Gangs have changed in the decades since ‘West Side Story’ first came out – they are deadlier, and their demographics are different – as are the means law enforcement use to control them.
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Articles on Gangs
Displaying 21 - 40 of 88 articles
Lesotho’s famo music is known for the use of accordions - and gang violence. In Wayfarers’ Hymns, Zakes Mda explores this tradition.
Hard as it is, some gangsters do leave gangs. A new book, based on a 5-year study, tracks the lives of 24 former gang members.
Findings show that in the face of marginalisation and social exclusion, youth in gangs think that they have no options except violence to prove that they are ‘real’ men in their communities.
Gang violence is a serious problem in Latin American society – not just its jails.
Some areas of Merseyside have more children at risk from gangs than in London. So why isn’t it studied more?
A basketball coach at a small community college in the Midwest reveals the challenges he faces on a regular basis to save his players from the pitfalls of the streets.
A study shows that some Cape Town gangsters choose to stand alone, preferring their independence to taking orders from a gang boss.
Gun violence has killed hundreds of Americans, including kids, this summer. There are proven ways to bring peace to city streets, says an expert in violence prevention – but someone has to pay for it.
Even after becoming an ‘ex’, former gang members must still negotiate gang associations and activities in the communities they remain in.
Rivalries will have been bred, birthed and nursed during lockdown, just as they are on the street.
Young black men are often viewed through a criminal lens. A new book based on an 11-year-long study of adolescent men in a South African township upends the stereotypes.
El Salvador is arresting thousands of people for violating its COVID-19 quarantine, further packing a ‘hellish’ penal system once described as a ‘petri dish’ for infectious disease.
Gangs are still a significant reality in US prisons. But most inmates say that their power has been watered down, and they no longer rule facilities with an iron fist.
When prosecutors introduce lyrics, they’re asking juries to suspend the distinction between author and narrator, reality and fiction, and to read them as literal confessions of guilt.
Faced with cutbacks to youth services and limited opportunities, risk-taking behaviour can, for some, become highly alluring.
Conservative Alejandro Giammattei beat former first lady Sandra Torres with 60% of the vote. But turnout was the lowest in Guatemala’s modern history, in apparent protest of both candidates.
Given the framework within which removals under the Group Areas Act took place in Cape Town, a social disaster was inevitable.
Suggestions that the Camorra has been usurped are exaggerated.
Being part of a gang may increase the chance of dying young, but when gang members leave their old lives behind, they can find that their street smarts come in handy.
Top contributors
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Lecturer in Policing Studies, School of Justice Studies., Liverpool John Moores University
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Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado Boulder
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Honorary research affiliate, Centre of Criminology, University of Cape Town
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Founder & CEO, Black Box Research and Consultancy
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Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University
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Professor of Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University
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Post-doctoral fellow, University of Fort Hare
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Research Professor, Anthropology and Sociology, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
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Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University
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Director of Research, Florida International University
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Professor of Criminology & Public Policy, University of Brighton
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Professor of Criminology and Director of the National Centre for Gang Research, University of West London
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Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Essex
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Senior Lecturer in International Business, Birkbeck, University of London
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Professor, UNSW Sydney
