Gangs

Question 1

CCCS using Gramsci’s concept (Sociologist)

Answer 1

Gramsci’s (neo-marxist) concept of ‘hegemony’ can be described as how we are influenced into capitalist norms where the working class accept the power that the upper class have. This may lead to working class people resisting the hegemon and reacting to their lowly economic situation.

Question 2

Brake (Sociologist)

Answer 2

Magical solutions - many people feel powerless and unable to change the power differences in society. Therefore, being part of a subculture can ‘free’ their thoughts and convince themselves that their generation will be different to their parents. (It is ‘magic’ because it’s not true, but an illusion that masks the reality that this is not the case).

Question 3

Hall and Jefferson (Sociologist)

Answer 3

Many people commit certain rituals (such as committing deviancy or joining a subculture) as a form of resistance against their lack of status in wider society.

Question 4

Pitts (Sociologist)

Answer 4

Defines gangs as spending ‘time in groups of three or more … (which) … has existed for three months or more … (and has) engaged in delinquency or criminal behaviour together in (the) last 12 months. (Also) the group has at least one structural feature (a name, area, or a leader).

Question 5

Gang rate statistics (Examples)

Answer 5

> 6% of 10-19 year olds belonged to a gang in England and Wales.

> The Strathclyde Police estimated there were 170 gangs in Glasgow with 3,500 gang members aged from 11 to 23. The previous year, the Metropolitan Police said there were 171 gangs in London. (London is a bigger city which shows the moral panic about gangs being exaggerated in media).

> At least half of the 27 murders of teenagers in London in 2007 were gang-related, according to the Metropolitan Police. Officers in Liverpool and Manchester have said in the past that 60% of shootings are linked to gangs.

Question 6

Who do the center for social justice say are most likely to join a British gang?

Answer 6

• 98% are male.
• In Glasgow and Liverpool they’re ‘predominantly white’.
• In Manchester and London they’re ‘predominantly black’.
• Many have been excluded from school.
• Highest prevalence of gangs found in areas with high levels of deprivation, unemployment and lone parent families.

Question 7

Walter Miller - Focal concerns (Sociologist)

Answer 7

Working class lads get into trouble and do gang activity because they have different values from the rest of the population (or different ‘focal concerns’).
Excitement, smartness, trouble, toughness, autonomy, fate.

Question 8

Decker and Winkle (Sociologist)

Answer 8

Joining gangs is all about the ‘pulls’ and ‘pushes’. Pulls; gangs can give status, protection, money, excitement, and opportunities. Pushes; social and economic disadvantages. Being marginalized can push youths into gangs and gain identity and status that they do not have in society.

Question 9

Miller (Sociologist / example)

Answer 9

He concluded that in the lower classes there is stress on gang membership as an affirmation of masculinity in areas where female headed households predominate.

Question 10

Robert Merton

Answer 10

Strain theory - People have to strain to achieve success because they don’t have the same means to achieve that goal.

Question 11

Maxson, Whitlock, and Klein (Sociologist).

Answer 11

They argue that there is a “vulnerability to street gang membership”, and that gang members were found to have low self-concepts and abusive homes. Those individuals who joined gangs had specific needs to belong to something; to have protection, excitement, money, and territory of their own.

Question 12

Albert Cohen (Sociologist)

Answer 12

Status frustration - argues that it’s mainly a working class problem, and that gangs are a solution to problems of status and class differences. They used these gangs in order to gain more status in wider society.

Question 13

Cloward and Ohlin (Sociologist)

Answer 13

Ilegitimate opportunities - Gangs were normally from lower classes and delinquency was from not having any legitimate opportunities, which lead to them seeking out other illegal ways of gaining more opportunities (illegitimate ones).

Question 14

White (Sociologist)

Answer 14

Gangs tend to be heavily occupied by the lower class. They suffer from poverty and social exclusion, and gangs can provide support, social inclusion, and security.

Question 15

Young (Sociologist)

Answer 15

Bulimic society - He sees deviance as an emotional response to social exclusion in which they’re not included in a media consumer centered society as they cannot afford the same things.

Question 16

Harding (Study)

Answer 16

Conducted an ethnographic study in London on gangs and compared it to how a casino works. Gangs are a social arena of competition where members strive for distinction, status, position and survival. Success is about attaining and retaining street capital in gangs in terms of cultural and social capital - mush like accumulating chips in a casino. Both and casino and gangs are a game of risk which have high stakes.

Question 17

Bennett et al (Study)

Answer 17

They found that previous attempts to explain violent street crime put too much focus on the desire for gain, and not enough on the aspect of ‘pleasure’. Five of the main reasons given for committing street robbery included; good times, keep up appearances, excitement, desire of fight, and righting wrongs.

Question 18

Messerschmidt (Sociologist)

Answer 18

Argues that the gang acts as a location for ‘doing masculinity’ which has to be ‘accomplished’ and proved.

Question 19

Harding - Masculinity (Sociologist)

Answer 19

Develops Messerschmidt’s theory by suggesting that how masculinity is made or accomplished depends on the social field a young male finds himself in. Those without access to employment (a traditional source of hegemonic masculinity) will find other ways to achieve their masculinity.