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Maybe We Shouldn’t Study "Gangs"

Does Reification Obscure Youth Violence?

Rutgers University

The extensive study of youth gangs over the years has tended to become a field of studies unto itself. Yet, scholars have failed to arrive at a commonly accepted definition of what youth gangs are. Further, collective illegal behavior by youths is not always identified with gangs. One result of this definitional ambiguity is the discrepancy between the reported proliferation of youth gangs in the 1990s and the sharp decline in reported youth violence during the latter part of the same decade. This article proposes a heuristic typology of forms of association and applies that typology to comparative ethnographic data from different areas of New York City. The results suggest that ongoing patterns of collective violent behavior rooted in local social ecology can be relabeled as gang behavior under certain conditions of youth culture and popular moral panic. A broader focus on youth violence and youthful collective behavior is urged.

Key Words: youth gangs • moral panic • youth violence

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