Introduction to “New-Age” Gangs

Abstract

The question of criminal street gangs in the North American context has become particularly confusing, as the media, law enforcement, and government agencies have tended to apply the term “street gangs” to highly organized criminal enterprises and loosely structured youth groups alike. In contrast to the pattern of street gangs modeled in the long-standing North American paradigm, ‘new-age’ gangs are not fitting neatly into the established pattern of either organized crime groups or geographically anchored territorial-based street gangs. In this chapter, definitions of street gangs are examined and compared against characteristics exhibited by “new-age” gangs; what emerges are operational definitions of organized crime, new-age gangs, and the action-set as supported by the author’s research.