Street Gangs, Migration and Ethnicity

Frank van Gemert, Dana Peterson, Inger-Lise Lien

• Publisher: Willan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781843923961
• eBook ISBN: 9781134003785
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is the third publication from the Eurogang Network, a cross-national collaboration of researchers (from both North America and Europe) devoted to comparative and multi-national research on youth gangs. It provides a unique insight into the influence of migration on local gang formation and development, paying particular attention to the importance of ethnicity. The book also explores the challenges that migration and ethnicity pose for responding effectively to the growth of such gangs, particularly in areas where public discourse on such issues is restricted.Chapters in the book are concerned to address both situations where there have been longstanding problems with street gangs as well as areas where such issues have just started to emerge. A variety of different research traditions and approaches are represented, including ethnographic methods, self-report surveys and interviews, official records data and victim interviews.It will be essential reading for anybody interested in the phenomenon of street and youth gangs.

Part I

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Introduction and methods

Chapter 1

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Introduction

Frank van Gemert, Inger-Lise Lien and Dana Peterson

It is not because the boys of the middle and wealthier classes are native white that they do not form gangs but because their lives are organized and stabilized for them by American traditions, customs, and institutions to which the children of immigrants do not have adequate access. The gang, on the other hand, is simply one symptom of a type of disorganization that goes along with the breaking up of the immigrant's traditional social system without adequate assimilation to the new. […] The extensive demoralization which exists in the Polish-American community is a good example of the cultural frontier which provides fertile soil for the development of the gang. Intense pride of nationality, which has sometimes been described and explained as an ‘oppression psychosis’, has often led the Poles in America to concentrate their energies on the development of Polish spirit and patriotism at the sacrifice of adjustment to American society. There is a high degree of disorganization in Chicago among the poor Polish populations. (Thrasher 1927: 217–18)

Afternoon, school has ended. At that moment the boys from Rosenborg School go into the schoolyard at Singsaker School. They hang around here every evening, dressed as if they are gang members of the Crips in the USA. ‘I got the idea from the gang in the USA. We have been Crips in Trondheim for almost two years now. We are around 20 boys,’ says Odin Knutsen, or ‘Smoke’, as all have their own nicknames. The boys are 12-16 years of age, and most of them attend Rosenborg School. They have no leader, no specific requirements for membership. They are just friends that meet every day, to ‘chill out’, to take it cool, to talk shit and to play basketball, says Niklas ‘Top Dog’ Helgesen. Rap and friendship. Trondheim does not have gangs like Oslo, but Crips exist everywhere in the world. They are inspired by the famous Crips gang in Los Angeles. But the boys at Singsaker are not famous, ‘No, we don't do anything wrong. We have just copied the blue scarfs and the signs of the Crips because we like the same music, Tupac and Ice Cube,’ the boys assure us. Everybody writes rap texts, and most of them are with a band. They skate and play basketball. They do not mind that their role models are hard-core criminals. ‘They are just cowards that use violence,’ says Jo Erlend Hillestad, or ‘T Gun’. He is in the Crips for friendship. ‘It is good to know that whatever happens, the boys in the Crips are there for me. I find them here in the schoolyard every afternoon,’ says Jo Erlend. (www.adressa.no/nyheter/trondheim/article351522.ece) [translation by the editors]

These are two accounts of gangs from 1927 and 2004, almost 80 years apart, stemming from Chicago and from Trondheim in Norway. Apart from time and place, there are obvious differences between the two. The Chicago gangs from the first citation are comprised of second-generation Polish youth marginalised in and maladapted to American mainstream culture, while the Crips in Trondheim have adopted stereotypical traits from American West Coast gangs. They are interested in basketball and rap music, and use nicknames as if they were African-American homies from Compton, Los Angeles, but probably they have blond hair and blue eyes. Still, these Polish and Norwegian accounts also have resemblances, as both portray groups that are referred to as gangs. Furthermore, in both cases there is an international component of their group identity. The Polish gangs developed an ethnic identity; the Scandinavians, on the other hand, are inspired by the global youth culture. These resemblances, thin as they may seem, touch upon the central elements of this book that explores the relation between street gangs, migration and ethnicity. These two examples can be seen as extremes on both sides of a continuum that is the scope of this book.

Street gangs

One is inclined to agree with Thrasher that the Polish youth could form gangs. These Norwegians, by contrast, even though they use all kinds of gang symbols, would not be considered a gang by most scholars. Since gangs are generally associated with crime, the first reason to refuse the gang label is the fact that the Scandinavian Crips do not seem to engage in criminal activities. Refusing the gang label is also related to context. The fact that most American cities have gangs is common knowledge now, as Klein and Maxson (2006) have shown. In Europe, however, the existence of gangs is a vexed matter. In discussions, the word ‘gang’ easily triggers the remark: ‘That's America, we don't have that.’ Yet, because of the popularity of gang elements in youth culture, confusion is near at hand.

In the literature, the word has been used to refer to various kinds of groups, including cliques of corner boys, transnational organisations, urban tribes, or even formal youth associations. However, when it comes to gangs, the authors of the chapters in this volume all share the notion of street gangs as physical groups of young people with illegal activities found in public space. In this sense, this book is quite strict, and to determine whether a group is a street gang, the Eurogang definition is applied:

a street gang (or problematic youth group) is any durable, street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal activity is part of their group identity.¹

Migration

Since the early twentieth century, sociologists and criminologists have pointed to the culture conflict, social disorganisation, and strain that immigrants experience when they fail to live up to the American Dream as root causes of crime and deviance. It has become a general finding in criminology that second-generation immigrants are often more involved in criminal behaviour than both the actual migrants of the first generation, and the third generation. These concepts, in different ways, have also linked migration to the emergence of gangs, albeit often implicitly. The socio-economic position of newcomers, social control within their communities, and loosening of their family ties — all of these phenomena offer interesting avenues for studying the formation of gangs in immigrant populations.

In more recent years, a new specific variety of the gang—migration link has been documented in the USA and in Central America. Gang members who had been incarcerated in American prisons were repatriated to their native soil. Thus, MS-13 gang members were sent to El Salvador and Honduras, aggravating the national problems with gangs and violence. Conversely, in Central American countries, street youth nowadays are being socialised into gang life well before a number of them migrate to the USA (Bibler Coutin 2007; McGuire 2007).

However, in the emergence of Crips in Norway, other elements come into play. No gang members have moved from Los Angeles to this Arctic part of Europe. Here, not newcomers, but new media play a decisive role. Television, films, rap music, and the Internet probably all need to be included in the explanation, because, nowadays, in Norway just as elsewhere, global youth culture influences the lifestyle of youngsters.

In the chapters to follow, migration is a crucial factor. All authors address gang formation or gang behaviour in relation to the presence of immigrant groups. A central framing question is, in what ways does migration contribute to gang formation? This means that the focus is on people who are on the move, but not only that. The ‘migration’ of gang symbols and ‘gangsta’ lifestyle as a part of global youth culture is also a recurring theme. Even though the above MS-13 gang example points to the migration of individual gang members, in Europe, there is little or no evidence for the existence of this variety. So far, this also seems to apply to the Latin gangs in Spain and Italy that have been portrayed as transnational organisations (Brotherton 2007; see Feixa et al. (Chapter 5) in this volume). Indeed, Howell (2007) calls the idea that local gangs came from elsewhere to set up an organisation in a new location one of the key myths about gangs. This variety is not central to this book.

Ethnicity

In his famous book on ethnicity, Barth (1969) defines ethnic groups on the basis of their boundaries and not so much on cultural content. An ethnic group can be maintained by a limited set of cultural features, but these can change through time. Ethnicity pinpoints an origin or background with which the person can identify. This identity is imperative, implying that it may be as important to the individual as gender, as it establishes belonging in an abstract way. But this identity can also be played out. It is communicated, over-communicated or under-communicated, depending on the situation. It can be forgotten and taken for granted, or it can be visible and made relevant for certain groups and be ascribed by others.

In many cities, the gang issue has become an ethnic phenomenon, as ethnic criteria often are used to designate the group. Groups have often been given or have taken names that identify them with a foreign background. The Moroccan gangs in Amsterdam, Mexican gangs in Los Angeles, Pakistani gangs in Oslo and Latin gangs in Barcelona that will be portrayed in this book, are all identified by their ethnic characteristics. Gang members may use ethnicity as a relevant criterion to separate themselves from others in order to establish enemies and allies. So, ethnicity can work to see either how gangs are perceived or how the gang members see themselves and others.

Concerning ethnicity, two framing questions of this book are, how does ethnicity relate to gang characteristics and gang behaviour? and is ethnicity relevant for understanding gangs? Questions such as these may lead to research going in different directions. First, there can be a focus on identity. Gangs have membership and as a rule they are involved in conflicts. Because of this, belonging to a certain gang defines who are friends and who are enemies. Second, cultural elements can come into play. Cultural content is not central to the ethnicity concept used by Barth, and some gang scholars argue that group processes have a more or less uniform outcome no matter what ethnicity is involved. Still, diversity is hard to understand without paying attention to cultural differences. For example, the relevance of a code of honour has been reported in earlier research on Mexicans, but this code also seems to be a key element for understanding how Pakistani gangs in Norway operate (see Chapter 14). Third, on a national level, ethnicity can be dealt with in specific ways. In France, the law prohibits any distinction between ‘French persons of French origins’ and ‘French persons of foreign origins’. Creating ethnically based files is a felony. In The Netherlands, quite differently, in popular and political, as well as scientific, discussions, there is some emphasis on ethnic background of offenders, not least gang members.

Stigma

Gangs draw attention. Police have a natural interest in gangs because of their criminal activities. Adolescent gang members often use colours, signs, language, tattoos, etc., to stress their identity, and because of these symbols, gangs are often easily noticed. Their orientation to the public space of the streets makes gangs visible in most neighbourhoods. So gangs stand out, and that contributes to the fact that they often get blamed for things that happen in their vicinity.

Global changes result in massive migration movements. Migrants may be political dissidents or war refugees, or they may leave poor regions in Africa, Asia, or Central America for economic reasons and seek new opportunities, mostly in the West. Because exotic appearance and new cultural aspects catch the eye, the involvement of migrants adds to the fact that gangs stand out. This may take the social reaction to gangs one step further and lead to gangs becoming scapegoats.

The relation between gangs, migration and ethnicity is a subject fraught with controversy, because it deals with newcomers and delinquency. Inevitably, this touches upon stigmatisation or even discrimination. When popular media report on gangs, as a rule crime and violence are underscored. In addition, if gang members turn out to be migrant youth, this fuels negative sentiments and feelings of unsafeness by the settled population. Newcomers can meet with xenophobia or even aggression. Several if not all European nations have extremist groups, mostly known as neo-Nazis or skinheads. These groups may or may not be linked to political organisations. In some countries juvenile gangs exist that merely use extremist symbols to add to their identity, while in other places youth groups seem to have become part of extremist right-wing political parties.

In the blender of public debate, gangs, crime, violence, and migrants have become intertwined. Policymakers in most European countries are aware of this, and in official accounts the word ‘gang’ is avoided, or used only with reluctance. By the same token, European scholars are hesitant to use the gang label. Research can be used for political ends, and research on gangs especially runs the risk of leading to repression of marginalised youth or to blaming the victim. Because of this, the aim of this book to explore the relation between street gangs, migration, and ethnicity is controversial and difficult.

The chapters of this book come from various continents, mostly Europe (Germany, England, France, Russia, Spain, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden), but also North America (United States and Canada) and Australia. Each country has a specific socio-political context in which gangs have emerged and were studied. All of the authors are aware of the burden of this book, and some make an explicit statement. They have not formulated any political suggestions to stop, continue, or increase migration to the different countries even though the connection between gang formation and migration is clearly demonstrated. The ambition is rather to provide evidence of what is going on and give insights into the real dilemmas with which nations are faced when it comes to gang problems. The authors have decided to present their research that is based on empirical data. They do so in order to understand the gang phenomenon. The results may carry some alarming facts, but they also work to refute opportunistic popular interpretations based on stereotypes. Practitioners and politicians can find scientific bases for their decision making.

Part 1: Introduction and methods

Gang literature offers many examples of the relation between gangs and migration. Especially American sociological publications from the first half of the twentieth century provide these, but also gang literature from the last decades bears these accounts. European literature on gangs is relatively sparse, as the gang phenomenon seems to have surfaced or been recognised only recently. The fact that large-scale migration to the USA is from an earlier date than migration to Europe is related to historical facts of politics and economy on a national and international level. Van Gemert and Decker examine these differences in Chapter 2, which gives an overview of existing American literature and contrasts it...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• List of Contributors
• Part I Introduction and methods
• Part II Migration and street gangs
• Part III Ethnicity and street gangs
• Part IV Issues and challenges of migration and ethnicity in dealing with treet gangs
• Index