Gangs
Encyclopedia of American Studies
There is general disagreement on the definition of a "gang." This confusion results from the diverse looks and behaviors of gangs, due to the variegated political leanings of those who identify gangs, and partly because gangs have been fantastically represented in news and art. One thing is certain: the difficulty in identifying gangs has, throughout American history, opened doors to wide-ranging notions about gangs in penal codes, in law enforcement, and in the popular culture.
There is some consensus among scholars that a gang describes an organized group of people engaged in criminal activity, and that American gangs have been mostly urban (and more recently suburban) in membership and activity. Often overlooked, however, are rural (and urban) racist gangs, such as the Ku Klux Klan and a variety of armed "militias."
The earliest American gangs were loose affiliations of young, desperately poor "hooligans," who were often the orphaned and/or jobless children of the underclass. These early gangs, which may have begun in the late 18th century, were comprised of poor youths who banded together for protection from authorities, and to share resources such as food, money, alcohol, sex, and street knowledge.
Under the same large umbrella are included highly organized, institutionalized ethnic gangs now known as mafia. In the late 19th century, small factions of recent immigrants such as Jews and Italians, formed such gangs, or crime syndicates, which played a quasi-governmental function in their neighborhoods; imposing rules and order, directing economies, and negotiating with other government entities. Often they functioned as imaginary kinship networks, adopting the loyalties, feuds, and support systems of family.
At their best, mafia provided a measure of self-control, stability, and justice to marginalized groups who otherwise suffered from discrimination. At their worst, mafia were violent terrorists, extorting money from businesses and government, and torturing or murdering opponents.
From 1919 to 1933--when the prohibition of alcohol was amended to the U.S. Constitution--mafia and lesser criminal gangs made great strides. By becoming major players in the distribution of a highly popular, valuable, and illegal commodity, gangs rode Prohibition to new levels of wealth and power. Most notorious of the crime bosses was Al Capone (1899-1947), whose wealth, influence, crimes, and character played to a wide audience.
By the 1950s, American mafia had grown into rich, powerful organizations, which in some places controlled elections, politicians, police, labor unions, and commerce. Some have speculated that the influence of mafia extended even to the highest governmental levels. In the 1950s and 1960s a serious, coordinated federal effort targeted the destruction of the mafia. New laws, prominent arrests, infiltrations, and anti-corruption investigations were wielded against the mafia to considerable effect.
In the shadow of mafia, during the 1950s and 1960s, youth gangs continued much as they had for decades. Like mafia, youth gangs were often ethnically segregated, and were typically comprised of recently immigrated or otherwise ghettoized groups. Youth gangs usually possess some sort of name (such as the Vice Lords), and have a degree of organization, leadership, territory, purpose, codes of conduct, illegal activities, and ongoing membership. Gang initiates often undergo a complex and ritualized series of oaths and hazing. They also undertake trials to prove their courage, strength, loyalty, and willingness to break the law. For example, many girl gangs welcome a new member by severely battering her in a fistfight. Other gangs require neophytes to rob someone, and swear "blood" oaths as "brothers."
Though marginal in their economic impact, youth gangs have sometimes taken center stage in popular culture. Youth gangs have periodically served the ideological function of symbolizing and exaggerating widespread fears about ordinary youths; youths whose new freedoms and prosperity may upset older generations. During the 1950s there was a widespread fascination with transgression and rebelliousness, as in the popular 1954 motorcycle gang film, "The Wild One," and the screen adaptation of "West Side Story" (1961). Whereas most pre-World War II Hollywood productions had sided with the law, this genre of crime films partly romanticized the criminal and the social deviant.
Later on, mafia had their day in film as well. Though some prior television and cinema had represented mafia none reached the levels of popularity or acclaim approaching that of "The Godfather"(1972) and its sequel. And yet, the films may have also told another story to the public. It is possible that representations and folklore about mafia helped explain away the rising success of formerly downtrodden Italian-Americans, who for decades had been popularly denigrated as lower-class immigrants, not quite worthy of White ethnic status. Although only a miniscule number of Italian-Americans participated in mafia, all were tainted by mafia stereotypes. Mafia could explain how the "Wops" became "White."
During the 1980s in America, mafia faded from view, and inner-city youth gangs became synonymous with crime in America. Closely affiliated with the drug scare, gangs were represented as an intrinsic part of rising crime and violence in America. Gang behavior, dress codes, and activities were heavily reported by America's mass media and entertainment industries. Putting an end to the trinity of gangs, street crime, and illicit drugs was a political mantra of the 1980s and 1990s.
However, some critics argued that the escalating presence of crime and gangs resulted more from fear and legislation than from a demonstrable rise in illicit activities. Some researchers showed that the widespread fear of crime stemmed partly from the increased coverage of crime by politicians, Hollywood films, and especially by local news. With the increasing commercialization of newsmedia during the 1980s and 1990s, coverage of crime intensified because it played to better sales of newspapers and higher television ratings. Gangs, with their frightening mystique, made gripping and lucrative stories.
Other scholars, such as Henry Giroux, argue that "gangs" were a new code name for lower class People of Color. Since it was no longer acceptable to publicly stereotype and demean ethnic groups, "gangs," "gangsta rap" music, "superpredators," "drug dealers," and "crime" provided ostensibly neutral terms with which many White Americans could continue to process fears of the ethnic Others.
In areas of severe economic depression and racism, gangs were sometimes seen as a legitimate source of income, protection, and respect. Some observers have suggested that gangs are an adaptive response of some groups to compete for those resources that are systematically denied to them on the basis of class, race, and location.
At the same time, however, gangs were not simply imagined, nor were they harmless. With easy access to handguns, automatic rifles, cars, and drugs, youth gangs in the 1980s and 1990s were responsible for considerable bloodshed and other crime in America. But by increasing terror, violence, incarceration, and drugs, gangs inevitably did extensive damage to their own neighborhoods.
Because of the real dangers of gangs, and because of politically generated alarm, police in the 1980s and 1990s were mobilized to suppress gang behavior. But gang membership was not so easy to define, and young People of Color were often suspected of gang membership. By profiling young peoples' clothes and attitudes, police sometimes harassed and arrested innocent young ethnic minorities. During the 1980s and 1990s, prison populations in America more than tripled, with most of the increase coming from lower and working-class African American and Hispanic communities.
In America, "gangs" mostly represent organizations of immigrants, poor, and ethnic minorities who band together for protection, prestige, and income. They are defined by criminal activity, from petty theft to multi-million dollar racketeering. Throughout American history, "Gangs" also represent popular fears of immigrants, minorities, and poor.
Fox, Stephen R. 1989. Blood and power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. NY: W. Morrow.
Giroux, Henry A. 1996. Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth. NY: Routledge.
Springhall, John. 1998. Youth, popular culture and moral Panics: penny gaffs to gangsta-rap, 1830-1996. NY: St. Martin's Press.
Zimring, Franklin E. 1998. American Youth Violence. NY: Oxford University Press.