Generation Adrift: An Ethnography of a Criminal Moroccan Gang in the Netherlands

• NCJ Number: 177242
• Author(s): H Werdmolder
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 163 pages
• Sale Source: Kluwer Law International
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands

Annotation

To improve understanding of the process of marginalization, criminalization, and reintegration among young Moroccans in Amsterdam, this study focuses on two periods in their lives.

Abstract

The criminal careers of 34 Moroccan youths form the basis of this research. The author used personal and direct methods to observe and interact with these youth over a period of 8 years. He became a barkeeper in a youth club, a youth worker, and a social worker. The research was done both in an old neighborhood in Amsterdam and in Morocco. The study thus used a combination of personal observation, direct interaction, and ethnographic research. All of the youths had come to the Netherlands as part of the family reunification scheme. With the exception of six youths, all of them came from the northern, less developed area of Morocco. Their fathers came from simple, agricultural families and had initially come to the Netherlands as migrant workers in the 1960s and 1970s. At the time of the first phase of research, the youths were 14-22 years old. They were mostly Moroccan youths who had joined a youth gang after a few years at a lower technical school. Many of them had problematic social contacts that they often expressed through criminal behavior, aggression, and the use of soft and hard drugs. To study the process of change in the further development of the youth, they were monitored over an extended period of time. The central issue in the second phase of research was whether the formation of youth gangs was a "wild" phase that dissipated with age or the beginning of a criminal career that extended into adulthood. Believing that the neighborhood in which the youths lived was an important influence on their behavior, the author describes the social setting of an old working-class district in Amsterdam, where the youth lived. The findings show that some youth continued their marginalizing criminal careers, while some were able to form long-term relationships with important societal institutions. They stopped using hard drugs and were no longer involved in criminal activity. A 144-item bibliography and a subject index