Territory and urban gangs:identity, crime, boundary setting
Territory and urban gangs:identity, crime, boundary setting

Summary/Abstract: he main of the article is to present the role of territory in the construction of youth gangs identity. The territorial identification and battle for territory appears to be one of the most important features and even aims of the gangs; and the violence is often used in this case. It will be shown on the example of United States and Great Britain, with taking into account the social and historical variety of conditions typical of these countries (high criminalization of gangs vs. low profile of criminality). The relations between gangs territoriality, social marginalization of theirs members and criminality are also presented. Much of the attention is devoted to reconstruction of ways of space „marking” by gangs and delimitation of borders between them. In the next part of the article the activity of non-territorial gangs and mobile gangs are anaysed. The narration of the text is concentrated on the triad: membership of gang – territory – criminal activity.

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