By Maria Micaela Sviatschi   

This paper provides evidence showing how deportation policies can backfire by disseminating not only ideas between countries but also criminal networks, spreading gangs, in this case, across Central America and spurring migration back to the US. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs that developed in Los Angeles were sent back to El Salvador. Using variation in criminal deportations over time and across cohorts combined with geographical variation in the location of gangs and their members’ place of birth, I find that criminal deportations led to a large increase in Salvadoran homicide rates and gang activity, such as extortion and drug trafficking, as well as an increase in gang recruitment of children. In particular, I find evidence that children in their early teens when the leaders arrived are more likely to be involved in gang-related crimes when they are adults. I also find evidence that these deportations, by increasing gang violence in El Salvador, increase child migration to the US–potentially leading to more deportations.

Princeton, NJ: Department of Economics, - Working Paper - 2020. 52p

By Christopher Blattman, Gustavo Duncan, Benjamin Lessing, and Santiago Tobon  

Medellín’s city government wanted to raise its efficacy and legitimacy, especially in neighborhoods with weak state presence and competing armed actors. The city identified 80 such neighborhoods. In half, they intensified non-police street presence tenfold for two years, attempting to improve social services and dispute resolution. Unexpectedly, despite increased attention from street staff, residents lowered their opinion of the state on average. We trace these adverse effects to communities where state presence was initially weakest. Staff in these neighborhoods worked to improve services, but the central administration struggled to deliver on these promises. Where state presence was already established, however, the intervention raised opinions of the government as expected. We hypothesize that it is costlier for states to improve services where it is weak—an incentive for bureaucrats and elected leaders to concentrate state-building efforts in established areas, widening inequality in public service access and local variance in state legitimacy.   

Chicago: University of Chicago, Development Economics Center, Becker Friedman Institute, 2022. 42p.

By Christopher Blattman, Gustavo Duncan, Benjamin Lessing, and Santiago Tobón

Gangs govern millions worldwide. Why rule? and how do they respond to states? Many argue that criminal rule provides protection when states do not, and that increasing state services could crowd gangs out. We began by interviewing leaders from 30 criminal groups in Medellín. The conventional view overlooks gangs’ indirect incentives to rule: governing keeps police out and fosters civilian loyalty, protecting other business lines. We present a model of duopolistic competition with returns to loyalty and show under what conditions exogenous changes to state protection causes gangs to change governance levels. We run the first gang-level field experiment, intensifying city governance in select neighborhoods for two years. We see no decrease in gang rule. We also examine a quasi-experiment. New borders in Medellín created discontinuities in access to government services for 30 years. Gangs responded to greater state rule by governing more. We propose alternatives for countering criminal governance.

Chicago: University of Chicago, Development Economics Center, Becker Friedman Institute, 2022. 75p.

By United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

This report, jointly published by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), shows how armed gangs have used rape, including collective rapes, and other forms of sexual violence to instill fear, punish, subjugate, and inflict pain on local populations with the ultimate goal of expanding their areas of influence, throughout the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. As of August 2022, large swathes of the capital, accounting for at least 1.5 million people, were reportedly under the control or the influence of gang elements. Gangs are able to commit acts of sexual violence and other human rights abuses mainly because of widespread impunity and ease of access to high caliber weapons and ammunitions trafficked from abroad. Women, girls and boys of all ages, as well as to a lesser extent men, have been victims of ruthless sexual crimes. Children as young as 10 and elderly women were subjected to collective rapes for hours in front of their parents or children by more than half a dozen armed elements during attacks against their neighborhoods. Viewed as enemies for their real or perceived support to rival gangs, or for the simple fact of living in the same areas as those rival gangs, some of these victims were mutilated and executed after being raped. 

United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH): Geneva, SWIT: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2022. 25p

By U.K. Home Office

Country information and protection guidelines for British asylum authorities on fear of gangs (gangs' origins; main gangs; structure, size and reach; characteristics of members; activities and impact; targets of gang violence; returnees; government anti-gang policy and law; effectiveness of law enforcement agencies; freedom of movement)

London: Home Office, Independent Advisory Group on Country Information, 2021. 92p.

By Mohamed Adam

Youth gangs (aged between 15 and 35 years) - known as Ciyaal Weero - emerged in Mogadishu’s periphery districts in late 2021. well as pistols (and bright torches to shine in people’s eyes) and sometimes bajaj (tuk-tuks) to rob people,mostly at night.Unemployment, the use of drugs, and weak local government are seen as the main causes of the rise of communications technology, social media, and the use of out-of-court settlements are also believed to have contributed to the rise of Ciyaal Weero in the Somali capital. Although the police forces launched the ‘Samakaab’ operation against Ciyaal Weero, the government has not yet managed to reduce the threat of the youth gangs. Since its emergence, Ciyaal Weero killed people in Mogadishu including teachers and students and limited the mobility of people in the peripheral examines the factors that contributed to the rise of Ciyaal Weero, its impact on security and mobility in Mogadishu, and puts forward some policy considerations including control of the import of drugs, development of a government strategy to tackle the youth gangs, and the creation of job opportunities.

Mogadishu - Somalia: Somali Public Agenda, 2022. 4p.

By Dana Polan

“In its original run on HBO, The Sopranos mattered, and it matters still,” Dana Polan asserts early in this analysis of the hit show, in which he sets out to clarify the impact and importance of the series in both its cultural and media-industry contexts. A renowned film and TV scholar, Polan combines a close and extended reading of the show itself—and of select episodes and scenes—with broader attention to the social landscape with which it is in dialogue. For Polan, The Sopranos is a work of playful irony that complicates simplistic attempts to grasp its meanings and values. The show seductively beckons the viewer into an amoral universe, hinting at ways to make sense of its ethically complicated situations, only to challenge the viewer’s complacent grasp of things.

Durham, NC: London; Duke University Press, 2009. 230p.

By InSight Crime

President Maduro’s plan to help governors fund their states by gifting them each a gold mine soon ran into trouble. In the sprawling state of Bolívar, this led to immediate conflict. The criminal gangs that ran Venezuela’s mining heartland would never surrender. One group, in particular, has led the resistance. On November 5, 2019, threatening pamphlets appeared on the streets of El Callao, a mining town in Venezuela›s eastern state of Bolívar. The town was already on edge. A week before, a severed head was found on a road in El Callao. The pamphlets contained a message from a local gang leader, Alejandro Rafael Ochoa Sequea, alias “Toto,” to the municipal mayor, Alberto Hurtado. “You handed over your land to the government,” they read. “Resign, you have 48 hours to pack your bags because there is going to be more death, and if you don’t go, I’m coming for your head.” That night, armed men on motorbikes raced around the streets, firing off their weapons and setting off a grenade. This investigation exposes how the Maduro regime’s attempts to control Venezuela’s mining heartland in the state of Bolívar has led to criminal chaos, as guerrilla groups, heavily armed gangs and corrupt state elements battle over the country’s gold. Toto’s message and his gang’s terror campaign came shortly after President Nicolás Maduro had announced an unusual new policy: He would give each state governor a gold mine to help fund their administrations. There was one problem. Bolívar’s gold mines were controlled by brutal criminal gangs known as sindicatos (unions). And the sindicatos such as Toto’s had no intention of giving up the mines without a fight.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime, 2021. 31p.

By Joanna Callen

Jamaica’s violence problem is not new. Since the mid 1970’s the island’s per capita murder rate has steadily increased, by an average of 4.4 percent per year, from 19.8 per 100,000 in 1977, to 60 per 100,000 in 2017. In 2019, Jamaica was recorded as having the second highest murder rate in the Latin America and the Caribbean. Jamaica’ extreme violence rate is often attributed to gangs. CAPRI in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development, and with Ms. Joanna Callen as the Lead Researcher is undertaking a study with an effort to bring focused attention to Jamaica’s gang problem, with the objective of advancing knowledge towards more effective policies and programmes for gang prevention and control. The information garnered will be used to make relevant policy recommendations, with an emphasis on providing a basis to mobilize civic support for and participation in good governance in the area of crime and violence reduction, particularly as it pertains to gangs. Gangs, organized crime, and violence, and the nexus between them, are Jamaica’s biggest citizen security challenge. With the second highest murder rate in the Latin America and Caribbean region in 2019, Jamaica’s extreme violence is often attributed to gangs. Between 2008 and 2018, gang-related violence was responsible for 56 percent of murders in Jamaica, with a high of 78 percent in 2013. Jamaica is a violent country in other ways, with extraordinarily high rates of domestic violence, including intimate partner (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV). Jamaica’s violence problem is so

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  pernicious that the country has come to be described by academics and policy makers as having a “culture of violence.

Jamaica, WI: Caribbean Policy Research Institute, 2020. 67p.

By Diana Thorburn, Joanna Callen, Herbert Gayle and Laura Koch

Murder and extreme violence are at crisis levels in Montego Bay. The city is also the birthplace and centre of the lottery scamming industry and its offshoots, an industry that generates millions of U.S. dollars a year, and is thought to be connected to the high murder and shooting rates in St. James. This study considers the purported nexus between lottery scamming, gangs, and the high murder rate in St. James by situating St. James’ violence problem in its socio-economic context, and reviews the measures that have been taken over the past decade to tackle both problems.

Jamaica, WI: Caribbean Policy Research Institute, 2017. 72p.

By The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

This policy note provides a brief background on gangs in El Salvador and the attempts of Salvadoran authorities to negotiate with them to reduce violence in the streets. It analyzes a March 2022 gang-led homicide spree with a particular focus on the government’s response, arguing how it has harmed citizens’ lives, turning fundamental human rights into bargaining chips between licit and illicit actors. Highly punitive responses to contain gang violence have been the norm in El Salvador. In addition, for the past decade, secret negotiations between state actors and imprisoned gang leaders have been conducted, but outcomes have yielded similar or worse results. Authorities must seek alternative avenues for peace, such as promoting restorative justice and community resilience, minimizing the risk of prison riots and providing reinsertion programmes. Mediation from the international community is also needed in order to prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 14p.

By Kim Geurtjens

Whereas outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) were originally perceived as uncivilized white men grouped around a passion for motorcycles and riding, they have now become increasingly associated with organized crime. Governments have defined them as a crime policy priority, resulting in a broad-scale law enforcement offensive aimed at reducing OMCG-related crime, reducing the number of clubs and chapters, and reducing interclub tension. The way in which the general public perceives OMCGs and the attitude toward OMCGs is largely influenced by media coverage on the subject, and in recent years OMCGs have become a popular topic. As public perceptions, policymaking, and media coverage influence each other, this paper seeks to explore the contemporary representation of OMCGs and law enforcement in the Meuse Rhine Euregion by means of analyzing regional newspaper articles from 2010 up to and including 2016. The theories used for this analysis are Quinn and Koch’s criminality typology and the situational crime prevention framework. Results demonstrate that the public image of OMCGs indeed centers around (organized) crime, and that even when events not involving crime are covered, the newspaper article focuses on law enforcement working toward containing the risks of OMCG-related crime and monitoring motorcycle clubs. The public image of law enforcement measures against OMCGs therefore relies heavily on police actions and, to a lesser extent, on administrative authority reducing not only crime opportunities, but also making OMCG life in general less attractive.

Unpublished Paper, 2019. 23p.

By William Lee Dulaney

The present study is an ethnographic analysis of the communication of organizational identity in an outlaw motorcycle club. Two goals direct the present study. The first is to present a brief history of outlaw motorcycle clubs that extends current research back nearly 50 years prior to the current published record. In so doing, the study clarifies the origins of the term "outlaw" as it relates to motorcycle clubs. The second and major goal of the study is to explore how an outlaw motorcycle club establishes and communicates an organizational identity. To this end, the study offers an emic (insider) understanding from the perspective of 28 members of a Tallahassee, Florida-based chapter of an international outlaw motorcycle club. A dearth of scholarly research exists addressing outlaw motorcycle clubs. The current historical record can be seen as incomplete due to the lack of understanding of how the motorcycle first diffused as a mode of transportation and then as a locus of organization. Likewise, current cultural research is limited to etic (outsider) understandings, perhaps due to the difficulty in gaining entrée to closed or secret societies. Participant observations were conducted from May through June 2004 across the United States, with the majority of data originating from the Southeast United States in general, and the northern Florida Panhandle in particular. Historical research involved examining archives of the American Motorcyclist Association; print media dating back to 1901; life histories of long-time outlaw motorcycle club members; and organizational records of the outlaw motorcycle club

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  observed during the study. Using primarily Turnerian (1967) analysis of organizational symbols and rituals, the study examines the various acculturation processes involved in a novice becoming a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. Systems thinking frames the interpretation of how these symbols are then used by motorcycle clubs to create a system.

Tallahassee: Florida State University, 2006. 190p.

By Mark Shaw and Kim Thomas

Johannesburg’s western neighbourhoods of Westbury and Eldorado Park have long experienced serious problems derived from the presence of drug gangs and other forms of organized crime, resulting in a cyclical pattern of violence and criminality, followed by backlashes in the form of community protests and state responses. Law enforcement interventions have generally only temporarily quelled the violence before another cycle of gang activity, violence and protests flares up once again. Such continual cycles have been the pattern defining this urban area since the early 1990s. The costs of crime borne by the citizens of western Johannesburg are high and it is essential to reverse the cycle of violence and despair for these communities to thrive. This report focuses principally on gang-engendered violence in the city’s western suburbs of Westbury and Eldorado Park (and, to a lesser extent, Newclare), although other neighbouring urban areas that fall within the Johannesburg metropolitan area are also briefly analyzed. Broadly, in this urban area there have been three cycles of violence, and accompanying periods of protest and responses by community leaders and the state since the start of South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic era in 1994.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2019. 35p.

By Owen Elrifi

This paper explores the classification of gangs as criminal actors and not as political actors. I propose that urban street gangs often resemble and reflect the actions of the Weberian state in their communities and that this makes them inherently political, even if they do not make explicitly political claims against the state. To test this, I develop a theoretical framework by which to compare gang characteristics to state characteristics. Through ethnographic case studies of three Chicagoan gangs in the latter half of the 20th century, I demonstrate the utility of my framework in analysis and evaluate the similarities between gangs and states.

Chicago: University of Chicago, 2019. 70p.

By David P. Farrington and Brandon C. Welsh

After decades of rigorous study in the United States and across the Western world, a great deal is known about the early risk factors for offending. High impulsiveness, low attainment, criminal parents, parental conflict, and growing up in a deprived, high-crime neighborhood are among the most important factors. There is also a growing body of high quality scientific evidence on the effectiveness of early prevention programs designed to prevent children from embarking on a life of crime. Drawing on the latest evidence, Saving Children from a Life of Crime is the first book to assess the early causes of offending and what works best to prevent it. Preschool intellectual enrichment, child skills training, parent management training, and home visiting programs are among the most effective early prevention programs. Criminologists David Farrington and Brandon Welsh also outline a policy strategy--early prevention--that uses this current research knowledge and brings into sharper focus what America's national crime fighting priority ought to be. At a time when unacceptable crime levels in America, rising criminal justice costs, and a punitive crime policy have spurred a growing interest in the early prevention of delinquency, Farrington and Welsh here lay the groundwork for change with a comprehensive national prevention strategy to save children from a life of crime.

New York: Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. 248p.

By Mark Shaw and Luke Skywalker

The focus of this Policy Note is specifically on the role of women and girls in gangs as an opportunity to examine whether a more “gendered” response to the phenomenon of gangsterism could have success. The case study for the research was the gangs of Cape Town, a city not only with a historical problem of gangs, but one where recent trends have showed a dramatic upswing in violence, both within and between gangs. Cape Town was chosen largely because it offered the possibility, through the network of the Global Initiative and its links to the University of Cape Town, for interviewing female gang members in a way that would have been difficult to achieve elsewhere. Cape Town now displays violence - at a level of 60 homicides per 100,000 residents for 2015/16 – that is consistent with many cities in Latin and Central America that have had longstanding challenges with gangs. In Cape Town, violence is closely linked to changes within the city’s drug economy in marginalised areas, and the introduction of a flood of firearms (ironically many from police stores) from 2010. This has exacerbated conflict between gangs and increased the ability of smaller and new gangs – who have obtained access to weapons – to both enter and expand their drug operations. The result is a fluid and violent environment, although this is generally confined to previously marginalised so-called ‘coloured’ or mixed race areas of the city. It goes without saying, however, that the human cost and suffering has been enormous, with some parts of the city having homicide rates of over 100 deaths per 100,000 people with innocent bystanders, including children, often caught in the crossfire.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational and Organized Crime, 2017. 27p.

By Ben Fisher and Anthony Petrosino

One common policy in response to concerns about school safety is to regularly employ police in school buildings. Although many schools have had some regular presence of police in their buildings, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 led to more scrutiny of law enforcement across the board. As a result, several districts across the nation began to reconsider the use of police in schools. However, as schools began returning to full-time, in-person teaching, concerns about the safety of students and staff led several districts to reverse their decision and bring officers back to campus. Clearly, more research is needed to guide this important policy decision. To respond to this research need, the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Ben Fisher of Florida State University, conducted a systematic review of research on the effects of school policing on safety, perceptions, and academic outcomes. This brief summarizes results from this synthesis of 32 evaluations.

San Francisco, CA: WestEd,  2022. 5p.

By Thomas Hanson, Jo Ann Izu, Trevor Fronius, Anthony Petrosino

Bullying affects large numbers of U.S. students in elementary schools and is associated with short and long-term harms for both victims and bullies. Although prevention is critical, schools also need effective interventions for dealing with bullying once it occurs. Funded by the National Institute of Justice and in collaboration with the Oakland Unified School District and No Bully, WestEd conducted a two-year study of the impacts of the No Bully System (NBS) - a promising set of interventions designed to activate adult and peer support systems within the school for the targets of bullying – using a cluster randomized experimental design involving 24 elementary schools. No Bully trains staff to prevent and interrupt student harassment and bullying and ensure school-wide anti-bullying policies are in place. The core component of NBS is the Solution Team where a trained adult facilitator (Solution Coach) brings together a group of 6-8 students (Solution Team) that includes the bully or bullies, bystanders and pro-social peers, and leads the team through a series of three brief meetings to end the bullying of one of their peers by cultivating empathy and developing peer-driven solutions. The target is not included in the initial meetings though s/he is invited to attend the final session.  

Los Alamitos, CA: WestEd, 2019. 29p.

By Daniel P. Mears; Sonja E. Siennick; George B. Pesta; Andrea N. Montes; Samantha J. Brown; Nicole L. Collier

Findings and methodology are reported for a process and impact evaluation of the School Safety and Student Performance Program established in the School District of Palm Beach County (Florida) from 2015 to 2018 in an effort to improve at-risk students' behavior and academic performance, as well as to improve school-wide safety and academic performance. The project involved a collaboration between the schools, the schools' police department, the juvenile court, and several service providers. The focus was on at-risk youth, including those with some type of contact with the police or the juvenile justice system through probation or diversion programs. The intervention placed juvenile probation officers (JPOs) in schools, along with family counselors and case managers. JPOs provided school-based supervision in schools only for the youth on probation. Intervention plans were developed by a team for youth who were randomly assigned to the intervention group. Student participation was voluntary, based on assent and consent protocols. Services were matched to the needs of each participant. Evaluation analyses suggest that although the intervention was well-grounded in theory and research on adolescent behavior, no consistent beneficial or adverse effects of the intervention were found for either student or school outcomes; however, some of the analyses suggest that the intervention may have been partially effective for some of the participants. The report notes that the process evaluation identified a number of potential intervention benefits that were not directly measured in the study, such as improved advocacy for at-risk students. The process evaluation also identified a range of factors that may have contributed to some of the null intervention effects. Evaluation methodology, research implications, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. 

Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University, 2018. 92p.