The Handbook of Gangs is a comprehensive volume that presents the current state of knowledge about gangs. Each of the chapters is written by a leading expert in the world on their chosen topic and stands alone as an insightful review of what is known about that topic. But taken together the chapters provide us with a broad understanding of the foundation for gang research, the theories and methods used to study gang behaviors and processes, the many forms of gangs, the correlates of gangs and gang membership, gang prevention and intervention programs, and gang experts. Indeed, we believe that one of the strengths of the book is the series of interrelationships among the chapters. While the topics of each chapter are different, they are related through themes, problems, theories, and methods.
The goal of this volume is to provide a definitive reference for professionals working in the field of gang prevention or suppression, researchers, and students. What we know about gangs has become interdisciplinary and internationalized in the course of the past 20 years, and our book reflects both of those trends. We believe that this volume pulls together the most contemporary reviews on the key topics in the understanding of gangs and the responses to gangs. To accomplish this, we have engaged the best scholars in their area, many of whom have chosen to work with an emerging scholar. Each chapter provides a critical review of what is known about the topic, as well as the insights of the authors about the topic. In this way the book will be grounded in the current knowledge about the specific topics, but also provides new material that reflects the knowledge of the leading minds in the field. While there is a strong orientation toward sociological criminology in the book, we believe that the chapters reflect a broad approach in both method and theory, continuing to expand the boundaries of gang research.
The book is organized into seven sections:
- Laying the Foundation for Understanding Gangs (Chapters 2ā4)
- Theories of Gangs (Chapters 5ā10)
- Gang Correlates (Chapters 11ā12)
- Gang Processes (Chapters 13ā16)
- Responding to Gangs (Chapters 17ā21)
- Pioneers in Gang Research (Chapters 22ā25)
- Gangs in International Context (Chapters 26ā29)
There are many unique features to the book and we use this introduction to walk the reader through those features. One aspect of the book that we are particularly proud of is the personal touch in many of the chapters. We encouraged the authors to give us insights into their personal knowledge about the research and researchers in their topic area. We think this makes the chapters more interesting to the reader. This is an especially important feature of this book as many of the authors are intimately involved with the production of knowledge in the area of their chapter, know other individuals working on contemporary research in the area, and have a strong appreciation for the history of work in that area. For example, Andrew Papachristos is among the leading network theorists and methodologists in the social sciences. He has teamed with Michael Sierra-Arevalo to produce an outstanding chapter (9) on the use of network analysis and theory with gangs which integrates network theory with their ongoing network analysis. Finn Aage-Esbensen wrote a chapter (20) on the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) project that is insightful for what it tells us both about G.R.E.A.T. from an evaluatorās perspective as well as about evaluation methods. Similarly, Anthony Braga ranks among the very best police scholars in the world, and has written an excellent chapter (17) on the role of the police in responding to gangs, particularly focused deterrence approaches. We believe that the other chapters reflect a comparable level of prominence among the authors. Indeed, the names of many of these authors are synonymous with the topics of their chapters.
Over the past two decades, there has been a virtual explosion of gang research. Indeed, the third chapter of this book, written by David Pyrooz and Meghan Mitchell, traces the history of gang research and documents this explosion in great detail, what they term the transition from ālittleā to ābigā gang research. A key theme in the history of gang research is the definition of a gang, a theme that David Curry revisits in his chapter (2) nearly two decades after his work on the logic of defining gangs and measuring gang activities. In their chapter (4) on documenting gang activity, Ronald Huff and Julie Barrows show us not only why the definition and measurement of gangs is so important, but also the essential features of how gang intelligence is gathered and recorded. Indeed, the explosion of research on gangs has occurred in tandem to responses to gangs, which rely on the very records carefully described by Huff and Barrows.
Research on gangs has grown in theoretical sophistication as well in methodological rigor. Theoretical developments have followed Shortās tripartite focus on macro, micro, and individual theories and levels of explanation. Each of these levels of explanation is represented in this volume. This includes new perspectives such as social psychological approaches to the study of gangs (DaJung Woo, Howard Giles, Michael Hogg, and Liran Goldman, chapter 8), emerging perspectives such as the growing attention to gang membership in developmental and life course perspective (Beidi Dong, Chris Gibson, and Marvin Krohn, chapter 5), and longstanding perspectives such as social learning theory (Thomas Winfree and Adrienne Freng, chapter 7). Further, the correlates of gangs and gang membership are documented in chapter 10, on violence and synergy between gangs and guns (Arna Carlock and Alan Lizotte), chapter 11, on the connections between gangs, drugs, and culture (Mark Fleisher,), and chapter 12, that rethinks gender and gangs (Vanessa Panfil and Dana Peterson). At the macro-level Andrew Papachristos and Lorine Hughes (chapter 6) provide a chapter on neighborhoods and gangs that is not anchored to any single theoretical perspective, which is often contentious, instead viewing gangs as āindependent variablesā and ādependent variablesā as causes and consequences of neighborhood social organization and problems.
Perhaps most importantly, the book also pays explicit attention to explanations of gang-related processes and behaviors. This remains the least studied, yet perhaps most important of the remaining items on the gang research agenda. Chapters 13 and 14 tackle the important processes of how people enter and exit from gangs. James Densley presents readers with a theory of joining gangs that is rooted in a signaling perspective, something that offers great value to gang research. Dena Carson and Michael Vecchio, alternatively, review the current state of the evidence on disengaging from gangs, a burgeoning area of gang research. True to Shortās calls for micro-level gang research, Jean McGloin and Megan Collins expertly outline in chapter 15 the micro-level intra- and inter-gang processes theorized to elevate levels of crime and violence among gangs and gang members. These processes are believed to make gangs qualitatively different, which is why in chapter 16 we (the editors) ask: what are the structural, organizational, and social features that gangs uniquely possess compared to other criminal and extremist groups?
Units of government (cities, states, and the federal government) have worked to develop responses to gangs. While some of these responses have emphasized suppression to the exclusion of other approaches, there is a growing emphasis on prevention and intervention programs. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Justice have collaborated to produce a volume titled Changing Course, that reviews the primary areas of responding to gangs from an integrated public health and criminal justice perspective. Many of its chapters explicitly acknowledge the efforts to control the spread of gangs and the harm that gang membership causes through increased criminal involvement. This handbook captures these trends in several chapters, most notably Shytierra Gaston and Beth Huebnerās chapter on gangs and corrections (18), Beth Bjerregaardās chapter on gang legislation (19), and Erika Gebo, Brenda Bond, and Krystal Camposās chapter (21) on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Comprehensive Strategy.
The spread of gangs in the United States and the worldwide growth in the use of the Internet has meant that gangs have āgone global.ā American-style youth gangs can now be found in a growing number of countries around the world. While there are some core similarities across these gangs, in many cases they are quite distinctive, reflecting religious, cultural, historical, and institutional differences of the countries. Frank van Gemert and Frank Weerman (chapter 27) examine trends, patterns, and correlates of contemporary European gangs. Their chapter is nicely complemented by Rob Ralphs and Hannah Smithsonās review (chapter 28) of gang intervention strategies in Europe. While much gang research has crossed the Atlantic to Europe, Dennis Rodgers and Adam Baird (chapter 26) identify a growing body of research in Latin American countries and Angela Higginson and Kathryn Benier (chapter 29) close the book with a review of what is known about gangs in Asia, Africa, and Australia. These chapters are explicitly comparative and contemporary.
But we believe that the most unique contribution found in the book comes in the four chapters that examine the work of four individual gang researchers who have made contributions to this literature since the middle classic era of gang research. The four individuals whose contributions are highlighted in separate chapters advancing the understanding of gangs are: Malcolm Klein, Irving Spergel, James F. Short Jr., and Walter Miller. Each of these individuals is responsible for developing a pillar of the foundation of gang research. We term these the ālegacyā chapters. Each chapter examining their involvement in gang research has elements of autobiography, historiography, and philosophy of science, in addition to a review of their work. These chapters were written by individuals who have worked with or have been intimately involved with the work of the four pioneers. Lorine Hughes, who wrote the chapter about James F. Short, Jr., was one of his doctoral students and has worked with him and the data from his Chicago project. Cheryl Maxson wrote the chapter about Malcolm Klein. Cheryl and āMacā have worked together for over 20 years and no one knows Macās work better than Cheryl. James C. Howell worked closely with the late Irving Spergel to develop the āSpergel Modelā which became the basis for nearly $100 million of federal gang intervention efforts. Richard Moule wrote the chapter about Walter Miller. It is fair to say no one has read more of Walterās work than Richard and while they never met, he understands Millerās work better than anyone in the field today. We hope you like reading them as much as we have.
It is appropriate to ask what the next steps are for gang research and policy. What are the questions that need to be answered that have not been resolved or not even been asked? We see four broad areas that are ripe for the attention of young scholars.
First, it is important to address the gaps in our current knowledge about gangs. This includes a number of salient topics such as the role of technology in gang behavior and the spread of gang behavior. The digital empowerment assumption holds that the Internet and social media offer key advantages to gangs and other criminal networks, yet it might also prove to be a detriment. What is needed is an understanding of if and how these new technologies influence gang behavior. Also, so much of what is known about gangs is derived from a criminological perspective, yet the very mechanisms leading to criminal behavior are not exclusive to this behavior but general to a variety of non-criminal consequences as well. Therefore it is necessary to learn about the implications ā negative and positive ā of gangs for other socializing institutions.
Second, we know all too little about group process in gangs despite Shortās work from nearly 50 years ago exhorting us to better understand group process. This concern is closely tied to the level of measurement brought to understand gangs. This is an issue that is far more than an arcane devotion to method and measurement; indeed it is at the core of what we need to know about gangs. Short urges us to consider whether we are studying and responding to individuals (gang members), groups (gangs), or structural aspects of society (class, neighborhood variables, or the like). Despite his influential work on this topic in the 1960s and 1980s, there is still inadequate attention to these issues.
Third, we lack an understanding of how gangs compare to other groups involved in crime. The growth of interest in terrorist and extremist groups, organized crime groups, drug smugglers, and money launderers (to name but a few) is illustrative of this interest. Do these groups share common organizational, structural, or group process variables? Are these groups wholly distinct and different from each other? Are there overlaps between these groups that draw our attention to a common...
