Street gangs function as ongoing, open social systems in relation to their surrounding sociocultural context. Fundamentally, gangs are comparable to some family systems. In fact, most gangs do consider themselves to be “families.” The same concepts used to describe family systems may also be applied to street gangs. Street gangs usually exhibit a highly complex organization, structure, process,...

Extant literature on the subject has usually defined gangs as loose associations of individuals engaged in some type of delinquent or criminal activity. Yet researchers have failed to sociologically differentiate gangs from other types of collective behavior. In contrast, this article understands gangs as organizations influenced by the social structure of the urban areas in which they operate....

The proliferation of youth gangs since 1980 has fueled the public’s fear and magnified possible misconceptions about youth gangs. To address the mounting concern about youth gangs, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Youth Gang Series delves into many of the key issues related to youth gangs. The series considers issues such as gang migration, gang growth, fema...

The very existence and purpose of street gangs is predicated on having an external threat or enemy. It is also recognized that gangs form allies as well as rivals with other gangs. The fact that gangs are embedded in an intricate structure of both positive (ally) and negative (rivalry) relationships has rarely been explored in terms of understanding the levels and the patterns of gang violence....

Youth Gangs: An Overview, the initial Bulletin in this series, brings together available knowledge on youth gangs by reviewing data and research. The author begins with a look at the history of youth gangs and their demographic characteristics. He then assesses the scope of the youth gang problem, including gang problems in juvenile detention and correctional facilities. A review of gang studie...

1 Corrections Management Quarterly, 2001, 5(1), 1–9 © 2001 Aspen Publishers, Inc. A persistently disruptive force in correctional facilities is prison gangs. Prison gangs disrupt correctional programming, threaten the safety of inmates and staff, and erode institutional quality of life. The authors review the history of, and correctional mechanisms to cope with prison gangs. A suppression strat...

Gangs can be understood in many ways. John hagedorn (2005) and Sudhir Venkatesh (2003) describe gangs as replacements for mainstream institutions (the state, the family) that find themselves in crisis. others such as luis barrios (2003) and David brotherton (2003) argue that gangs take on aspects of social movements. Finally, many have observed that gangs proliferate and operate within the real...

The prevailing image of youth gangs— with their symbols, colors, and territorial graffiti—is that they are found in the poorest neighborhoods of America’s large cities. Certainly, they are. In recent years, however, such gangs also have been popping up in outlying rural areas, far away from urban decay. A number of assumptions about these rural gangs are popular in the criminal justice research...

What can street gangs tell us about radicalization and extremist groups? At first glance, these two groups seem to push the boundaries of comparison. In this article, we examine the important similarities and differences across criminal, deviant, and extremist groups. Drawing from research on street gangs, this article explores issues such as levels of explanation,organizational structure, grou...