Gang

This article is about groups of individuals who share a common identity. For other uses, see Gang (disambiguation).

"Street Gang" redirects here. For the Sesame Street book, see Street Gang (book).

A gang is a group of people, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen. In the United Kingdom the word is still often used in this sense, but it later underwent pejoration. The word gang often carries a negative connotation; however, within a gang which defines itself in opposition to mainstream norms, members may adopt the phrase as a statement of identity or defiance. Reports of gang-related homicides are concentrated mostly in the largest cities in the United States, where there are long-standing and persistent gang problems and a greater number of documented gang members—most of whom are identified by law enforcement. Follow me on twitter @BoiWonD3r Hit Up Mii niqqa Nate Buald ON Facebook MIquel Make beats. Outie

The United Nations estimates that gangs make most of their money through the drugs trade, they are thought to be worth £352bn in total. The United States Department of Justice estimates there are approximately 30,000 gangs, with 760,000 members, impacting 2,500 communities across the United States.

The word "gang" derives from the past participle of Old English gan "to go". It is cognate with Old Norse gangr, meaning "journey."

History

A wide variety of gangs, such as The Order of Assassins, Adam the Leper's gang, Indian Thugs, Chinese Triads, Snakehead, Japanese Yakuza, Irish mob, Pancho Villa's Villistas, Dead Rabbits, American Old West outlaw gangs, Bowery Boys, Jewish mafia, Russian mafia and Italian Mafia crime families have existed for centuries. For example during the 13th century the members belonging to Sardinian Camorra, best known as Gamurra, consisting of mercenaries, before going to Naples worked in Cagliari town as private policemen and bodyguards.

Many poor children and orphans in London survived by joining pick pocketing gangs controlled by adult criminals. At the beginning of the 19th century, child criminals in Britain were punished in the same way as adults. They were sent to adult prisons, transported to the various Australian penal colonies, flogged, and sentenced to death for crimes such as petty theft.

In 1850 (around the time Los Angeles was incorporated), New York City recorded more than 200 gang wars fought largely by youth gangs. All the major cities of Victorian England in the late 19th century had gangs. Chicago had over 1,000 gangs in the 1920s. These early gangs were known for many criminal activities, but in most countries could not profit from drug trafficking prior to drugs being made illegal by laws such as the 1912 International Opium Convention and the 1919 Volstead Act. Gang involvement in drug trafficking increased during the 1970s and 1980s, but some gangs continue to have minimal involvement in the trade.

Signs

Main article: Gang signal

Gangs often establish distinctive, characteristic identifiers including graffiti tags colors, hand-signals, clothing, jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans, signs such as the swastika, the noose, the cross, five-pointed and six-pointed stars, crowns and tridents, flags for example the Confederate flag, secret greetings, slurs, or code words and other group-specific symbols associated with the gang's common beliefs, rituals, and mythologies to define and differentiate themselves from rival groups and gangs. As an alternative language, hand-signals, symbols, and slurs in speech, graffiti, print, music, or other mediums communicate specific informational cues used to threaten, disparage, taunt, harass, intimidate, alarm, influence, or exact specific responses including obedience, submission, fear, or terror. One study focused on terrorism and symbols states: "… Symbolism is important because it plays a part in impelling the terrorist to act and then in defining the targets of their actions." Displaying a gang sign, such as the noose, as a symbolic act can be construed as "… a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience…an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief."

File:Latin King Tatto.jpg

A Latin Kings (gang) member with a tattoo showing his gang membership

Population

Mara Salvatrucha suspect bearing gang tattoos is handcuffed. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force to combat gang activity in the United States. A year later, the FBI helped create National Gang Intelligence Center.

Los Angeles County is considered the Gang capital of America, with an estimated 120,000 (41,000 in the City) gang members although Chicago actually has a higher rate of gang membership per capita than Los Angeles. Also, the state of Illinois has a higher rate of gang membership (8-11 gang members per 1,000 population) than California (5-7 gang members per 1,000 population). There were at least 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007. About 900,000 gang members lived "within local communities across the country," and about 147,000 were in U.S. prisons or jails in 2009. By 1999, Hispanics accounted for 47% of all gang members, Blacks 31%, Whites 13%, and Asians 6%.

Tribal leaders say Native American communities are being overwhelmed by gang violence and drug trafficking. A Dec. 13, 2009 New York Times article about growing gang violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation estimated that there were 39 gangs with 5,000 members on that reservation alone. Navajo country recently reported 225 gangs in its territory.

More than 1,000 gangs were known to be operating in the UK in 2009. There are between 25,000 and 50,000 gang members in Central America’s El Salvador. The Mexican drug cartels have as many as 100,000 foot soldiers. The Yakuza are among one of the largest crime organizations in the world. In Japan, as of 2005, there are some 86,300 known members. Hong Kong's Triads include up to 160,000 members in the 21st century. It was estimated that in the 1950s, there were 300,000 Triad members in Hong Kong. The Chinese government claims that police have eliminated 1,221 triad-style gangs across China since a crackdown was launched in 2006. More than 87,300 suspects have been arrested. The FBI estimates the size of the four Italian organized crime groups to be approximately 25,000 members and 250,000 affiliates worldwide. The Russian, Chechen, Ukrainian, Georgian and other former soviet Organized crime groups or "Bratvas" have approximately 300,000 people affiliated with them.

Violence

Further information: Fear of crime

Further information: Violence

Gang violence refers to mostly those illegal and non-political acts of violence perpetrated by gangs against innocent people, property, or other gangs. Throughout history, such acts have been committed by gangs at all levels of organization. Nearly every major city was ravaged by gang violence at some point in its history. Modern gangs introduced new acts of violence, which may also function as a rite of passage for new gang members.

Identification

Most gang members have identifying characteristics unique to their specific clique or gang. The Bloods, for instance, wear red bandanas, the Crips blue, allowing these gangs to "represent" their affiliation. Any disrespect of a gang member's color by an unaffiliated individual is grounds for violent retaliation, often by multiple members of the offended gang. Tattoos are also common identifiers, such as an '18' above the eyebrow to identify an 18th Street (gang) member. Tattoos help a gang member gain respect within their group, and mark them as members for life. They can be burned on as well as inked. Some gangs make use of more than one identifier, like the Sureños, who wear blue bandanas and have '13,' 'Xlll,' 'x3,' and 'southside' tattoos.

Types

Many types of gangs make up the general structure of an organized group. There are street gangs, which are people with similar backgrounds and motivations. The term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang,” referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria. Miller (1992) defines a street gang as “a self-formed association of peers, united by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership and internal organization, who act collectively or as individuals to achieve specific purposes, including the conduct of illegal activity and control of a particular territory, facility, or enterprise.”These usually involve criminal activity. Prison gangs are groups in a prison or correctional institution for mutual protection and advancement.

Typical activities

Gangs are involved in all areas of street-crime activities like extortion, drug trafficking, both in and outside the prison system and theft. Gangs also victimize individuals by robbery and kidnapping. Cocaine is the primary drug of distribution by gangs, which have used the cities Chicago, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro to transport drugs internationally. Brazilian urbanization has driven the drug trade to the favelas of Rio. Often, gangs hire "lookouts" to warn members of upcoming law enforcement. The dense environments of favelas in Rio and public housing projects in Chicago have helped gang members hide from police easily.

Street gangs take over territory or "turf" in a particular city and are often involved in "providing protection", often a thin cover for extortion, as the "protection" is usually from the gang itself, or in other criminal activity. Most members retain their gang affiliations when sent to prison (see prison gang). Many gangs use fronts to demonstrate influence and gain revenue in a particular area.

In the United States in 2006, there were approximately 785,000 active street gang members, according to the National Youth Gang Center.

Motives

Usually, gangs have gained the most control in poorer, urban communities and the Third World in response to unemployment and other services. Social disorganization, the disintegration of societal institutions like family and school, enable groups of peers to form gangs. Ethnic solidarity is a common factor in gangs; Black and Hispanic gangs formed during the 1960s often had connections to social movements like the Civil Rights Movement and adapted nationalist rhetoric. Both majority and minority races in society have established gangs in the name of identity: the Igbo gang Bakassi Boys in Nigeria defend the majority Igbo group violently and through terror, and in the United States, whites who feel threatened by minority rights have formed their own groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Responding to an increasing black and Hispanic migration, a white gang called Gaylords formed in Chicago.

Notable examples

A Mara Salvatrucha gang member with a tattoo showing his gang membership

Perhaps the best known criminal gangs are the Italian Cosa Nostra, most commonly known as the Mafia. The Napolitan Camorra, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, the Sardinian kidnappers or Anonima Sarda and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita are similar Italian organized gangs. Other criminal gangs include the Russian Mafia, the Serbian mafia, the Israeli Mafia, the Albanian Mafia, Mexican and Colombian Drug Cartels, the Indian Mafia, the Chinese Triads, Irish Mob, the Corsican mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Jamaican-British Yardies, the Turkish Mafia and other crime syndicates. On a lower level in the criminal gang food chain are many street gangs, such as the Sureños, Norteños, Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples. Criminal gangs may function both inside and outside of prison, such as the Mexican Mafia, Folk Nation, and the Brazilian PCC. Aryan Brotherhood and Biker gangs such as the Hell's Angels are also involved in organized crime.

Prison

The main entrance to the Utah State Prison.

Main article: Prison gang

For more, see Prison.

Many prison gangs require members to have gang tattoos to recognize other member of the organization. Most prison gangs follow the policy of "blood in - blood out." It generally means that to get into a prison gang, one has to spill someone else's blood. Most often this requires a murder.

Prison gangs often have several "affiliates" or "chapters" in different state prison systems that branch out due to the movement or transfer of their members. The 2005 study neither War nor Peace: International Comparisons of Children and Youth in Organized Armed Violence studied ten cities worldwide and found that in eight of them, "street gangs had strong links to prison gangs".

According to criminal justice professor John Hagedorn, many of the biggest gangs from Chicago originated from prisons. From the St. Charles Illinois Youth Center originated the Conservative Vice Lords and Blackstone Rangers. Although the majority of gang leaders from Chicago are now incarcerated, most of those leaders continue to manage their gangs from within prison. During the 1970s, prison gangs in Cape Town, South Africa began recruiting street gang members from outside and helped increase associations between prison and street gangs.

Military

Gang members in uniform use their military knowledge, skills and weapons to commit and facilitate various crimes.

The FBI’s 2007 report on gang membership in the military states that the military's recruit screening process is ineffective, allows gang members/extremists to enter the military, and lists at least eight instances in the last three years in which gang members have obtained military weapons for their illegal enterprises. "Gang Activity in the U.S. Armed Forces Increasing", dated January 12, 2007, states that street gangs including the Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings (gang), The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Nortenos, Surenos, and Vice Lords have been documented on military installations both domestic and international although recruiting gang members violates military regulations.

A January 2007 article in the Chicago Sun-Times reported that gang members in the military are involved in the theft and sale of military weapons, ammunition, and equipment, including body armor. The Sun-Times began investigating the gang activity in the military after receiving photos of gang graffiti showing up in Iraq. A 2006 Sun-Times article reports that gangs encourage members to enter the military to learn urban warfare techniques to teach other gang members.

In 2006, Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, said there is an online network of gangs and extremists, and that: "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military."

See also

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References

• Hagedorn, John M. (2008), A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States: University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 9780816650668 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Gangs at the Open Directory Project