Word: crimeeds
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...Crime attributed to gang violence has been going up even as the nation's overall violent crime rate has been decreasing (it was down 2.5% in 2008 from the year before). But rather than look at such incidents as ordered up by gang bosses, some experts are beginning to see them as the product of a street culture of feuds, vendettas, retribution and violent one-upmanship that pervade what are commonly called gangs but which may not be gangs...
...February, the National Gang Threat Assessment report, released by the Department of Justice, concluded that there are 20,000 street, prison and biker gangs in the country, with about 1 million members. In some communities, the report said, gangs account for as much as 80% of the crime. The report also said that 58% of law-enforcement agencies saw an increase of gang activity in 2008, up from 45% in 2004. (Read a brief history of the Hells Angels...
...simply labeling such crimes as "gang-related" does not explain what is happening on the streets. Criminal-justice experts are beginning to believe that a majority of the violence does not result from directives from any formal gang hierarchy, but rather that it is the result of beefs between smaller neighborhood groups that can be started by anything from a kidnapping, as in the Baltimore case, to a simple look of disrespect on a rival's face. A fistfight among young men can escalate into drive-by shootings that elicit identical retribution, finally leading to the slaying of people...
...street scene" with three tiers. The first is petty criminals who may or may not have gang affiliations. Then there are actual gangs such as Crips, Bloods and MS-13, whose members wear colors, use hand signs and tags and stake out turf. At the highest level is organized crime like the Mafia, which largely eschews violence (until deemed necessary) because it's bad for business...
Most of the crime, Kennedy says, takes place on a level between the petty crooks and thugs, which in cities like Baltimore represents the lion's share of violence. He says the so-called gangs are really just informal street groups that represent an overwhelming share of the violence. "They are not killing each other over money or turf," he says. "They are killing each other over honor and vendettas." And while these groups are small, their effect is wide. A Cincinnati study, in which Kennedy participated, found that "street groups" accounted for three-tenths of 1% of the city...