Book Review: Reid, S. and Valasik, M., Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White.

In the book, Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White, authors Shannon E. Reid and Matthew Valasik begin by advocating for alternative rights gangs to be included in research about street gang activity. Reid and Valasik explain the extent of youth activity in the White Power Movement (WPM). For years, white youth participating in white power movement activities have been excluded from research (Reid and Valasik, 2020). This book aims to provide researchers, scholars, and criminal justice practitioners a great insight into the structure of these alt-right gangs to push for their inclusion in future research (Reid and Valasik, 2020). According to our authors, these youth have been excluded from research because no precise definition defines this group (Reid and Valasik, 2020). These youth have been misclassified when being compared to traditional street gangs. Several definitions have been provided that do not adequately describe these youth.

“Streets of menace”: Constructing and deconstructing youth “gangs” in two Australian cities

This paper explores the symbolic and instrumental impacts associated with labelling particular groups of young people as perpetrators of organised “gang” activity. Using case studies from two Australian cities, we point primarily to the constitutive and damaging nature of much media and public discourse about youth gang crime and show how young offenders’ disadvantage and disenfranchisement is rendered largely invisible or immaterial to understanding the causes and solutions to such problems. In an era of “fake news”, social media “echo chambers”, civil conflict, mass international migration/forced diasporas, as well as the reassertion of strong sovereign borders, we ask: how might one de-escalate the “monstering” of young people whose identity (and presence and place in society) is known primarily, if not exclusively, through the “noise” and visibility of their offending?

Nad zalew bym sobie pojechał

Malgorzata Michel, PhD at Jagiellonian University works at the Institute of Education. Her research focuses mainly on local prevention and rehabilitation systems, studying activity of the „street children” afiliating with youth gang activity and deviant hooligan groups in the context of urban studies. The presented text is the outcome of taking part in Mikolaj Grynberg’s workshops focusing on writing about city memory and personal stories in years 2019-2020. Malgorzata Michel combines being a qualitative researcher set in ethnomethodology and writing skills achieved on later mentioned workshops. Her text is an outcome of a process starting with and interview with a teenage hooligan, ex street gang member. Finally, the author showcases a way to present qualitative data in form of a reportage.

The criminalisation of gang activity in South Africa: reassessing the rationale

Criminal gang activity presents a substantial threat to the safety and security of, in particular, the inhabitants of the Cape Flats in Cape Town. The State has intervened legislatively through the form of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998. This is somewhat of a ‘super-criminalisation’ given that similar common law and statutory measures already existed prior to the promulgation of the Act. What is the rationale for the criminalisation of gang activity in South Africa? Furthermore, if there is sufficient rationale for this super-criminalisation, is there sufficient basis to argue for the additional responsibility of gang leaders, which is currently left uncovered by the Act?

‘African gangs’ in Australia: Perceptions of race and crime in urban neighbourhoods

Late in 2016, Melbourne experienced what was referred to in the media as the Moomba ‘riot’. This event led to a racialised political and media campaign regarding the problem of ‘African gangs’. Despite no evidence of actual gang activity, the backlash against black migrants in Melbourne was consequential with increases in reported racism and institutionalised forms of discrimination. In this study, we examine the neighbourhood context of exclusion against African Australians following the Moomba ‘riot’. Using census and crime data integrated with survey data from 2400 residents living in 150 urban neighbourhoods, we interrogate the relationship between sentiments (measured as anger) towards Africans and perceptions of neighbourhood crime and disorder. We further consider whether quality contact with Africans and neighbourhood cohesion mediates this relationship. We conclude with reflections on the significant and deleterious effects of the ‘black and criminal’ association on understandings of ‘Africanness’ in Australia.

Zombies and Prisoner Rehabilitation

This chapter looks at how, in 2007, 1,500 inmates in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) went “viral” with their online rendition of Michael Jackson’s music video “Thriller.” Representing an exercise program aimed at building teamwork and reducing gang activity through dance, the CPDRC’s “Thriller” circulated as performance-based proof of prisoner rehabilitation. This chapter argues that central to the production’s worldwide popularity are narratives of discipline, colonial choreography, and the alterity of Wenjiel Resane, the cross-dressed leading lady. It situates the dance in relation to the African American original, the actions of the prison administrators, and ideologies of Filipino mimicry. This chapter examines how neocolonial and market-oriented reforms fundamentally influenced the social construction of Filipino Otherness presented in the dance and thus shaped its popularity in unexpected ways.

From Teen Angels to Vogue: The subcultural styles of the girl gang in Mi Vida Loca

Despite increasing sociological scholarship pertaining to girl gang membership in the last few decades, there continues to be a lack of engagement with the meaning of their stylistic practices and how this manifests on screen. As a corrective to this, this article considers the complexities, contradictions and ambiguities in girl gang styles and their 'symbolic meaning' for young Chicanas as represented in the first feature-length film to bring contemporary girl gang activity from the streets to the mainstream, Mi Vida Loca (1994). Examining Chola makeup, gang tattoos and dress, the article explores how the gang girl can produce meaning (political, feminist or other) and power through styles, and the tensions between 'authentic' agentic subcultural defiance and mainstream consumption, and the dualistic constructions of girlhood itself. Disadvantaged by intersecting forces, it is argued that gang girls do not necessarily have less opportunity, but greater difficulty in imposing meaning onto the world and resisting hegemonic forces through subcultural aesthetics.

Police Response to Juvenile Gangs and Gang Violence

Street gangs are prevalent throughout the United States. Recently, law enforcement agencies estimated there are approximately 30,000 gangs and 850,000 gang members across the United States. Gang members commit assaults, street-level drug trafficking, robberies, and threats and intimidation. However, they most commonly commit low-level property crime and marijuana use. Rival gang members or law-abiding citizens are often the targets of these crimes. Other than crime, the influence of gangs can disrupt the socializing power of schools, families, and communities. These institutions help socialize young people to learn and follow the appropriate rules of a law-abiding society. The presence of gangs and gang-related activity induces fear in the local community and great concern among citizens, impacting the quality of life of neighborhoods and cities. To confront these concerns, law enforcement is often considered the first line of defense. Despite the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and gangs, police officers have special knowledge and access to gang members and at-risk youth, which puts law enforcement in a unique position to reduce juvenile gang violence through prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts. There are several ways in which law enforcement responds to gang violence. In its efforts to prevent gang violence, law enforcement plays a crucial role in regulating gang activity and in preventing those at risk of joining gangs. Primary prevention is broad in scope as the programs and strategies focus on the entire community. Primary prevention programs, such as the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program, target a wide population and attempt to teach youths the skills to resist peer pressure to join a gang. Secondary prevention programs narrow their focus by identifying and reaching out to youths at risk for joining gangs. Secondary prevention programs, such as Los Angeles’s GRYD Secondary Prevention Program, offer psychological and substance abuse counseling, tutoring, and employment training, among other services. Law enforcement can also reduce gang violence through intervention by implementing strategies that provide alternatives to gang membership and strategies that prevent gang activity. Gang alternative programs, such as the Gang Employment Program (GEP), aim to get individuals to leave their gangs, but also provide opportunities to prevent the individual from rejoining the gang. Gang activity prevention strategies, such as the Dallas Anti-Gang Initiative’s enforcement of curfew and truancy laws, focus on specific activities, places, or behaviors associated with gang activity. These strategies typically include special laws, mediation, and situational crime prevention strategies. As a last resort, law enforcement responds to gang violence through suppression strategies. Suppression strategies are deterrence-based strategies. Although the effectiveness of these aforementioned programs varies, law enforcement is better utilized in a prevention capacity rather than an enforcement one. Moreover, law enforcement should not tackle gang violence alone, but in partnership with other community organizations and stakeholders such as Boston’s Operation Ceasefire or Chicago’s Project Safe Neighborhoods. These partnerships with community organizations and visible commitment to combating gang violence through prevention and suppression efforts can build trust and increase police legitimacy in at-risk communities.

“White Vigilantes?”

Positive loitering is a type of neighborhood watch practice that safety activists in Rogers Park and Uptown commonly used in order to try and suppress street crime and gang activity. In conducting positive loitering, the mostly white safety activists entered a context in which their racial category was marked, because the practice encouraged charges of racism and vigilantism. This chapter describes how two positive loitering groups positioned themselves in this contested territory. It shows how the groups embraced or avoided racially contested tactics, engaged or alienated black and Latino residents, and discussed racial challenges. Ironically, a positive loitering group in Uptown created an environment of interracial collaboration in their polarized neighborhood, while the group in Rogers Park incited racial conflict despite that neighborhood’s calmer political field.