Abstract
In On Gangs (2022), Scott H. Decker, David C. Pyrooz, and James A. Densley respond to the proliferation of research on gangs in the past few decades, with an integrated and voluminous 14-chapter account of gang scholarship. The authors thoroughly review the state of knowledge on gangs, highlight emerging issues within gang research, and critically assess commonly used strategies to respond to gangs. While the book is highly informative for academics, legal, and criminal justice professionals, its particular strengths lie in the integration of various theoretical perspectives on gang emergence and life, its presentation of both mainstream and alternative approaches to gang research, its attempt to unravel the many myths associated with gangs, and its thorough and critical evaluation of the status of gang scholarship and interventions today.
Together, the three authors share a long history of working on gang research and have published extensively in this area. On Gangs can be traced back to Confronting Gangs, written by gang scholar G. David Curry and the first author, Decker, in 1997, and then Confronting Gangs: Crime and Communities, which was published by Curry and two of the current three authors (Decker and Pyrooz) in 2014. Decker and Pyrooz have now invited Densley to join their writing team, and this book is the group’s first combined effort. A thorough reading of the book reveals that all three authors have conducted many studies on gangs in the United States and elsewhere, as well as have been involved in scholarly conversations about gangs for many years. Their own studies, some of which were conducted together, are cited throughout the book, and the extensive reference list that includes their own work further underscores their expertise in this field. The authors have also conducted a large number of interviews with individuals involved with gangs in different locations, and quotes from the interviews are shared in the early chapters of the book. The comprehensive nature of this text is directly addressed in the “acknowledgements” section, where the authors note that the publisher, Temple University Press, still accepted the manuscript, even after it “came in at nearly twice the number of contracted words” (p. xi).
What motivated Decker, Pyrooz, and Densley to write this book is the lack of a “centralized body responsible for organizing knowledge” (p. 4), with no specialized journals or organizations collecting and preserving research on gangs. Studies are conducted by scholars from numerous disciplines, such as criminology and criminal justice, sociology, and public health, further contributing to the scattered nature of research in the field. In an attempt to organize gang research, the authors divide the book into three sections. In each of these sections, they review extant research and include illustrative tables that compare seminal studies, data, and policy interventions.
In the first part, which is titled “Core Issues,” the authors present gang definitions and review what is known about gang membership and the community context from which gangs emerge. They also discuss motivations for joining, staying in, and leaving a gang. The authors stress that understanding facts about gangs is important for studying them, which is why they include a detailed history of the emergence of gangs and also present shared demographics of individuals involved with gangs. At the heart of this section, however, is the introduction of an organizing framework, which the authors designed to explain gang emergence and persistence. Drawing from different structural and cultural criminological theories, the authors recognize gangs as dynamic groups that can vary significantly across time and space. In this context, they also unravel common myths about gangs within society. For example, the authors present extensive self-report data to show that gang membership is rarely for life but rather that young individuals are the most likely to identify as gang members for an average of a year or two. The authors also note that gangs are often automatically assumed to be engaging in crime and violence due to common news and media depictions.
In an effort to shift the prime attention of gang research away from crime and violence, the authors address new directions for gang research in Part II of the book, entitled “Emerging and Critical Issues.” In this section, they discuss the relationship between gangs and gender, race, and ethnicity. While the bulk of the book focuses on gang research within the United States, this part also includes a section on the prevalence of gangs in other parts of the world, where the link to crime and violence might be less accentuated than in the United States. The authors attempt to track both similarities and differences across countries and whole regions, and they point out that the comparative perspective can offer further insight into the complex reasons individuals may join, stay in, and exit gangs. In the final chapter of Part II, the authors connect gangs to major social institutions, such as the family, school, labor market, polity, and church. With this discussion, their objective is to shed light on the question of whether a gang itself can be considered a social institution. As research has not indicated that gangs meet basic community needs, such as belonging, education, material requirements, and spiritual needs, which the other discussed social institutions provide, the authors themselves remain skeptical of treating gangs as distinct social institutions.
In the final part of the book, “Responding to Gangs,” Decker, Pyrooz, and Densley offer a thorough account of common responses to gangs. They review state and federal gang legislation and critically assess numerous policing strategies employed to combat gang violence. In this section, they also include a briefer chapter on gangs in prisons. While they examine the similarities and differences between street and prison gangs, they lament the overall state of prison gang research and the lack of evidence-based practices employed to respond to gangs behind bars. Due to its brevity, this chapter can leave readers who were interested in learning more about the state of knowledge on prison rather than street gangs disappointed.
With On Gangs, Decker, Pyrooz, and Densley provide readers with a comprehensive and in-depth examination of existing research. Several tables and charts allow the reader to easily access summaries of key studies on gangs throughout the book. What would further strengthen the book is a summary of the basic demographic characteristics of interviewees and more information on the time frames during which the interviews were conducted. Furthermore, the authors could have revisited the organizing framework throughout the book, especially through applying it to the emerging and critical issues in gang research. Overall, however, the integration of theoretical perspectives on gang emergence and persistence, as well as the authors’ attempt to summarize the state of knowledge on critical and emerging issues within gang research, helps to open the door for future studies on gangs, especially in areas that have been lacking in the past. In addition, this book can be seen as an invitation to scholars and policymakers alike to critically assess commonly employed responses to street gangs today. As we are still searching for carefully drafted and sound gang interventions, this volume offers guidance for anyone interested in developing successful policy strategies.
