ABSTRACT
Conflict is a principal driver for sustaining gang life. The extant research on street gangs has regularly shown a strong, positive relationship between gangs and violence, existing across places and over time. This chapter investigates the complexities of group violence, focusing specifically on the importance of violence in the subculture of street gangs (e.g. social identity). It begins by unpacking what gang-related violence involves. The chapter discusses risk/protective factors that contribute to an individual participating in gang-related violence or being violently victimized. This leads into a discussion about gang members’ exposure to being a victim of violence, with attention to gender differences. Then, the chapter also discusses two unique features, social and spatial dependence, which delineate gang-related violence from non-gang violence. It ends by comparing conventional street gangs to the emerging phenomenon of Alt-Right gangs (e.g. racist skinheads, Proud Boys) and how their appropriation of violence is analogous to conventional street gangs.
