NCJ Number
217512
Journal
Global Crime Volume: 7 Issue: 3-4 Dated: August-November 2006 Pages: 505-543
Date Published
August 2006
Length
39 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the worldwide gang phenomenon and the strategic design of selected gang activities.
Abstract
The organizations and activities of the most sophisticated of the gang phenomena (third generation gangs) reflects expertise in communications, marketing, transportation, banking, and negotiations with other organizations. The gang phenomenon is a business organization striving to control the price of commodities. The annual net profit from gang-related activities is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. As gangs have evolved, they have gone from small street, turf-oriented, petty-cash entities to larger, internationalized, commercial-political organizations. This evolutionary process is called “coup d’ street." As third-generation gangs become more powerful, societies become increasingly unstable with more widespread violence, degradation of the economy, and governmental inability to provide security. It is inferred that street gangs are a mutated form of urban insurgency. It is within this context that the phenomenon of gangs plays much more than a bit part on the world stage. As crime and war become more and more indistinguishable, gangs must be considered a larger national security issue that must be viewed as a local concept. Even though gangs in each country have some unique characteristics and can be bitter rivals for control of disputed territory, their origins, motives, and patterns of actions are similar. This paper is an exploration of the strategic context within which the gang phenomenon operates. This contextual base explains the central strategic governance problem and the threat of state failure in the global security arena. It also explains the most salient causes and effects of the phenomenon. It concludes with an analysis of the strategies that have contributed best to the success of the gang-related activities and the failure of counter-gang efforts in Central America, Jamaica, and Brazil. 122 footnotes