«До талого, пацаны!»*: молодежные неформальные территориальные группировки Элисты

Introduction. The article deals with street youth gangs in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. In the process of their development, such organized criminal groups have transformed into a special subculture with its own hierarchies, spheres of influence, lifestyles, language, and practices. The author aims to show the development of this phenomenon as a subculture in the youth milieu, describing the norms of behavior, values, and life orientations of members of particular gangs operating in Elista. Data and methods. The main research sources are field materials collected by the author by way of interviewing members of such informal groups. The analysis involved the structural-functional method, participatory observation method, method of content-analysis and interviewing. Results. There is a history to the growth of modern informal groupings in the town: in fact, they proliferated during the period of restoration of the Kalmyk ASSR with its center in Elista. Under new conditions, within urban environment informal street gangs were formed on the principle of shared territories, which was in fact the most typical kind of such groupings in the country at large. For the younger generation, the street served as a space of masculine brotherly unity based on bodily practices, as well as on similar ideas, views, and concepts. In the period between 2000 and 2010, some of the informal units represented qualitatively new forms of organized criminal youth groupings; these were characterized by dominance practices, power relations, and age hierarchy. Although the youth (patsan) companies were not part of the criminal thieves’ subculture, they maintained to a degree this connection and found ways for organized criminal activity.

“Streets of menace”: Constructing and deconstructing youth “gangs” in two Australian cities

This paper explores the symbolic and instrumental impacts associated with labelling particular groups of young people as perpetrators of organised “gang” activity. Using case studies from two Australian cities, we point primarily to the constitutive and damaging nature of much media and public discourse about youth gang crime and show how young offenders’ disadvantage and disenfranchisement is rendered largely invisible or immaterial to understanding the causes and solutions to such problems. In an era of “fake news”, social media “echo chambers”, civil conflict, mass international migration/forced diasporas, as well as the reassertion of strong sovereign borders, we ask: how might one de-escalate the “monstering” of young people whose identity (and presence and place in society) is known primarily, if not exclusively, through the “noise” and visibility of their offending?

EXPLORING GANG RISK FACTORS AMONG URBAN NIGERIAN YOUTHS

The proliferation of urban youth gangs is often attributed to criminogenic factors of economic, family, and community contexts. Among urban Nigerian youths, the sharp increase in youth gangs has been exacerbated by a broken socio-cultural value system arising from a sustained economic dislocation, aping of foreign cultures, as well as a predatory political elite that uses gang members as foot soldiers in the violent struggle for political power by rival political groups. This study examines the etiology, trend, and dynamism of gang culture in Nigeria. Employing a qualitative approach, the study used data from semi-structured interviews with gang members in Ibadan and Lagos, two of the large southwestern cities in Nigeria. Findings revealed that the interplay of multi-dimensional risk factors has contributed to the rapid growth of urban gang culture in Nigeria with the consequent effect on the increase in crime rates

Adjustments to gang exposure in early adolescence

The article investigates how exposure to gang-affiliated peers affects social behaviors and attitudes of early adolescents. Much of the literature finds that exposure to gangs contributes to adolescents’ antisocial behaviors. According to other studies, however, gang exposure can also promote prosocial behaviors. The present article re-examines this contradictory evidence, exploring potential complementarity of both reactions to gangs. Using a survey of 1,782 adolescents aged ten to 13 from rural Colombia, I compare adolescents who are and are not in a school class with members of youth gangs. I exploit the fact that schools in rural Colombia are unsegregated. Moreover, the presence of youth gangs across these schools is linked to incidence of historic armed conflict rather than typical forms of social disadvantage. This comparative setting thus allows me to establish an unconfounded relationship between exposure to gang-affiliated classmates and social outcomes. The analysis reveals gender differences in the effect of youth gang exposure. I find that girls react to male gang classmate by increased involvement in prosocial organizations. Boys, by contrast, adjust to male gangs by expressing more antisocial attitudes. There are no gender differences in the effect of gang classmates on alcohol consumption (an indicator of antisocial behavior). The article shows that the well-documented antisocial adjustments to gangs are – population-wide – complemented by prosocial adjustments, with gender being a key moderator. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of violence and social change after conflict.

Slanging to blaze up and juice up - Drug consumption in Samoan Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand

This presentation is based on the findings from a 2015 PhD study entitled ‘Hard-Hard-Solid! Life Histories of Samoans in Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand’, and in particular the effects of smoking marijuana (blaze) combined with hard alcohol (juice) on Samoan young people aged 16 years and over. It desensitises them so when they are slanging (selling) or preparing for a fight with a rival gang they feel invincible, fearless, and incredibly strong. According to the 25 life histories that was collected over an 18 month period from ethnic minority gang members there was consistency with socialization and delinquency theoretical literature where structural -functionalism, strain, control and learning perspectives accounted for their involvement in this subculture and its drug activities. As a result serious physical (hospitalization and surgery), mental (attitudinal and behavioural changes), social (family dysfunction and lack of trust in school and social services), cultural (rejection of Samoan cultural identity) and spiritual (disillusionment and mistrust with church and its members) issues emerged. So what is recommended according to the gang members was to reduce or eliminate the attractiveness of gang culture and establish a multi-faceted approach that develop initiatives such as substituting slanging with alternatives like apprenticeships or a cadetship with the military or better access to meaningful employment or tertiary qualifications. Hence this presentation would benefit social workers, health professionals, policymakers, and researchers committed to advancing ethnic minority youth development.

Slanging to blaze up and juice up - Drug consumption in Samoan Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand

This presentation is based on the findings from a 2015 PhD study entitled ‘Hard-Hard-Solid! Life Histories of Samoans in Bloods youth gangs in New Zealand’, and in particular the effects of smoking marijuana (blaze) combined with hard alcohol (juice) on Samoan young people aged 16 years and over. It desensitises them so when they are slanging (selling) or preparing for a fight with a rival gang they feel invincible, fearless, and incredibly strong. According to the 25 life histories that was collected over an 18 month period from ethnic minority gang members there was consistency with socialization and delinquency theoretical literature where structural -functionalism, strain, control and learning perspectives accounted for their involvement in this subculture and its drug activities. As a result serious physical (hospitalization and surgery), mental (attitudinal and behavioural changes), social (family dysfunction and lack of trust in school and social services), cultural (rejection of Samoan cultural identity) and spiritual (disillusionment and mistrust with church and its members) issues emerged. So what is recommended according to the gang members was to reduce or eliminate the attractiveness of gang culture and establish a multi-faceted approach that develop initiatives such as substituting slanging with alternatives like apprenticeships or a cadetship with the military or better access to meaningful employment or tertiary qualifications. Hence this presentation would benefit social workers, health professionals, policymakers, and researchers committed to advancing ethnic minority youth development.

‘When the Numbers Stop Adding’: Imagining Futures in Perilous Presents Among Youth in Nairobi Ghettos

Studying the aspirations of young men, in Mathare, Nairobi, highlights their social becoming in contexts in which they incessantly risk social and physical death. Taking aspiration as a relational concept brings into view the temporal and spatial interactions between different aspirations and how these connect to emerging and future pathways of these young men. The ensuing relationalities at play are analysed through their context-bound negotiations of dominant gender norms to elucidate how these inform their social navigation towards male respectability, now and in the future. Adding the dimension of positionality here is useful to bring out how individual negotiations of gender norms in space and over time allows a nuanced view on situated entanglements of aspirations, pathways and dominant discourses and how these convolute and intensify in particular decision-making processes. The analyses are based on longitudinal ethnographic research with youth gangs in Nairobi for four months annually on average since 2005.