Search Results (29)

This study examines the intersection of race, class, and gang violence in Singapore, with a particular focus on the structural dynamics linking racial minorities, street gangs, and institutionalized Chinese secret societies—the archetype of organized crime in the city-state. By integrating race as both an ideology and a system of social relations into the study of gang formation, this research sheds light on why and how racial minorities become disproportionately involved in gang violence. The study revealed that beyond economic marginalization, racialized hierarchies embedded within gang contexts shape the motivations, participation, and mobility of minority individuals in both street gangs and the broader criminal underworld. Drawing on the concept of racialized masculinity, it is argued that racial minorities mobilize their gender and racial resources to compensate for status disparities resulting from structural exclusion in both legitimate and illegitimate spheres. In a postcolonial, multiracial society, like Singapore, where racial and class marginalization intersect, gang affiliation emerges as a means of negotiating power and social standing. The findings contribute to scholarship on race, crime, and social stratification while informing policies aimed at addressing racial inequalities and reducing gang violence. Full article

This article reflects on six years of work that implemented various participatory research methods with young women linked to gangs in El Salvador. The reflection focuses on the fundamental role of emotions and trust in contexts marked by violence and social exclusion. From the Freirean perspective of popular education and the approaches of Haraway and Butler, it also analyzes how these participatory methodologies with an autobiographical focus contribute to the re-signification of identities, the construction of agency, and the creation of safe spaces for dialogue. Through methods such as the systematization of experiences, life narratives, and critical ethnography, not only was the complexity of the participants’ lived realities captured, but the investigative process also became a vehicle for empowerment and social transformation. This article highlights how the ethical management of emotions, combined with the construction of trust-based relationships and the use of an autobiographical approach in participatory methodologies, redefines research as a humanized and transformative practice in the study of stigmatized and excluded populations. The findings emphasize the recognition of the contribution participatory research makes in contexts of violence and exclusion for the design of public policies, programs, or reintegration strategies. This underscores the need to promote research lines and funding that advance such proposals from the social sciences, establishing them as key tools for structural transformation. Full article

This paper presents a top-down approach to gang prevention, emphasizing the importance of addressing the complex structural conditions that accumulate to foster gang activity. In the title, we use the metaphor of “smoke” to represent the underlying structural conditions that are often overlooked or ignored, while “fire” symbolizes the resulting consequences of this neglect—specifically, gangs and gang violence. The authors argue that factors such as poverty, poor education, and racialized housing policies have created environments conducive to gang membership and violence. These structural inequities not only create fertile ground for gang activity but also trickle down to affect communities, as well as youth on an individual level, leading to trauma, multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and, in some cases, long-term offending. This paper also underscores the importance of addressing individual agency as well as recognizing that empowering youths to make choices outside of the constraints imposed by their environments is crucial for effective prevention. By examining broader structural issues, this paper highlights the need for comprehensive solutions that go beyond grassroots efforts. We critique current legislative measures and propose that effective gang prevention must tackle the root causes embedded in America’s socio-economic and political systems, as most gang prevention programs fail to address the institutional frameworks that contribute to individuals’ propensity to join, leave, or remain in gangs. Full article

Introduction: Personal, behavioral, and environmental risk factors are correlated to varying degrees with each other and with the overall likelihood of violent reinjury. When used with fidelity, risk assessment instruments, including the violence reinjury risk assessment instrument (VRRAI), identify domains in which individuals present elevated risk levels to aid in matching services with needs. Less is known about the collinearity among risk factors for violently injured individuals admitted to hospitals. Collinearity between risk factors has ramifications for predictive modeling of violent reinjury risk. The objective of this study was to identify significantly correlated risk factors when the VRRAI was used by hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP) for clients. Materials and Methods: Victims of violent injury by modality of firearm, stabbing, and physical assault who were admitted to a level 1 trauma center at a single institution were voluntarily enrolled in a hospital-based violence intervention program (HVIP) between September 2020 and June 2022. Violence intervention specialists (VIS) completed the VRRAI within the first month of participant enrollment. The VRRAI is comprised of 29 binary indicators that may signal elevated risk of violent reinjury. Data from completed assessments were used to apply risk-need-responsivity (RNR) principles along with phi coefficients of key indicators to examine overlap and prevalence in the population. Results: A total of 98 participants were enrolled in the HVIP. The median age was 27 years old and 79 (80.6%) were male, while 66 (67.3%) were non-Hispanic Black or African American, 9 (9.2%) were non-Hispanic White, and 17 (17.3%) identified as Hispanic or Latino. Several statistically significant relationships existed between key risk indicators in the VRRAI. Importantly, a robust relationship was found between the two dynamic risk factors of having heavy connection with gangs and a perception of imminent threat of violence (φc = 0.57, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Data suggest that some variables could be consolidated or removed from the VRRAI to create an even shorter instrument that can be performed more rapidly in the clinical setting. The application of the RNR model illustrates a limited number of dynamic risk factors that could be immediately addressed as part of case management should be prioritized among the questions selected from the VRRAI for inquiry at the intake assessment. Full article

Racialised and culturally distinct refugee groups increasingly face hostilities and negative representations in countries of resettlment. The experience of African refugee youth in Australia illustrates this general trend. This paper explores how racial Othering discourse seriously undermines the group’s wellbeing. The article concentrates in particular on two aspects of relational wellbeing, the capacity to move in public without fear or shame and the ability to feel a sense of belonging to the place where one lives in. Theoretically, the paper draws together work on wellbeing from a capability approach and relational perspective with interdisciplinary literature on racial Othering. Empirically, the paper demonstrates the pervasive culture of racial Othering through media identifications of African youth with criminality and gang violence and illustrates impacts on young people’s wellbeing through data from interviews with African refugee youth. The youth’s accounts show how it feels to be a problem and what it means not to belong. Full article

This study emerged from a desire to understand the motivation of teachers to teach in challenging school contexts on the Cape Flats of South Africa where the legacy of apartheid continues to impact the quality of teaching and learning as the communities experience abject poverty, violence, and gang activity and have little regard for schooling, teachers, or education. This qualitative study employed an interpretative paradigm to understand the personal, lived experiences of teachers teaching in three purposively selected primary schools in Manenberg on the Cape Flats. The participants agreed to at least one semi-structured interview with follow-up questions for clarity if required. The findings suggest that the motivation of the teachers to teach at schools in a marginalised community is positively linked to the relationships they develop with their teacher community and the students and their families. If these relationships are positive, teachers are able to live out their beliefs and remain committed to the school community, which increases their perceived levels of self-efficacy and therefore their motivation to teach in the Manenberg area. Where they have support from the larger school community, their motivation is further enhanced. This motivation can be applied to countries with marginalised communities, particularly countries in the global south. Full article

To create an illusion of improving country conditions with respect to gang violence, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele relies on rhetorical strategies that include asserting his power and aptitude to accomplish what no other leader before him has done, undercutting the credibility of his critics, and selectively revealing and concealing national data. In this paper, I offer a fantasy-theme rhetorical analysis to demonstrate the strategic digital mediation of one key instance of Bukele’s wielding of the power of public diplomacy to detract attention from El Salvador’s continuing legacy of violence and democratic decline. Delivered in the midst of a government-sanctioned state of emergency following a rash of gang violence in early 2022, Bukele’s third annual Address to the Nation speech accomplishes the twin goals of proclaiming imminent victory over El Salvador’s infamous and pervasive gangs and defending himself against the critical global gaze directed at the country. Full article

Background: The criminalisation of drill music, a rap-based genre, is a recent chapter in a long history of policing “Black” music. The association of drill and other rap music with “gang” violence has a direct impact on the treatment of Black boys and men in the criminal justice system. However, critics argue that, rather than causing violence, violent lyrics reflect the lived experiences of marginalised communities. Method: Using a qualitative approach, this study analysed the lyrical content of 90 drill, grime, and other rap-based songs by UK artists, using thematic analysis. Findings: The following themes were found: social issues in the local area and community, involvement in crime, social status, coping with adversity, social support network, police, and escaping. Collectively, the themes highlight a narrative of Black boys and men who have experienced a range of adversities such as poverty, racism, child criminal exploitation, and community violence. Conclusions: Artists who make reference to drugs and violence in their lyrics also discuss adverse experiences and the impact of these, supporting the view that violent lyrics are a reflection of lived experience. Thus, focusing on criminalising rap music may be deflecting attention from risk factors for serious youth violence that are evidence-based. Full article

Resulting in pervasive feelings of despair, the culture of incarceration in the U.S. relies on punitive correctional strategies such as solitary confinement to control the behavior of incarcerated individuals. Inevitably, correctional culture which focuses primarily on punishment is dysfunctional, rife with gang violence, drug use, suicide, and violence perpetuated by and against staff. Our dialogic essay is voiced by (a) a currently incarcerated, Native American person who has survived solitary confinement and the spiritual drain of castigating correctional culture; and (b) a music educator who founded a prison choir for both non-incarcerated and incarcerated individuals in an effort to erode and transform some of the revengeful structures of US incarceration. We draw from Indigenous educator, language specialist, and member of the Lil’wat First Nation, Dr. Lorna Williams’ research on Indigenous Knowledge in our efforts to understand the relationships among group singing, spirituality, and our experiences in the Oakdale prison choir. Our dialogue charts a search for spiritual healing in the unsympathetic atmosphere of prison and offers an experience-based account of ways in which group singing can function as a medium of spiritual healing and growth in environments of conflict. Full article

The Bedouin syndrome represents social interactions based on four premises: a friend of my friend is my friend, a friend of my enemy is my enemy, an enemy of my friend is my enemy, and an enemy of my enemy is my friend. These extensive associations exist in many social and economic relationships, such as market competition, neighborhood relations, political behavior, student gangs, organized crime, and the violent behavior of sports spectators (hooliganism) worldwide. This work tests the Bedouin syndrome hypothesis considering the violent behavior in the football fan culture. We construct relational networks of social affinities to represent the social interactions of organized fan bases (Torcidas organizadas) involved in hooligan violence in Pernambuco, Brazil. Contrary to prior expectations, the results evidence no statistical support for the Bedouin syndrome in 13 of the 15 analyzed clubs. There is weak statistical support in two interactions and strong statistical support in one interaction to state that a friend of my enemy is my friend (instead of an enemy). The only support for the Bedouin syndrome is circumstantial based on a prior assumption of an alliance. We propose a network development that can be more suitable to represent football fans’ violent behavior. The results contribute to understanding the hooliganism social phenomenon in football-rooted cultures and their impact on public health, identifying potential determinants for organized violence by young spectators’ and supporting police strategies by defining relevance scores for the most potential clashes and coalitions of gangs. Full article

Research has frequently focused on the increased likelihood of violence and homicide among gang-involved individuals, as well as on the factors that contribute to this violence. Such work has examined the relationship between immigration and the frequency of crime, as well. However, there is a dearth of research examining the likelihood of gang-related homicide and the presence of both gang migrants from within the U.S. and those from abroad in a given community. The current paper utilizes National Youth Gang Survey data to examine the relationship between law enforcement perceptions of gang migrants in their jurisdiction and the frequency of gang-related homicide. The results reveal that gang-related homicides have a significant and negative association with the presence of gang migrants. These findings have important policy implications for understanding and addressing serious gang violence and homicide at the community level. Full article

Nowadays, we use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, WeChat and Weibo as means to communicate with each other. Social networks have become so indispensable in our everyday life that we cannot imagine what daily life would be like without social networks. Through social networks, we can access friends’ opinions and behaviors easily and are influenced by them in turn. Thus, an effective algorithm to find the top-K influential nodes (the problem of influence maximization) in the social network is critical for various downstream tasks such as viral marketing, anticipating natural hazards, reducing gang violence, public opinion supervision, etc. Solving the problem of influence maximization in real-world propagation scenarios often involves estimating influence strength (influence probability between two nodes), which cannot be observed directly. To estimate influence strength, conventional approaches propose various humanly devised rules to extract features of user interactions, the effectiveness of which heavily depends on domain expert knowledge. Besides, they are often applicable for special scenarios or specific diffusion models. Consequently, they are difficult to generalize into different scenarios and diffusion models. Inspired by the powerful ability of neural networks in the field of representation learning, we designed a hierarchical generative embedding model (HGE) to map nodes into latent space automatically. Then, with the learned latent representation of each node, we proposed a HGE-GA algorithm to predict influence strength and compute the top-K influential nodes. Extensive experiments on real-world attributed networks demonstrate the outstanding superiority of the proposed HGE model and HGE-GA algorithm compared with the state-of-the-art methods, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. Full article

Focused deterrence is a gang violence reduction strategy that relies on a unique mix of strong enforcement messages from law enforcement and judicial officials coupled with the promise of additional services. At the heart of the intervention is a coordinated effort to communicate the costs and consequences of gun violence to identified gang members during face-to-face meetings and additional community messaging. In Philadelphia, focused deterrence was implemented between 2013 and 2016, and although an impact evaluation showed a significant decrease in shootings in targeted areas relative to matched comparison neighborhoods, the effect on targeted gangs was not universal, with some exhibiting no change or an increase in gun-related activity. Here, we employ data on group-level social media usage and content to examine the correlations with gun violence. We find that several factors, including the nature of social media activity by the gang (e.g., extent of activity and who is engaging), are associated with increases in the average rate of gang-attributable shootings during the evaluation period, while content-specific variables (e.g., direct threats towards rivals and law enforcement) were not associated with increases in shootings. Implications for violence reduction policy, including the implementation of focused deterrence, are discussed. Full article

Despite the proliferation of research examining gang violence, little is known about how gang members experience, make sense of, and respond to peer fatalities. Drawing from two ethnographies in the Netherlands and Canada, this paper interrogates how gang members experience their affiliates’ murder in different street milieus. We describe how gang members in both studies made sense of and navigated their affiliates’ murder(s) by conducting pseudo-homicide investigations, being hypervigilant, and attributing blameworthiness to the victim. We then demonstrate that while the Netherland’s milder street culture amplifies the significance of homicide, signals the authenticity of gang life, and reaffirms or tests group commitment, frequent and normalized gun violence in Canada has desensitized gang-involved men to murder, created a communal and perpetual state of insecurity, and eroded group cohesion. Lastly, we compare the ‘realness’ of gang homicide in The Hague with the ‘reality’ of lethal violence in Toronto, drawing attention to the importance of the ‘local’ in making sense of murder and contrasting participants’ narratives of interpretation. Full article