Dog Gang War

[Varinia Swicegood]

Agang is a group or society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectively, in illegal, and possibly violent, behavior, with such behavior often constituting a form of organized crime.

The word gang derives from the past participle of Old English gan, meaning 'to go'. It is cognate with Old Norse gangr,[1] meaning 'journey'.[2] While the term often refers specifically to criminal groups, it also has a broader meaning of any close or organized group of people, and may have neutral, positive or negative connotations depending on usage.[3][4][5]

In discussing the banditry in American history, Barrington Moore, Jr. suggests that gangsterism as a "form of self-help which victimizes others" may appear in societies which lack strong "forces of law and order"; he characterizes European feudalism as "mainly gangsterism that had become society itself and acquired respectability through the notions of chivalry".[6]

The 17th century saw London "terrorized by a series of organized gangs",[7]some of them known as the Mims, Hectors, Bugles, and Dead Boys. These gangs often came into conflict with each other. Members dressed "with colored ribbons to distinguish the different factions."[8] During the Victorian era, criminals and gangs started to form organizations which would collectively become London's criminal underworld.[9] Criminal societies in the underworld started to develop their own ranks and groups which were sometimes called families, and were often made up of lower-classes and operated on pick-pocketry, prostitution, forgery and counterfeiting, commercial burglary, and money laundering schemes.[9][10] Unique also were the use of slangs and argots used by Victorian criminal societies to distinguish each other, like those propagated by street gangs like the Peaky Blinders.[11][12]

In the United States, the history of gangs began on the East Coast in 1783 following the American Revolution.[13] Gangs arose further in the United States by the middle of the nineteenth century and were a concern for city leaders from the time they appeared.[14] The emergence of the gangs was largely attributed to the vast rural population immigration to the urban areas. The first street-gang in the United States, the 40 Thieves, began around the late 1820s in New York City. The gangs in Washington D.C. had control of what is now Federal Triangle, in a region then known as Murder Bay.[15] Organized crime in the United States first came to prominence in the Old West and historians such as Brian J. Robb and Erin H. Turner traced the first organized crime syndicates to the Coschise Cowboy Gang and the Wild Bunch.[16][17] Prohibition would also cause a new boom in the emergence of gangs; Chicago for example had over 1,000 gangs in the 1920s.[18]

Outside of the US and the UK, gangs exist in both urban and rural forms, like the French gangs of the Belle poque like the Apaches and the Bonnot Gang.[19] Many criminal organizations, such as the Italian Cosa Nostra, Japanese yakuza, Russian Bratva, and Chinese triads, have existed for centuries.[20]

Narcos or drug cartels are slang terms used for criminal groups (mainly Latin Americans) who primarily deal with the illegal drug trade.[26] These include drug cartels like the Medellin Cartel and other Colombian cartels, Mexican cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, and the Primeiro Comando da Capital in Brazil.[27] Other examples are Jamaican Yardies and the various opium barons in the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent. Many narcos are known for their use of paramilitaries and narcoterrorism like the Gulf Cartel and Shower Posse.[28]

Street gangs are gangs formed by youths in urban areas, and are known primarily for street fighting and gang warfare.[29] The term "street gang" is commonly used interchangeably with "youth gang", referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet "gang" criteria.[30] Miller (1992) defines a street gang as "a self-formed association of peers, united by mutual interests, with identifiable leadership and internal organization, who act collectively or as individuals to achieve specific purposes, including the conduct of illegal activity and control of a particular territory, facility, or enterprise."[31] Some of the well-known ones are the Black gangs like the Bloods and the Crips, also the Vice Lords and the Gangster Disciples. Other racial gangs also exist like the Trinitario, Sureos, Tiny Rascal Gang, Asian Boyz, Wa Ching, Zoe Pound, The Latin Kings, The Hammerskins, Nazi Lowriders and Blood & Honour.

Law enforcement gangs are criminal organizations that form and operate within law enforcement agencies. Members have been accused of significant department abuses of policy and constitutional rights, terrifying the general population, intimidating their colleagues, and retaliating against whistleblowers. Leaders called "shot-callers" control many aspects of local policing, including promotions, scheduling, and enforcement. They operate in the gray areas of law enforcement, perpetuate a culture of silence, and promote a mentality of punisher-style retaliation.[32][33]

Biker gangs are motorcycle clubs who conduct illegal activities like the Hells Angels, the Pagans, the Outlaws, and the Bandidos,[34][35] known as the "Big Four" in the United States.[36] The U.S. Department of Justice defines outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMG) as "organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises".[37] Some clubs are considered "outlaw" not necessarily because they engage in criminal activity, but because they are not sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association and do not adhere to its rules. Instead the clubs have their own set of bylaws reflecting the outlaw biker culture.[38][39][40]

Prison gangs are formed inside prisons and correctional facilities for mutual protection and entrancement like the Mexican Mafia and United Blood Nation.[41][42] Prison gangs often have several "affiliates" or "chapters" in different state prison systems that branch out due to the movement or transfer of their members.[43] According to criminal justice professor John Hagedorn, many of the biggest gangs from Chicago originated from prisons. From the St. Charles Illinois Youth Center originated the Conservative Vice Lords and Blackstone Rangers. Although the majority of gang leaders from Chicago are now incarcerated, most of those leaders continue to manage their gangs from within prison.[43]

Punk gangs are a unique type of gang made up of members who follow the punk rock ideology.[44] Unlike other gangs and criminal groups, punk gangs follow a range of political and philosophical beliefs that can range from alt-right to radical left. Differing ideologies are one of the causes of conflicts between rival punk gangs, compared to other street gangs and criminal groups who wage gang war solely for illegal profit, vendetta, and territory.[45] Most of them can be seen in political and social protests and demonstrations and are sometimes in violent confrontation with law-enforcement. Examples of punk gangs are Fight For Freedom, Friends Stand United, and Straight Edge gangs.[46][47]

Contemporary organized crime has also led to the creation of anti-gang groups, vigilante gangs, and autodefensas, who are groups who profess to be fighting against gang influence, but share characteristics and acts similarly to a gang.[48][49][50] These include groups like the Los Pepes, Sombra Negra, Friends Stand United, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, and OG Imba.

Many types of gangs make up the general structure of an organized group.[51] Understanding the structure of gangs is a critical skill to defining the types of strategies that are most effective with dealing with them, from the at-risk youth to the gang leaders.[52] Not all individuals who display the outward signs of gang membership are actually involved in criminal activities. An individual's age, physical structure, ability to fight, willingness to commit violence, and arrest record are often principal factors in determining where an individual stands in the gang hierarchy; how money derived from criminal activity and ability to provide for the gang also impacts the individual's status within the gang. The structure of gangs varies depending primarily on size, which can range from five or ten to thousands. Many of the larger gangs break up into smaller groups, cliques or sub-sets (these smaller groups can be called "sets" in gang slang.)[53] The cliques typically bring more territory to a gang as they expand and recruit new members. Most gangs operate informally with leadership falling to whoever takes control; others have distinct leadership and are highly structured, which resembles more or less a business or corporation.

Criminal gangs may function both inside and outside of prison, such as the Nuestra Familia, Mexican Mafia, Folk Nation, and the Brazilian[27] PCC. During the 1970s, prison gangs in Cape Town, South Africa began recruiting street gang members from outside and helped increase associations between prison and street gangs.[54]In the US, the prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood is involved in organized crime outside of prison.

The numerous push factors experienced by at-risk individuals vary situationally, but follow a common theme of the desire for power, respect, money, and protection. In neighborhoods with high levels of violence, adolescents typically experience pressure to join a street gang for protection from other violent actors (sometimes including police violence and the waging of the war on drugs), perpetuating a cycle of violence.[66] These desires are very influential in attracting individuals to join gangs, and their influence is particularly strong on at-risk youth. Such individuals are often experiencing low levels of these various factors in their own lives, feeling ostracized from their community and lacking social support. Joining a gang may appear to them to be the only way to obtain status and material success or escape a cycle of poverty through profits from illegal activity. They may feel that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Upon joining a gang, they instantly gain a feeling of belonging and identity; they are surrounded with individuals whom they can relate to. They have generally grown up in the same area as one another and can bond over similar needs. In some areas, joining a gang is an integrated part of the growing-up process.[67]

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