For generations, scholars, law enforcement personnel, politicians and the media have tried to understand and explain youth gangs and violence. This insightful collection contains the work of leading scholars, integrating previously published articles with new material to provide the most comprehensive information about the status of American youth gangs. The topics are grouped in four sections: The first section explores the issues and ramifications of current terminology and survey information. In the second section, nontraditional gangs, such as female gangs and hybrid gangs, are disucssed. The third section attempts to examine gang activities objectively and place them in a proper perspective. The final section looks at historical and current response techniques to youth gangs, such as suppression, prevention and legal injunctions.

In the quarter century since the first edition of this book, scholarship on gangs in general, and especially youth gangs, has grown exponentially. This massive expansion of the literature on youth gangs, especially in the past decade, warranted this expanded and updated fourth edition. The first chapter has an expanded discussion of definitional issues, plus recent data from the National Youth Gang Survey, material on the evolving economic nature of gangs, and gang use of internet and social media. The second chapter continues by examining gang violence and drug involvement, and the extent to which they are intercorrelated, with new material on victimization of gang members and gang involvement in drug use and sales. Chapter 3 focuses on racial and ethnic decadences in gangs and the important role of race and ethnicity on gang membership and gang behavior in the U.S. The fourth chapter examines female gangs and gang membership and the changes that have taken place in the nature and extent of female gang membership over time. The fifth and sixth chapters place contemporary American gangs in the historical and international perspective. Chapter 5 includes a new section on youth gangs in the new millennium, and Chapter 6 has been reorganized, particularly to reflect the burgeoning research on European and other international gangs since the turn of the millennium. Chapter 7 has been expanded to include recent developments in the actual and potential application of biosocial, psychological, and life course developmental theories to gangs. Chapter 8 provides a comprehensive, multilevel theory of gangs with updates including new propositions, and new evidence for both the new and old propositions, based on more recent work in theory development and theory testing for gangs. The ninth and tenth chapters’ revisions focus on legislative and justice system efforts to deter gang crime and membership. Chapter 10 also focuses on intervention and assistance programs outside the justice system, including discussion of the Gang Resistance Education and Training program. The final chapter concludes by considering the future of youth gangs in the U.S. and elsewhere in light of historical and cross-national evidence, theory, and experience with gang interventions and programs, considering more recent developments in those areas, and whether they justify any change and for what would be expected of the future of youth gangs.

Gangs in America's Communities, Third Edition blends theory with current research to help you identify essential features associated with youth violence and gangs, as well as apply strategies for gang control and prevention. Authors Dr. James C. Howell and Dr. Elizabeth Griffiths introduce you to theories of gang formation, illustrate various ways of defining and classifying gangs, and discuss national trends in gang presence and gang-related violence across American cities. They also offer evidence-based strategies for positioning communities to prevent, intervene, and address gang activity. New to the Third Edition: A series of new case studies document the evolution of numerous gangs in large cities, including the community aspect, evolutionary nature, and how cities influence levels of violence. New discussions highlighting the role of social media, insights into how gangs use it to recruit members, and the response from law enforcement. Current nationwide gang trends are discussed to encourage you to analyze and interpret the most recent statistics for which representative data is available. Updated macro and micro gang theories enable you to explore a recent encapsulation of leading developmental models. New discussions around female gang members offer you potentially effective programs for discouraging females from joining gangs—along with highly regarded delinquency prevention and reduction programs that have the potency to be effective in reducing gang crimes among young women. A comprehensive gang prevention, intervention, and suppression program in Multnomah County, Oregon shows how theory was successfully applied to reduce gang activity in a local community. New research on “gang structures” and their rates of crime illustrate the connections between violent crimes and the amount of violent offenders within a gang. Additional discussion of distinguishing features (e.g., typologies) of major gangs, and numerous examples of gang symbols, tattoos, and graffiti has been added to help readers identify and differentiate various types of gangs.

This text provides a crucial update and critical examination of our understanding of gangs and major gang-control programs across the nation. Dispelling the long-standing assumptions that the public, the media, and law enforcement have about street gangs, it presents a comprehensive overview of how gangs are organized and structured.

Although a range of program and policy responses to youth gangs exist, most are largely based on suppression, implemented by the police or other criminal justice agencies. Less attention and fewer resources have been directed to prevention and intervention strategies that draw on the participation of community organizations, schools, and social service agencies in the neighborhoods in which gangs operate. Also underemphasized is the importance of integrating such approaches at the local level. In this volume, leading researchers discuss effective intervention among youth gangs, focusing on the ideas behind, approaches to, and evidence about the effectiveness of community-based, youth gang interventions. Treating community as a crucial unit of analysis and action, these essays reorient our understanding of gangs and the measures undertaken to defeat them. They emphasize the importance of community, both as a context that shapes opportunity and as a resource that promotes positive youth engagement. Covering key themes and debates, this book explores the role of social capital and collective efficacy in informing youth gang intervention and evaluation, the importance of focusing on youth development within the context of community opportunities and pressures, and the possibilities of better linking research, policy, and practice when responding to youth gangs, among other critical issues.

Brings together theoretical and empirical papers prepared by noted researchers and theoreticians. The first part includes chapters by criminological theorists who apply their theory of crime particularly to violence. The second part contains chapters by researchers who look at the substantive area of their expertise through the lens of theories of violence. Each chapter is original and was written specifically for this book.

The purpose of this juvenile justice workbook is to explore the current challenges in meeting the social developmental needs for youth in the juvenile justice system. This workbook will explore strategies for addressing these challenges at a policy and practice level. The attempt to improve social developmental needs requires the promotion of a practical application outlook for juvenile justice students and workers to provide a service to manage behaviors, along with learning about the offender in order to manage and address specific needs. The purposes of this workbook will be (1) to examine the current juvenile justice practices by which juvenile justice workers provide services and (2) to study core case procedures that juvenile justice workers are using to meet youth offender's needs, and (3) to analyze those practices that exist for juvenile justice worker to meet social developmental needs.

This comprehensive text provides an overview of law enforcement topics, integrating major empirical findings and theory-based research findings in the field with a thorough analysis of contemporary policing problems. The issues-oriented discussion focuses on critical concerns facing American police, including personnel systems, organization and management, operations, discretion, use of force, culture and behavior, ethics and deviance, civil liability and police-community relations. A critical assessment of police history and the role politics played in the development of American police institutions is offered. Globalization, terrorism and homeland security are addressed. Video and Internet links provide additional coverage of topics discussed in the text. Companion mobile app, Policing In America: Exam Cram, won the 2012 PROSE Award for Best eProduct in Social Sciences from the Association of American Publishers Video links provide additional coverage of topics discussed in the text Key concepts, Internet links, charts and tables support the text throughout Equipped with a superior ancillary package, which includes 30 minutes of streaming video

State-of-the-art critical reviews of recent scholarship on the causes of juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice system responses, and public policies to prevent and reduce youth crime are brought together in a single volume authored by leading scholars and researchers in neuropsychology, developmental and social psychology, sociology, history, criminology/criminal justice, and law.

Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, 8th edition, presents a comprehensive picture of juvenile offending, delinquency theories, and how juvenile justice actors and agencies react to delinquency. It covers the history and development of the juvenile justice system and the unique issues related to juveniles, offering evidence-based suggestions for successful interventions and treatment and examining the new balance model of juvenile court. This new edition not only includes the latest available statistics on juvenile crime and victimization, drug use, court processing, and corrections, but provides insightful analysis of recent developments, such as those related to the use of probation supervision fees; responses to gangs and cyber bullying; implementing the deterrence model (Project Hope); the possible impact of drug legalization; the school-to-prison pipeline; the extent of victimization and mental illness in institutions; and implications of major court decisions regarding juveniles, such as Life Without Parole (LWOP) for juveniles. Each chapter enhances student understanding with Key Terms, a "What You Need to Know" section highlighting important points, and Discussion Questions. Links at key points in the text show students where they can go to get the latest information, and a comprehensive glossary aids comprehension.