Topic 2: URBAN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS/ COLLABORATIONS

Question 1

For Fraser and Hobbs (2023), urban criminal collaborations reflect:

Answer 1

Official concern over the threat to social order posed by groups of working-class males

Question 2

According to Thrasher’s (1927) foundational text on the youth gangs of Chicago, street gangs are formed because of:

Answer 2

Conflict amongst youths struggling for territorial dominance of the poor neighbourhoods in which they live and socialise

Question 3

According to Pitts (2008), in recent times there has been a greater convergence in gang formation and criminality in the UK and US because:

Answer 3

Life in US and UK cities has become more alike given de-industrialisation, growing social inequality and the growth of illicit drug markets

Question 4

How has Thrasher’s (1927) work on youth gangs been used to explain adult criminal collaborations in the city?

Answer 4

Violent territorial disputes amongst youth gangs in poor neighbourhoods provide the training ground and supply of labour for adult crime groups

Question 5

What, according to Fraser and Hobbs (2023), explains the demise of the ‘underworld of adult criminal collaborations’?

Answer 5

The emergence of post-industrial employment opportunities in narcotics and the night-time economy

Question 6

What was the key motivation for Thrasher’s study of youth gangs in Chicago?

Answer 6

To provide a non-pejorative, scientific explanation of gang formation

Question 7

What are the different levels of gang structure identified by Thrasher?

Answer 7

• Casual crowds
• Diffuse gangs
• Solidified gangs
• Conventionalised gangs

Question 8

What routes into adult criminality did Thrasher identify emerging from gang involvement?

Answer 8

• Banditry
• Recruitment into adult criminal enterprises
• Machine politics

Question 9

What was the main criticism of American gang theories made by British subcultural theorists like Downes?

Answer 9

That concepts like status frustration did not apply to working-class British youth who did not share mainstream cultural values about status and upward mobility

Question 10

What alternative concept was proposed by Downes to explain working-class youth behavior in Britain?

Answer 10

Dissociation - rejection rather than frustration of mainstream values

Question 11

What did the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies focus on instead of explanations for offending behavior?

Answer 11

The social reaction and labeling of youth subcultures as deviant

Question 12

According to the convergence thesis, what change made American-style gangs more relevant in Britain?

Answer 12

The erosion of the welfare state and disappearance of working-class job opportunities

Question 13

What alternative perspective on youth violence in London was proposed by Hallsworth and Young?

Answer 13

The “on road” subculture rather than formal gang structures

Question 14

What role did authorities play in escalating gang problems in Manchester according to Ralphs et al?

Answer 14

Self-fulfilling prophecies through labeling and over-policing

Question 15

What unique historical factor shaped gang formation in Glasgow?

Answer 15

Religious sectarianism dividing neighborhoods

Question 16

What does the concept of “professional crime” refer to?

Answer 16

Sophisticated acquisitive crime like fraud and extortion by career criminals

Question 17

How did the postwar expansion of consumer spending enable new professional criminal opportunities?

Answer 17

Rise of disposable incomes increased demand for consumer goods, enabling long-term frauds

Question 18

What impact did deindustrialisation have on traditional organized crime according to Fraser and Hobbs?

Answer 18

Disrupted recruitment and traditional rackets based around industrial neighborhoods

Question 19

What new opportunities emerged with the expansion of nighttime economies?

Answer 19

• Extortion
• Vice
• Drug-dealing focused around bars, clubs and restaurants

Question 20

What was the “external threat” narrative about organized crime in the era of globalization?

Answer 20

Foreign gangs trafficking drugs and people into European cities

Question 21

What empirical evidence countered exaggerations about alien conspiracy theories?

Answer 21

Most UK organized crime group members were British citizens

Question 22

What new business model is associated with the concept of “County Lines”?

Answer 22

Using exploited adolescents to transport drugs from cities to provincial regions

Question 23

Why do critical social scientists favor the term “criminal collaborations” over “gangs”?

Answer 23

Better reflects changing historical and situational contexts enabling joint offending

Question 24

How did Stan Cohen distinguish between different “orders of reality” in studying crime?

Answer 24

The nature of crime itself, speculation about crime, reflections on these speculations

Question 25

What philosophical distinction did Hallsworth and Young make about explanations of urban violence?

Answer 25

Imposing order (“arboreal thinking”) versus mapping complexity (“rhizomatic thinking”)

Question 26

What proportion of offenses are estimated to be committed jointly?

Answer 26

Around one half

Question 27

What was the main concern about youth gangs for Shaw and McKay of the Chicago School?

Answer 27

Generalised patterns in the zones of transition where gangs emerged

Question 28

What was the name of the classic ethnographic study of Glasgow gangs by Alistair Fraser?

Answer 28

The Gangs of Glasgow

Question 29

What is the name of the theory that disadvantaged neighborhoods offer illegal opportunities leading to gang formation?

Answer 29

The social disorganization theory of Shaw and McKay

Question 30

What 1981 film depicted the London underworld in transition?

Answer 30

The Long Good Friday

Question 31

What criminologist studied armed robbers in London referred to as “The Firm”?

Answer 31

Dick Hobbs

Question 32

What criminological perspective studied amplifications in deviance like gang labeling?

Answer 32

Labeling theory

Question 33

What criminologist studied East End youth and criticized US theories?

Answer 33

David Downes

Question 34

What criminologist studied street robberies by Liverpool youth?

Answer 34

Barry Burke

Question 35

What theory explains individual adaptations to blocked opportunities?

Answer 35

Strain theory

Question 36

What criminologist studied selling crack cocaine in East Harlem?

Answer 36

Philippe Bourgois

Question 37

What Philadelphia study theorized subcultures arising from status frustration?

Answer 37

Albert Cohen

Question 38

What 1990s initiative spread research on European gangs?

Answer 38

The Eurogang network