ABSTRACT
In this chapter we examine the problem of youth gangs in America. The literature on gangs is voluminous, and so rather than including adult, motorcycle, or prison gangs in our discussion, we have chosen to focus on youth gangs. The main reason for doing so, other than space limitations, is that youth gangs in America have been the focus of a great deal of public and media attention. If you were to ask the average person what they are most afraid of, many would probably respond that they are scared of being victimized or that they are worried about youth gangs. In fact, fear of criminal victimization and gangs were two of the strongest motivators behind criminal justice policy in the United States during the 1990s. The problem of gang proliferation and gang violence was so salient in the public mind that President Clinton even declared a “war” on gangs in 1997 (Lane & Meeker, 2000). Historically, there has been a certain romance attached to youth gangs, but today, popular perceptions have it that youth gangs are associated with a range of criminal activities, especially drug trafficking (Spergel, 1995), and the media seem to focus on “gang-related” stories of all kinds (Jankowski, 1991; Peronne & Chesney-Lind, 1997). Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that like so many of the other issues covered in this book, there is a “moral panic” around the problem of gangs (McCorkle & Miethe, 2002).
