The Globalization of Gangs

The American study of gangs can no longer start and stop with local conditions but today must also be rooted in a global context.... How else do we come to grips with Jamaican posses in Kansas.. San Diego's Calle Trente and their past relationship to Mexico's Arellano brothers cartel... the Russian "mafiya" in Chicago ..., female Muslim gangs in Oslo... LA's MS-13 and 18th Street as the largest gangs in Honduras and El Salvador...Nigerian drug smugglers coming through Ronald Reagan International Airport ...(and) Crips in the Netherlands.

In other words, street gangs have gone global. This paper examines the literature on reasons why American street gangs and their behavior have become globalized and the possible mechanisms for this globalization. The paper also formulates a series of conclusions based on the literature reviewed on gang globalization.

Hagedorn (2005: 153-169) gives several reasons why American street gangs and their behavior have become globalized. These include worldwide urbanization making conditions fertile for the growth of gangs; the propensity of the state to merely punish criminal behavior and not deal with the root causes; the strengthening of the gang cultural identity as an opposition or resistance to social marginalization; profit and the expanding 'market' provided by global sources of drug distribution; and the institutionalization of gangs through the process of replacing demoralize

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Approximate Word count = 1079
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)

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