13,563 research outputs found
Prisoners’ gang-related activity: the importance of bullying and moral disengagement
No full textGang-related activity can have a significant impact on the effective management of prisons in the UK, yet little is known about the characteristics of the prisoners involved. I it this study, 141 adult male prisoners' gang-related activity was examined in relation to their bullying behaviour and use of moral disengagement. Results showed that prisoners most involved in gang-related activity were likely to have spent a longer total time in the prison system, be perpetrators of bullying and have high levels of moral disengagement. Findings also show that moral disengagement partially mediates the relationship between bullying and gang-related activity Implications for treatment programmes and the prison estate are discussed
Gang Re-engagement Intentions among Incarcerated Serious Juvenile Offenders
No full textResearch examining the factors that precipitate gang membership has contributed substantially to our understanding of gangs and gang-related activity, yet we know little about the factors influencing intentions to re-join a gang after having being incarcerated. This study examines the relationship between gang characteristics, number of incarcerated friends, and family characteristics and gang re-engagement intentions, while controlling for ethnicity. Participants were 206 male serious juvenile offenders interviewed as part of the Pathways to Desistance Study. The model explained between 35% and 47% of variance in gang re-engagement intentions. However, only three variables made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model (punishment if gang rules are broken, importance of gang membership, and moral disengagement), with the strongest predictor being importance of gang membership. The results suggest that challenging young offenders’ perceptions about the importance of gang membership might be particularly effective in reducing gang re-engagement intentions after incarceration
Gang activity in English prisons: the Staff perspective.
No full textGang behaviour has been associated with serious problems in American prisons (e.g., Fong and Buentello, 199 1). This study explored the possible existence of indicators of gang activity in English prisons. Surveys of problems consistent with gang activity were completed by 374 prison staff in 16 prisons that were representative of the English Prison Estate. Results showed significant differences between categories of institution. The most gang-related activity was reported in male Medium security prisons and Young Offender Institutions. The lowest reported incidence was in both male Low and High security prisons. Female establishments demonstrated levels lower only than Medium security male prisons. Discussion focuses concern on the levels of gang activity apparently present in the Medium security English Prisons and suggests directions for further research
Politics of the number: an account of predominent South African prison gang influences
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.The study is a contextual account of various factors that facilitate and promote the continued dominance of the ‘Number gangs’ prevalent in many (if not most) South African prisons. Even though there is a substantial amount of factors that critically influence and sustain the South African prison gangs, this paper will focus upon a few of these influences. An emergent sentiment from exponents within these gangs, and supporting academic literature both argue that these dominant inmate factions are now adapting their mythical credo so as to remain an informal power-player within the scope of a failing South African prison administration. From a managerial perspective, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is often found attempting to give meaningful accounts of itself amidst its failed efforts to transform both itself and the South African prison administration. The policy legislation and administration of DCS thus also contribute to prison gang prominence. The study shows that DCS has embraced a policy of harsher penality, although its official position is that it is transforming into an administration that is focused upon human rights. This paper will thus give brief insight into the prison gangs’ organization and operations, and then focus upon various contexts within which the Number gangs continue to be pervasive, especially due to changing prison administrative policy (or lack thereof) and due to new adaptive strategy employed by gangs to make themselves powerbrokers within this contentious penal discourse
Gangster Girlfriends in British Columbia: The Allure of Louboutin, Chanel, and Tiffany
No full textAccording to Peterson (2014) female members may account for as much as 40% of the gang membership in the United States, and yet we still know so little about the female role, membership, association to, and relationships with known gang members. Indeed, Decker (2017: xvii) has noted that “In too many studies of organized crime groups, women are either not dealt with or are treated as appendages.” Our research goes some way to correcting this, adding to the body of evidence by understanding the decision for involvement with gangs, as non-gang members. The main objective was to explore the romantic relationships between females and gang members. The research examines why young females, who do not identify as gang members, enter relationships with gang members and what the nature of these relationships are. In doing so, the research is able to offer a number of recommendations for intervention, which may be effective at deterring gang involvement, and supporting ‘exit strategies’ of young women involved with gang members. The data used to recommend intervention and prevention strategies was produced from qualitative interviews with three women from British Columbia who have previously been in a relationship with a gang member. The results contribute to the ongoing debate about whether females become involved with gangs because they are victims or through conscious decision. A rational choice. The present study argues that women need to be viewed as active decision makers in their own lives, while still acknowledging that dating a gang member is a dangerous and abusive experience. The research also finds support for the glamorization of gangs and suggests that this is an integral factor in entering a relationship with a gang member. This study argues that prevention and intervention methods that aim to de-glamourize gangs are needed to deter young women from entering these relationships.Peer reviewe
P stones and provos : group violence in Northern Ireland and Chicago
No full textAlthough the government of the United States of America was established to protect the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness among all American citizens, this thesis argues intractable gang violence in inner-city Chicago has persistently denied these rights, in turn undermining fundamental (and foundational) American political values. Thus, gang violence can be argued to represent a threat to both civil order and state legitimacy. Yet, where comparable (and generally lower) levels of community-level violence in Northern Ireland garnered the sustained attention and direct involvement of the United Kingdom's central government, the challenge posed by gang violence has been unappreciated, if not ignored, by the American federal government. In order to mobilise the political commitment and resources needed to find a durable resolution to Chicago's long and often anarchic 'uncivil war', it is first necessary to politicise the problem and its origins. Contributing to this politicisation, this thesis explains why gang violence in Chicago has been unable to capture the political imagination of the American government in a way akin to paramilitary (specifically republican) violence in Northern Ireland. Secondly, it explains how the depoliticisation of gang violence has negatively affected response, encouraging the continued application of inadequate and largely ineffective response strategies. Finally, it makes the case that, while radical, a conditional agreement-centric peace process loosely modelled on that employed in Northern Ireland might offer the most effective strategy for restoring the sense of peace and security to inner-city Chicago lost over half a century ago
Unemployment and Gang Crime: Could Prosperity Backfire?
No full textEmpirical evidence reveals that unemployment tends to increase property crime but that it has no effect on violent crime. To explain these facts, we examine a model of criminal gangs and suggest that there is a substitution effect between property crime and violent crime at work. In the model, non-monetary valuation of gang membership is private knowledge. Thus the leaders face a trade-off between less crime per member in large gangs and more crime per member in small gangs. Unemployment increases the relative attractiveness of large and less violent gangs engaging more in property crime.violence, crime, gangs, unemployment, identity
Cambodian parents' perception of gang violence
No full textThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between demographic variables and perceptions of gang violence among Cambodian parents residing in Long Beach, California. The study surveyed 17 Cambodian parents who attended parenting classes at the United Cambodian Community, Inc. Using a questionnaire developed by the researcher, statistical analysis were used to measure and identify relationships between the parents' perception of gang violence with demographic variables. Findings illustrate some significant differences when perception scale scores were compared with demographics. Among the findings were: a statistical significant and positive relationship between perceived causes of gang and perceived awareness of gangs; there was statistically significant difference in the level of perceived causes of gangs and approximate household incomes; and there was statistically significant difference in the parents' perceived awareness of gangs between individuals who were and were not personally affected by gang violence. Due to limited sample size, other findings were inconclusive
Schedulability analysis of limited-preemptive moldable gang tasks
No full textGang scheduling, has long been adopted by the high-performance computing community as a way to reduce the synchronization overhead between related threads. Gang schedulling allows for several threads to execute in lock steps without suffering from long busy-wait periods or be penalised by large context-switch overheads. If several threads use the same data, it also reduces the number of memory transactions by allowing the program to load those data only once for all threads rather than once per thread. To avoid reloading large amount of data after each preemption and hence incur large execution-time overheads, in this work, we assume that the tasks adhere to a limited-preemptive execution model. We further assume that each gang task is moldable, that is, it has a minimum and a maximum number of cores on which it may be executed. The actual execution time of a job depends then on the number of cores allocated by the scheduler at run-tiem. In this work, we consider the case for which tasks are scheduled according to a global job-level fixed priority scheduling algorithm, and present a worst-case response time analysis for limited-preemptive moldable gang tasks. Additionally, we propose a new scheduling policy to improve theschedulability of moldable gang tasks.Electrical Engineering | Embedded System
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