the most prosecuted firms and sectors? These questions are stimulated by an interest in ‘assemblage geography’ and evolutionary spatial analysis; accordingly, financial ‘dark’ clusters are proposed for study in this contribution. Assemblage connections may be hypothesised to be found in financial districts that replicate Marshallian proximity, notably Delaware in the US (Weitzman, 2022). That state specifically and its main city, Wilmington, is proposed as an exemplary rising agglomeration of relational interactions specialising in US tax avoidance and bankruptcy. In Switzerland, Bellinzona Federal Criminal Court recently hosted a Swiss Bank’s first-ever domestic trial for criminality in the shape of Credit Suisse. This bank had a fine of SFr2mn imposed on the bank, which was also ordered to pay €18.6mn in compensation to the Swiss government. An extra penalty was imposed by confiscation of SFr12 mn in criminal assets from the convicted perpetrators. The case had involved a group of Bulgarian clients laundering cocaine profits between 2004 and 2008 involving huge sums of cash being brought to the bank in suitcases, further associated with two assassinations. These red flags were missed by a bank which had received multiple fines elsewhere (Carrel, 2022). In reference to gang crime, in 2004, a Credit Suisse banker in Tokyo was arrested for allegedly helping launder at least ¥5bn linked to Japan’s largest Yakuza gang connected in a Japan, Switzerland and Hong Kong network (Makortoff and Pegg, 2022). Regarding the demise of Switzerland’s second global bank, after being badly hit by the huge Greensill and Archegos bankruptcies Credit Suisse was bailed out for £45 billion by the Swiss Central Bank in March 2023. Earlier, in 2015–2017, Disney, the creative economy exemplar in this narrative, is profiled in our third vignette as an imperious tax-dodging ‘fiefdom’ yet surviving as the global mass-entertainment leader. Finally, in sections 4 and 5, we profile two London-centred banking ‘scandals’ with ‘sustainability’ rather than ‘creative’ overtones. Thus of dubious banking practices London’s many categories of financial regulator are served by two ‘assemblage’ cases that will be analysed subsequent to being advanced as candidates. One recent exemplar is Balli Steel, an Anglo-Iranian sanctions-breaker, while another is Britishvolt, a financially failed EV gigafactory project in the UK.

‘On the frontline’: gangs, teachers, and the ethics of care

Knife crime in the UK is on the increase, prompting an emphasis in education policy on the role of secondary schools in addressing gang violence. Very little is known, however, about how teachers in secondary schools experience this new role. This article helps to fill this gap in the literature by foregrounding teachers’ perspectives on gang violence in an East London secondary school. It analyses their teaching practices through an ‘ethics of care’ lens, understanding ‘care’ as an inherently relational practice based on mutuality and trust. The article shows how these qualities are being subverted by individualised approaches to care in education, which reproduce rather than challenge the violent care offered by gangs. It argues that the political dimensions of care must be reclaimed if efforts by schools to address gang violence are to be effective.

Live Experiences of Former Gang Members in Cebu City, Philippines

This paper explores the lived experiences of former gang members in Cebu City. Specifically, it determined the following: experiences of the informants as former gang members, including the reasons why they join, stay and leave the group and the impact of gang membership of the informants as former gang members. This study employed a qualitative method of research employing a phenomenological approach that involves qualitative analysis and assessment of themes derived from semi-structured interviews and follow up questions has been made and with an aid with interview guide, observation and exploring the lived experiences of former gang members. The study was conducted in highly urbanized cities, namely Cebu City, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City and Talisay City. A purposive convenient sampling was employed to select the informants. There were fourteen (14) informants in the study. Fifteen (6) emergent themes were created. For the experiences of former gang members on reasons why they join the gang, three themes emerged, namely: Personal Safety, Peer pressure, and lastly, Broken Homes. For the reasons why they stay in the gang, two themes emerged, namely: Give and Earn Money, The Thug Lifestyle, and More Fun and Happiness. For the reasons why they leave the group, three themes emerged, namely: Family and Job Responsibilities, Realization to Have a Happy and Peaceful life; and In-group Rivalry. Regarding the impact of gang membership and the positive experiences of the informants as former gang members, three themes emerged: A sense of Belongingness, Develop Respect and Trust, and School Achiever. Regarding the negative experiences, three themes emerged: Gang War and Violence, Crime Involvement, and Incarceration. The community must create and sustain a collaborative process for working toward a community free of gang membership and violence. This includes providing a clearinghouse for information on resources, strategies, services, best practices, and funding to prevent, intervene and suppress gang violence.

A relational approach to organised crime

AbstractThis is an introduction to the articles submitted to the special issue of Trends in Organized Crime on ‘Crime and Networks’. The aim of this special issue is to advance our relational understanding of organised crime, gangs and crime more generally by presenting six works exploring a diverse set of questions related to organised crime, street gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, money laundering and groups operating in cyberspace.

Merchant gang culture and financial slack: Empirical evidence from listed companies

The phrase "merchant gang culture" refers to the established norms and corporate philosophy developed over time through commercial practices. This study examines how this culture influences the financial slack. Specifically, this paper explores the relationship between corporate merchant gang culture and financial slack. The data utilized for this research spans the years 2011 to 2021. Increasing the intensity of corporate merchant gang culture can effectively strengthen corporate financial slack. Moreover, the mechanism analysis demonstrates that corporate financial slack is improved by the intensity of corporate merchant gang culture, primarily through financing constraint reduction and business credit improvement effects.

Killing Time: The Role of Boredom in Glasgow Gangs

Abstract Boredom may be one of the largest maladies of the modern world. A phenomenon which has increasingly become embedded in our social structures. Yet, as a concept within criminology there is a dearth of knowledge concerning it, despite the influence it has on offending and offending behaviours. Through a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology with gangs in Glasgow, insights are shared, exploring how and in what ways boredom affects gang members and the strategies employed to alleviate it. This paper applies Svendsen’s (2005) existential definition of boredom and explores the concepts of temporality, meaning-making and agency as occurring at the nexus of boredom and excitement-seeking behaviours for Glasgow gang members.

Sociodemographic Background Predisposing Youths into Gang Violence in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

The historical and constitutional responsibility of youths in any country cannot be underrated because youth remain one of the vital weapons for accelerating and harmonizing societal orderliness Evidence gathered from extant publication shows that youth formed the larger percentage of people apprehended for violence activities in most correctional facilities in the world. In Nigeria, Extant publications were reviewed while Anomie and rational choice theories were adopted for the study. Mixed methods were adopted for collections of data from the inmates in the Lagos correctional facility approved for the study400 hundred copied of structured questionnaires in the three approved corrections in Lagos But 347 of the questionnaires were retrieved for the quantitative analysis while 36 out of 40 interviews conducted were found useful using In-depth interview for the inmates while key informant interviews were used for collection of verbal data from the member of the Nigeria Police Force, Correctional Officers, market men/women and community elders in Lagos. The concluded that gender positioning (t-047), family background (t-=083) and marital status (t=014) significantly predisposed youths into violent activities compared with employment (t= 816), age (t=123) and level of education (t=482). In addition, the qualitative data indicated that immaturity and poor parental background influence youth gang violence. The social interventionist should encourage the family, youths and community members to get involved in decision making, adequate youth development programme should be encouraged and youth should develop act of self-creativity and innovation toward promoting self-image in Nigeria

Wounding potential of muzzle-loaded projectiles discharged from unmodified blank pistols

ABSTRACT Blank pistols are considered non-lethal-purpose imitation firearms that have been modified to function as real weapons in many countries. In Taiwan, gang members use unmodified blank pistols to fire muzzle-loaded projectiles. Herein, the muzzle energy density (ED) of the discharged muzzle-loaded projectiles was used to evaluate the wounding potential of unmodified blank pistols. A series of firing tests was conducted using three unmodified blank pistols, two projectiles, and three brands of blank cartridges. The EDs of the projectiles were determined using ballistic chronographs. The means of the ED ( ED ‾ ) of the pistols firing various cartridges and projectiles were 20.3–48.6 J/cm2. These values are all substantially higher than the human skin penetration threshold value (10 J/cm2). The results indicate that unmodified blank pistols can fire projectiles and inflict severe injuries. Therefore, they should be legally controlled in Taiwan. Additionally, a Student’s t-test of ED ‾ between paired projectiles demonstrated a significant influence of the sectional density (m p /S) of the projectiles on their ED ‾ , which was attributed to the inversely proportional effects of m p /S on the downrange deceleration of the projectiles. The results of this study indicate that steel projectiles are suitable for evaluating the wounding potential of unmodified blank pistols.

Foreign experience of investigating crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations)

The article deals with specific issues of foreign experience in investigating crimes committed by members of informal youth groups (associations). It is emphasized that the study of foreign experience in the investigation of crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations) will contribute to the development and improvement of recommendations for the investigation of the corresponding category of criminal offenses in Ukraine.
 The peculiarities of detection and investigation of crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations) in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the USA are analyzed.
 Most often, French youth can unite in informal groups in connection with a common place of residence (street, district, city), because of race, nationality, political views, social crises, etc. Difficulties in investigating the criminal activities of informal youth in France are associated with the active use of social networks for the preparation and concealment of committed offenses, the organization of gangs, an increase in their number, and a great public outcry.
 All youth informal groups (associations) in Germany can be divided into 3 types: 1) associations of young people who are migrants, refugees and spend their free time together, live on the same street, in the same district; 2) neo-Nazi youth associations; 3) unification of youth on the basis of political views and protest sentiments.
 The boom in youth crime in the Netherlands occurred in the early 1980s. But a balanced preventive work, starting in 1985, gave results. An active struggle is being waged against youth neo-Nazi groups (associations) on the Internet.
 There are 434 youth gangs in Canada with approximately 7,070 members. The greatest concentration of youth gangs in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
 In the 50s. XX century. American youth, and students in particular, showed themselves for the first time as an active political force, able to defend their positions on an equal footing with political parties and «adult» public organizations. The youth of that time advocated civil liberties – freedom of speech, organizations, meetings, etc. But informal youth groups in the USA are not only a subcultural phenomenon, but also gangs that actively engage in criminal activities based on the promotion of ideas, views, and lifestyles.

Impacts of Gang Involvement on Health and Well-Being: The Perilous Dimensions of Leisure

Extant studies on gangs have primarily focused on the adverse effects of gang activity on communities and risk factors for involvement, while information on the impacts of engagement in deviant leisure activities associated with gangs on the health and well-being of gang members is lacking. Therefore, using constructivist grounded theory and the biopsychosocial model, this study explored the impacts of gang affiliation and related leisure on the physical and mental well-being and life prospects of former gang members. Data were collected through 39 in-depth interviews with 38 former gang members and recreation practitioners working with gangs. Findings revealed that gang-related leisure was detrimental to physical health, leading to acquired addictions, injuries, and disabilities. Mental health consequences included depression, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disorders, emotional detachment, and anger issues. These psychological traumas, guilt, self-doubts, trust issues, and the stigma of gang membership negatively affected their social relations and life prospects.

Gang Rule(s): Towards a Political Economy of Youth Gang Dynamics in Nicaragua

AbstractThis article explores the longitudinal dynamics of youth gang transformation in urban Nicaragua. On the basis of an overview of successive gang iterations that have emerged over the past 30 years in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighborhood in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, the article identifies key elements for the articulation of a political economy of both change and stability. In particular, drawing on Bourdieusian theory, it conceives of a gang as a “social field” rather than as a discrete organizational form. It traces how different processes of individual and collective capital accumulation underpinning the social order promulgated by distinct gang iterations emerge and interact with each other, and the consequences that this has for their evolution over time. In doing so, the article offers a better understanding of the logic of what might be termed “gang rule(s)”.

Модусная рефлексия как условие реализации интенции комментирования в виртуальном диалоге

Linguistics of response is a branch of dialog studies that focuses on response lines as part of a conversation, including conditions needed to implement the commenting intent in a virtual dialogue. According to the hypothesis, virtual commenting occurs when the initial line falls into the sphere of modus reflection of the native speaker. This condition realizes itself when the native speaker makes the decision to comment on an event. Modus reflection is a manifestation of the native speaker’s emotional and evaluative attitude to the original message. In this case, modus reflection appears as a metalinguistic activity. The descriptive analysis involved 614 response comments to an online news article entitled Subway Crossings: Street Gangs Where Flower Stalls Should Be. The research revealed three conditions when the commenting intent is realized in an online dialog: the initial line falls into the mode of agreement; the initial line falls into the mode of disagreement; the initial line falls into the neutral mode.

Philosophies in Community Supervision of Gang-Involved Youth and Adults

The wide expansion of community supervision has resulted in large-scale reliance on probation officers to facilitate change among both youth and adults. This is especially true for supervising high-risk populations, such as gang-involved individuals. To understand how probation officers balance the dual goals of public safety and rehabilitation, in-depth interviews with 12 youth and adult officers in Oregon were conducted. Results revealed that both groups had a shared understanding of gang pathways and desistance barriers. However, they held differing views on the factors that drive success and compliance. Youth officers utilize therapeutic philosophies and emphasize restoration through community resources to help youth desist from gang activity. Adult officers endorse law enforcement philosophies, emphasize accountability and personal choices, and center punitive strategies when using interagency collaboration. This study contributes to the literature on role perceptions and decision-making, and suggests that continuity of care in supervision philosophies can yield more successful outcomes for high-risk youth and adults.

Regímenes escópicos de una nueva guerra: las fotografías de mareros en la nota roja de la posguerra guatemalteca

Since the mid-1990s, Guatemalan newspapers have run pictures oftattooed men identified as mareros (gang members). The deployment of these photographs served to spread ideas about who these subjects are and what they do, forging a public vision of crime as a phenomenon linked to the post-war period. Shaping this public perspective, in turn, became a new form of counterinsurgency against crime, and sensationalism has proved a critical rhetorical device. The discussion centers on two sensationalist papers, Al Día and Nuestro Diario, andcovers the period from 1996-2005.

Commodified State Feminism: The Entanglements of Feminist Commodity Activism and Feminist Politics in a Nordic Welfare State

Abstract This article analyzes the entanglements of feminist commodity activism and state feminism. Feminist commodity activism refers to consumption and commodified communication as modes of feminist political participation. Earlier research on these topics has focused on the business sector and on media and popular culture, largely sidelining the state as a site of feminism. This article addresses the increasingly close relations between consumerism and state politics and asks how feminist commodity activism interacts with state feminism. It draws on two empirical cases in the Nordic welfare state of Finland. The first is Uhana Design, a small-scale fashion business, and its Girl Gang campaign that leans on state feminism. The second is Finland's former leading female politicians’ engagements with feminist fashion. By analyzing these cases via three theoretical lenses, business, popular, and state feminism, this article develops the notion of commodified state feminism, paying attention to economic, cultural, and political dimensions of feminist commodity activism and state feminism. It also argues that commodified state feminism is emblematic of the current political context, in which the boundaries between market and politics have become blurred.

Manifestations of Criminal Professionalism in the Activities of Robber Gangs of Pre-Revolutionary Russia

Relevance. Professional crime is one of the most dangerous, relatively independent types of crime, which poses a serious threat to modern society and the state. Currently, there is no unified approach to assessing the state, dynamics and trends of this dangerous criminal phenomenon. Mechanisms to combat this type of criminal activity that are adequate to the level of danger have not been identified. In this regard, special studies of professional crime in all its complexity and ambiguity are becoming particularly relevant, including those affecting certain issues of the evolution of this dangerous criminal phenomenon in time and space.The purpose. He purpose of the study is a theoretical analysis and definition of the socio-legal essence of professional crime in pre-revolutionary Russia (using the example of the analysis of socially dangerous activities of robber gangs).Objectives: to analyze the domestic legislation of the pre-revolutionary period, providing for accountability for repeated robbery; to determine the specifics of committing crimes on a professional basis by robber gangs in prerevolutionary Russia; to identify elements of the criminal subculture supported by the community of professional robbers in the period under study in Russia.Methodology. To achieve this goal, such general scientific and private scientific research methods as the method of analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparative legal and chronological methods were used.Results. It was determined that many robbers who traded on the «high roads» during the studied period possessed all the signs of criminal professionalism: the presence of criminal specialization, qualifications, perception of criminal activity as a source of income, connections with the criminal world, including those expressed in the perception and multiplication of values and norms of the emerging criminal subculture.Conclusion. By the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a monolithic, well–structured consolidated and criminal world had formed in Russia, in which the professional criminal «core» played a special role. Professional robbers occupied not the least place in the criminal hierarchy, causing significant harm to economic relations in society and the national security of the country.

The myth of Australia’s migrant youth gang: examining the perceived association between ethnicity and gangs

ABSTRACT In Australia, as with other countries around the world, migrant young people receive significant media and political attention as the alleged perpetrators of significant criminal activity. This has been a consistent feature over time, with ‘Asian gangs’ in the 1990s in the US, UK and Australia, ‘Middle-Eastern gangs’ around the time of 9/11, ‘Turkish gangs’ and ‘Albanian gangs’ in the UK and Europe, and ‘African gangs’ in Australia since the early 2000s. In this research, we investigate the risk factors associated with youth gang membership in Australia. Using data from the Australia Youth Safety Survey from 2,945 young people aged 14–25 years, we examine the importance of first- and second-generation migrant status on gang membership. After controlling for known risk factors, we find that migrant status was not a predictor of gang membership. Results offer important insights into the prominence of morality and self-control as protective factors against youth gang membership, and speak to the role of neighbourhood context in which the young person lives.

Sexual health variation among gang-involved youth in Washington state: Social ecological implications for research and practice.

Gang-involved youth experience greater disparities in sexual health compared to non-gang-involved youth. Yet, little is known about how and why sexual behaviors vary within the youth gang population. Developing relevant and effective service approaches requires an understanding of this variation and the environmental factors that influence patterns of sexual health risk. Using latent class analysis, we identified four sexual behavior classes within a school-based sample of gang-involved youth in Washington State (N = 2060): Non-Sexually Active (54%), Limited Partners with Condom Use (14%), Multiple Partner with Sexting (19%), and High Sexual Vulnerability (13%). These classes were distinguished by age at sexual debut, number of sexual partners, condom use, and sexting. Interpersonal and macrosocial factors differentiated the classes, including multiform violence exposures, limited social support, and socioeconomic instability. We also found differences according to sexual identity and substance use. Findings highlight the need for service approaches that are responsive to both the individual needs of gang-involved youth and the factors that shape their living environments. We discuss the implications for research and practice, including the potential utility of a harm reduction framework to promote sexual health and reduce disparities in the youth gang population.

Cyber dating violence- a case report

Purpose: Cyber dating violence includes both the state of the victim to be harmed by threats, the dissemination of confidential information under the name of cyber violence, and the harassment of controlling the social relations of the victims, called cyber control, by constantly checking what they are doing on social media at any time. In the face of this type of violence that goes beyond spatial and geographical boundaries, the well-being of the victims is adversely affected because they consider the situation to be unresolved. Method: In this case report, a 13-year-old girl who has been exposed to cyber dating violence will be mentioned. Findings: After 3 months of virtual friendship with a 17-year-old man, whom this adolescent met on the computer games, she started to send him nude photos, they had virtual sex during the video call, the man guided her and offered to be a husband and wife with her during virtuel sex. It has been learned that she inserted a pen in front of the screen through his genitals and it hurt a lot. In the following days, they communicated to meet outside, the boy persuaded the teenage girl to take her home to introduce her to his family. The girl's family who followed them on their suspicions intervened in the situation, it became clear that they were faced with gang members. It has been revealed that throughout the time they communicated, the gang has collected a lot of data about the family’s income level over the internet and social media and asked the girl’s family for money through blackmail. In conclusion; with the legal complaint of the family, the gang members received legal punishment and the adolescent girl was taken to psychiatric treatment with the diagnosis of “post-traumatic stress disorder”.

The Resort to Emergency Policing to Control Gang Violence in Jamaica: Making the Exception the Rule

AbstractThis article critically examines reasons for the persistent use of states of emergency (SOEs) as a tool of crime control in Jamaica and risks associated with normalising these measures in small, low-capacity, competitive democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We attend to the question of permanent SOEs as an issue of law and certain policing methods becoming normalised. This differs from scholars who think about the use of permanent SOEs as suspension of law or executive rule and make a clear distinction between law and violence and normalcy and emergency. Our findings show that persistent usage of SOEs in Jamaica reflects the incapacity of the state to control violent crime as well as its effort to strengthen its coercive capabilities and compensate for the ineffectiveness of the police. It is also a response to public demand for SOE policing. State strengthening is a necessary condition for a more peaceful and law-abiding society but is also a carrier of risks of democratic degeneration via rights-disregarding policing. Nonetheless, we have seen authoritarian management of crime without descent into authoritarianism, in general, and strong boundary-marking and patrolling by some state-oversight institutions that enjoy the support of civil society.