European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups

Scott H. Decker is Curator's Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has been involved in research about gangs and gang intervention programs since 1988. He is the author of Policing Gangs and Youth Violence (2002), co-author with G. David Curry of Confronting Gangs: Crime and Community (2002) and co-author with Richard T. Wright of Armed Robbers in Action: Stickups and Street Culture, and Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Break-ins. Frank M. Weerman is researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement in Leiden. He has been involved in several research projects in youth crime, and has written extensively about explanations for delinquent behavior and co-offending. He is currently conducting a large longitudinal research project on the role of delinquent peers and peer networks.

The progress reported in this book is an important next necessary step for the Eurogang research program. Scott Decker and Frank Weerman and their colleagues are to be congratulated for bringing coherence of definitions, research procedures, and substantive findings about street gangs and other troublesome youth groups.

• Part 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Part 3 PART I: Qualitative Approaches Chapter 3 Chapter 1: In the Grip of the Group Chapter 4 Chapter 2: Criminal Gangs and their Connections: Metaphors, Definitions, and Structures Chapter 6 Chapter 3: An Old-Fashioned Youth Gang in Genoa Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Why do Young Male Russians of German Descent Tend to Join or Form Violent Gangs? Chapter 8 Chapter 5: The Role of Crime Acts in Constituting the Gang's Mentality Chapter 9 Chapter 6: Identification and Self-Identification: Using a Survey to Study Gangs in the Netherlands Part 9 PART II: Quantitative Approaches Chapter 10 Chapter 7: Youth Groups and Gangs in Amsterdam: A Pretest of the Eurogang Expert Survey Chapter 12 Chapter 8: Contemporary Russian Gangs: History, Membership, and Crime Involvement Chapter 13 Chapter 9: Terrors and Young Teams: Youth Gangs and Delinquency in Edinburgh Chapter 13 Chapter 10: A Cross-National Comparison of Youth Gangs: The United States and the Netherlands Part 15 PART III: Integrative Approaches Chapter 15 Chapter 11: Gang and Youth Violence Prevention and Intervention: Contrasting the Experience of the Scandinavian Welfare State with the United States Chapter 16 Chapter 13: European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups: Findings from the Eurogang Research Program