Institutionalized Gangs

Most Gangs in the World are found in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia

Urbanization in Lagos

Maras in San Salvador

Two Kinds of Gang

• Interstititial- groups of youth that are socialized to the streets and come and go. Typically composed of adolescents; products of urbanization and poverty

• Institutional- groups of youth that are socialized to the streets but persist over decades. Typically composed of both adolescents and adults; products of more complex social processes

Institutionalized Gangs Are Similar to other Groups of Armed Young Men and typically have high rates of violence

Gang Are Institutionalized When They

• Persist despite changes in leadership (e.g. killed, incarcerated, matured out)

• Have organization complex enough to sustain multiple roles of its members

• Can adapt to changing environments (e.g. police repression) without dissolving

• Fulfill some needs of their community (economy, security, services)

• Organize a distinct outlook of their members (sometimes called a gang subculture) often with a “literature” and/or “laws and prayers.”

Most institutionalized gangs “organize crime” but are not necessarily hierarchical

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy

• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization-1

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy

• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Poverty often means youth gangs but not necessarily violence or institutionalized gangs

Poverty in Chicago

Chicago’s Ghetto 1910- 2000

Poverty, Race, and Homicide Coincide Spatially

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization-2

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy

• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Walls of Exclusion in the West Bank

Chicago’s Wall of Exclusion

• Robert Taylor Homes and Stateway Gardens along with an eight lane highway formed one of the largest walls in the world seperating Irish Bridgeport from Black Bronzeville

Nigeria’s Bakassi Boys

UDF- Nationalist Militia or Drug Gang?

Maori Gangs in New Zealand have persisted for decades

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization-3

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Chicago’s Black Gangster Disciples and the “New Concept”

In Medillin, both cartels and para-militaries recruit youth gangs

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization-4

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy

• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Cape Flats Displacement = Violence

Chechnya Refugee Children

Where the State is Weak, Groups of Armed Young Men take over

Arkan and his Tigers Began the Process of Ethnic Cleansing

Projects Today, Condos Tomorrow

From Vertical to Horizontal Ghettoes

Displacement for SomeLattes for Others

Conditions for Gang Institutionalization-5

• Poverty - Necessary but not Sufficient

• Racial, Ethnic, or Religious Exclusion and Resistance Identity

• Underground Economy

• Social Catastrophe- civil war, displacement, and demoralization

• Defensible Spaces

Defensible Spaces of Rio’s Favelas

Defensible Spaces in Chicago

Conclusion

• Two kinds of Gangs - vast majority are temporary youth gangs

• Dealing with these gangs is a variation in dealing with wayward youth; tactics vary with local conditions. But these are kids

• Gangs institutionalize only in certain conditions; such gangs cannot be rooted out by repression and require different, broader tactics

Very low rates of violence make me question whether the conditions for gang

institutionalization are present

What is most important is to understand the conditions of gang institutionalization and

violence in your specific locale and country

Thank You

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