International Criminal Justice Review

The article examines a gang-related peace initiative instituted in Greater August Town, Jamaica. Our objective was to understand the negotiation processes and determine whether the gang truce resulted in the desired outcome: a reduction in homicide. Bivariate analyses showed a significant decline in homicides immediately following the truce. Upon closer examination, however, comparing change in the target area to the balance areas in Jamaica and accounting for temporal trends, we found that the decline in homicide was part of a larger nationwide decline in violence and that the gang truce was not responsible for the decline. The only significant effect was the possibility that homicides were displaced outside the target area for a brief period of time.

Vigil’s multiple marginality (MM) model of gang formation has resulted in hypotheses about why minority youth join gangs, and how these processes play out at multiple levels of analysis and across contexts. However, with a few exceptions, this framework has rarely been tested quantitatively, and especially in countries outside of North America. The current study assesses the MM model using data from the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study and aggregate country-level data. Results from multilevel analyses reveal some support for the framework, in that at least one measure of each component of the MM model was found to be a significant predictor of gang membership. Controlling for individual and country variables, measures of street socialization exhibited the strongest effects on gang involvement. Yet not all proposed factors were significant predictors across all models. Longitudinal data are necessary to fully support the dynamics of the MM model.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with psychologists, criminologists, and sociologists (n = 27), as well as five adolescents (aged between 15 and 17 years) with a history of knife-carrying in Azerbaijan, this study attempts to explore the motives for knife-carrying among the male youth. Using a phenomenological approach, the interviews found a set of mixed and interrelated factors as the key motivators of carrying a knife among male youth. The answers provided by members of both samples generally overlap, but each provides some unique insights as well. Experts argue that young men tend to suffer from poor socialization and fail academically, which forces them to seek companionship, status, and identity elsewhere. In such circumstances, adolescents become likely to fall under the influence of their peers, as well as the criminal world whose figures are widely popular in the country. Since knife-carrying provides a sense of power and self-esteem, as well as constitutes a core attribute of notorious criminal figures, it becomes attractive to the youth. Male interviewees with a history of knife-carrying, all with irregular class attendance and part of “circles” (deviant peer groups), were attracted to sharp objects (a) by their ability to project power to others around them, such as so-called “predators” and (b) rule of the circles. The desire to exercise informal control over an area (school or neighborhood) and emulate thieves-in-law was particularly critical in shaping adolescents’ decision to carry knives and five-knuckle. The findings not only largely confirm the results reported by the Western studies, but also advance our understanding of youth's inclination towards knife-carrying in a nonwestern society.

There is a growing literature on social capital and delinquency. Most research has been done in Western industrial countries, has used limited measures of delinquency, and has employed surveys developed locally as opposed to using internationally validated instruments. Using data from the European Youth Survey, this study addresses these limitations by examining the relationship between social capital and self-reported delinquency among Turkish juveniles. The data were collected from a sample of tenth graders in 2007 in Bagcilar neighborhood of Istanbul. Self-reported delinquency was divided into two categories, major and minor, based on the Turkish Penal Code. Social capital was measured by assessing adolescents’ reports of their direct interactions with parents, peers and community. To predict the likelihood of major and minor delinquency independently, two different subsets (n = 1,879 and n = 1,837) of the data were used. Findings indicate that the presence of family social capital and community social capital had significant negative relationships with both major and minor delinquency. The presence of delinquent peers was significantly associated with both increases in major and minor delinquency. Overall, our findings suggest that social capital was negatively related to Turkish juveniles’ self-reported involvement in major and minor delinquent activities.