Police Gang Units and Effective Gang Violence Reduction

Braga, Anthony A.

doi:10.1002/9781118726822.ch17

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In particular, specialised police gang units, which have been part of police departments like Chicago since the late 1960s (Shabazz, 2015), spend the bulk of their time gathering intelligence by monitoring gang graffiti, tracking gang violence and individual gang members (Langton, 2010). These units, as some have argued, ‘if properly oriented, have great potential to reduce gang violence problems’ (Braga, 2015: 309; see also, Decker, 2007). The intelligence gathered by these units, in turn, is entered and maintained in what is known as a gang database or Matrix.…”

Section: Why Do Police Document Gangs and Gang Members?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Matrix in Context: Taking Stock of Police Gang Databases in London and Beyond

Densley¹,

Pyrooz²

2019

Youth Justice

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Technology has ushered in a new era of intelligence-led and ‘big data’ policing, and police gang databases are part of this paradigmatic shift. In recent years, however, gang databases have come under intense public scrutiny. For example, Amnesty International and others argue that London’s Gangs Matrix is discriminatory and violates data-protection laws. This article draws on evidence and examples from a wide range of sources – gang legislation, surveys of young people, police gang records and research on gangs – to put the Matrix controversy into broader context, and to adjudicate between common validity and civil liberties critiques of gang databases.

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Section: Why Do Police Document Gangs and Gang Members?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Matrix in Context: Taking Stock of Police Gang Databases in London and Beyond

Densley¹,

Pyrooz²

2019

Youth Justice

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“…These findings echo those of Dur an (2018, p. 163), who found that "Gang units legitimated the social control of people beyond involvement in crime to include perceived criminality." Dur an claimed specialised gang units, which are a common police adaptation to gangs (Braga, 2015;Katz and Webb, 2006), fabricated intelligence and initiated frequent, unwelcome, even violent contact with Mexican American gang youth, thus contributing to the general "suppression" of already marginalised communities, and deeper construction of the gang problem.…”

Section: Policing the "Criminologists" Gangmentioning

confidence: 99%

If crime is not the problem, crime fighting is no solution: policing gang violence in the age of abolition

Hellemont

Densley

2021

JACPR

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Purpose In their 1999 classic, Crime is Not the Problem, Zimring and Hawkins changed the way criminologists thought about crime and violence simply by forcing us to distinguish between them. In so doing, they advanced an agenda for a more effective response to the real “crime” problem in America – violence. In this short commentary, the authors apply this logic to gang research and responses. The authors argue police fall short in responding to “gangs” because researchers and policymakers have defined them in terms of criminal behaviour writ large, not the problem that really needs policing – the precise social and spatial dynamics of gang violence. The purpose of this paper is to stand on the shoulders of others who have stated violence trumps gangs when it comes to policy and practice and provide a conceptual review of the literature that captures mainstream and critical perspectives on gangs and offers both sides some common ground to start from as they contemplate “policing” gangs with or without police. Design/methodology/approach A review of the extant literature. Findings The authors stand on the shoulders of others who have stated violence trumps gangs when it comes to policy and practice, to provide a conceptual review of the literature that captures mainstream and critical perspectives on gangs, in North American and European contexts, and offers both sides some common ground to start from as they contemplate “policing” gangs with or without police. Originality/value The paper is a conceptual piece looking at policing gang violence versus gang crime. The paper aims to restart the debate around the role of crime in gangs and gangs in crime. This debate centres around whether gangs should be understood as primarily criminal groups, whether “the gang” is to blame for the crime and violence of its members and what feature of collective crime and violence designate “gangness”. We use that debate to reflect past and current police practices towards gangs.

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“…At the end of the day, the biggest indictment of the quality of the NYGS is its poor usage as a source of data in the scientific literature. Nevertheless, statistics from NYGS are frequently cited to justify studies, particularly to justify prevention and intervention approaches, including many police-based interventions (Braga, 2015;McGarrell et al, 2013). The NYGS is collected by the National Gang Center, a center funded by the OJJDP, the Bureau of Justice Assistance and other US Department of Justice programs.…”

Section: Convenient Revival Of Gang Interventionistsmentioning

confidence: 99%