Book review: County Lines: Exploitation and Drug Dealing among Urban Street Gangs

How can people who lack access to effective government institutions establish property rights and facilitate exchange? The illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles has flourished despite its inability to rely on state-based formal institutions of governance. An alternative system of governance has emerged from an unexpected source—behind bars. The Mexican Mafia prison gang can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration. The gang's ability to extract resources creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes. Evidence collected from federal indictments and other legal documents related to the Mexican Mafia prison gang and numerous street gangs supports this claim.

Download Full-text

Critical perspectives on urban street gangs

Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology ◽

10.4324/9781315622040-34 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 378-386

Author(s):

Simon Hallsworth

Keyword(s):

Street Gangs ◽

Urban Street ◽

Critical Perspectives

Download Full-text

“Play Groups” No Longer: Urban Street Gangs in the Los Angeles Region

From Chicago to L.A.: Making Sense of Urban Theory From Chicago to L.A.: Making sense of Urban theory ◽

10.4135/9781452231211.n9 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 239-270 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Cheryl L. Maxson ◽

Malcolm W. Klein

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Street Gangs ◽

Urban Street ◽

Play Groups

Download Full-text

Emergence and Change

County Lines ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781529203073.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 31-60

Author(s):

Simon Harding

Keyword(s):

Street Gangs ◽

Evolutionary Models ◽

Drug Markets ◽

Drug Supply ◽

Street Gang ◽

Supply Networks ◽

Urban Street ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Social ◽

New Locations

This chapter discusses why and how county lines drug-supply networks began to emerge in provincial towns across the United Kingdom. It sets out several pre-conditions (variables) which, once ripened, led to the creation of county lines drug-supply networks as they are now known. The chapter also details how street gangs have evolved, leading the social field of the urban street gang into a state of flux. Contributing to this flux are new affiliates with new aspirations to seek out and create competitive advantage by locating and exploiting dormant domestic drug markets in new locations. The chapter then outlines the push–pull factors which make a county line host location attractive. It establishes the Evolutionary Models of CL Networks, creating a typology of different UK county line models increasingly adopting business modes of professionalisation and sophistication.

Download Full-text