NCJ Number
191653
Journal
Ethnic and Racial Studies Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2000 Pages: 272-298
Date Published
March 2000
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article compared European-American and African-American youth gangs during four historical periods showing that the differences between European-American and African-American gangs can be traced to the race-specific effects of labor, housing and consumer markets, government policies, local politics, and organized crime on European-American and African-American communities.
Abstract
In this article, an historical analysis was conducted comparing the race-specific effects of labor, housing and consumer markets, governmental institutions, formal and informal political authority, organized crime and agencies of crime control on white (European-American) and Black (African-American) youth gangs. White and Black youth gangs originated at different times and their respective relationships to the above have been different. In this historical analysis four historical periods were compared: the seaboard city, 1787-1861; the immigrant city, 1880-1940; the racially changing city, 1940-1970; and the hyper-segregated city, 1970-1999. Over the last 200 years, European-American youth gangs have facilitated the cultural assimilation of non-Hispanic European immigrants into American society because of their close ties with formal and informal political authorities and organizations. However, African-American youth gangs reinforced cultural separation because of their embeddedness in racially segregated, economically marginalized, and politically powerless communities. References