Street Gang

(noun)

A group of recurrently associating individuals with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in the community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior.

Related Terms

  • Corporate Organized Crime
  • Patron-Client Networks
  • corporate crime

Examples of Street Gang in the following topics:

  • Organized Crime

    • Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection."
    • Gangs may become "disciplined" enough to be considered "organized."
    • An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.
    • A distinctive gang culture underpins many, but not all, organized groups; this may develop through recruiting strategies, social learning processes in the corrective system experienced by youth, family, or peer involvement in crime, and the coercive actions of criminal authority figures.
    • The term "street gang" is commonly used interchangeably with "youth gang", referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet "gang" criteria.
  • Fieldwork and Observation

    • For example, Sudhir Venkatesh's key informant, JT, was the leader of the street gang Venkatesh was studying.
    • As the leader of the gang, JT had a privileged vantage point to see, understand, and explain how the gang worked, as well as to introduce Venkatesh to other members.
  • Global Crime

    • This has led to the rise of global criminal organizations such as Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang.
  • Theories of Deviance

    • ., a member of the Mafia or street gang values wealth but employs alternative means of attaining her wealth)
  • Illegitimate Opportunity Structures: Social Class and Crime

    • In a conflict subculture, youth learn to form gangs as a way to express frustration about the lack of normative opportunity structures in their neighborhood.
    • Thus, gangs become a subculture of their own, in contradistinction to the normative, peaceful model of youth behavior
    • In 1960, Cowan and Ohlin published Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs.
    • New initiates into the gang will learn how to engage in conflict or gang activities to express frustrations by watching gang leadership.
    • Thus, gangs become a subculture of their own, in contradistinction to the normative, peaceful model of youth behavior.
  • The Symbolic Nature of Culture

    • In certain urban environments, the symbolic meaning of people's clothes can signal gang affiliation.
    • Other gang members use these symbolic sartorial signals to recognize enemies and allies.
  • Informal Means of Control

    • In a criminal gang, on the other hand, a stronger sanction might apply in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police.
    • In a criminal gang, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police.
  • Types of Crime

    • Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection. " An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.
  • Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

    • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
    • Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
    • Protestors at Occupy Wall Street adhere to the position that income inequality is a detriment to society.
  • Bureaucracies and Formal Groups

    • As opposed to bureaucrats carrying out "desk jobs," street-level bureaucracy is the subset of a public agency or government institution containing the individuals who carry out and enforce the actions required by laws and public policies.
    • Street-level bureaucracy is accompanied by the idea that these individuals vary the extents to which they enforce the rules and laws assigned to them.
    • The concept of street-level bureaucracy was first coined by Michael Lipsky in 1980, who argued that "policy implementation in the end comes down to the people who actually implement it".
    • Street-level bureaucrats include police officers, firefighters, and other individuals, who on a daily basis interact with regular citizens and provide the force behind the given rules and laws in their areas of expertise.
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