Perceived popularity of adolescents who use weapons in violence and adolescents who only carry weapons

Prior research has found that persistently delinquent youth or more violent youth were less popular than their less delinquent peers [Young, Jacob T. N. 2014. “‘Role Magnets’? An Empirical Investigation of Popularity Trajectories for Life-Course Persistent Individuals During Adolescence.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 43 (1): 104–115]. However, recent research has also found that weapon carrying is associated with being more popular in adolescence [Dijkstra, Jan Kornelis, Siegwart Lindenberg, René Veenstra, Christian Steglich, Jenny Isaacs, Noel A. Card, and Ernest V. E. Hodges. 2010. “Influence and Selection Processes in Weapon Carrying During Adolescence: The Roles of Status, Aggression, and Vulnerability.” Criminology 48 (1): 187–220]. The present paper examines the perceived popularity of adolescents who carry weapons in comparison to those who both carry and use weapons in acts of violence or threatened violence. Data consist of two waves from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Analyses use OLS regression with lagged predictors. This paper found no differences in number of friends between weapon carriers and weapon users. However, among both male and female gang members, those who did not use or carry weapons (abstainers) named significantly fewer friends than weapon users. Among females, weapon abstainers both named and were named by significantly more people than weapon users. These differences were not observed for males. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

社会学视野下近代秘密社会生存模式变迁

秘密社会的生存模式可以从其组织结构形式、资源获取方式、社会交往模式和内部聚合机制等“显性”要素来进行系统考察;在近代社会变迁过程中,这些“显性”要素随之发生了变化:组织结构由传统的“封闭型”逐渐向“开放型”嬗变;社会资源获取方式由“非正式”途径向“非正式”与“正式途径”交替转变;社会交往模式“单一化”向“多样化”转变;内部聚合由“价值导向”机制向“利益激励”机制嬗变。     

论包庇、纵容黑社会性质组织罪的认定和防范

黑社会组织犯罪是国际社会的公害。国家机关工作人员包庇、纵容黑社会性质组织犯罪 ,不仅严重危害社会治安 ,损害国家机关形象 ,而且也是黑社会性质组织犯罪滋生、蔓延的重要因素。认定包庇、纵容黑社会性质组织罪 ,应当正确把握其犯罪构成的客体、客观、主体和主观特征 ,准确区分罪与非罪、此罪与彼罪、一罪与数罪的界限。为了有效防范包庇、纵容黑社会性质组织犯罪 ,必须加大对黑社会性质组织犯罪的打击力度 ,加强廉政建设 ,提高国家机关工作人员的抗腐蚀能力 ,加强监督 ,加大对充当黑社会“保护伞”的腐败官员的惩处力度     

Perceptions of Gangs and Crews by Justice-Involved Youth and Implications for Best Practice Work

ABSTRACT

Gangs and crews are at center stage when discussing youth violence. According to client-centered best practices in the social service arena, distinguishing between gangs and crews is not important for developing a trusting relationship; yet these terms are a master status for those agencies aimed at enforcement and suppression. Social service providers must navigate these different landscapes, particularly in light of their increasing involvement in multistakeholder violence-reduction partnerships. However, the voices of youth themselves have been left out of the mix. Perceptions of youth identified as gang affiliated or at risk for gang membership are used to empirically investigate how these best practices tensions should be navigated by service providers. Semistructured interviews with 41 youth involved in an employment program show that crews are perceived as less violent and less dangerous than gangs, and youth actively resisted the gang label, even though there were no differences in criminal records between self-identified gang and crew members. Implications for the important role of service providers in providing client-centered services and bringing forward youth voices into collaborative partnerships are discussed, as are future research needs relating to linking youth voices to best practice work.     

有组织犯罪中的胁迫研究——对一个“黑帮”成长历程的入圈考察

当前,我国刑法理论对作为有组织犯罪常用手段的胁迫行为缺乏专门性的研究.对一个“黑帮”成长历程的入圈考察表明,暴力非但不是有组织犯罪的必要手段,(严重)暴力反倒是其法律风险的最大来源之一;贿赂“保护伞”亦不为黑帮生存发展所必需;一直被刑法忽略的一般胁迫行为已在现实社会互动中演化为黑帮生存发展的最优手段之一.与从前那种以“有组织暴力”为基石的黑社会组织一样,以“有组织胁迫”为主要犯罪手段的“黑帮”同样会侵害法益、破坏生活秩序,同时胁迫手段的使用大大降低了“黑帮”遭受刑事追诉的可能性,刑事立法亟待对此作出回应.     

Ctrl+ALT-RIGHT: reinterpreting our knowledge of white supremacy groups through the lens of street gangs

For the last 30 years, gang scholars have explicitly disregarded white youth who are active in groups with overt or implicit ties to neo-Nazi/skinhead or white power ideologies from street gang research. This article argues that this decision to keep these two groups separate stems from a misinterpretation of the realities of these groups and this decision has had a long-standing impact on how researchers, law enforcement and policymakers understand and interact with youth active in these groups. The coining of the term ‘Alt-Right,’ and the re-emergence of white power youth in the international dialogue, underscores how the lack of systematic research severely limits our knowledge about youth involved in gangs with white power leanings. Based on these concerns, this article challenges the current understanding of both skinheads and their troublesome youth groups/gangs. By orienting the limited research on skinhead gangs within key street gang domains, this article draws attention to disconnects in the literature that have influenced how researchers approach the study of skinhead youth. This study’s conclusions support the purposeful inclusion of skinhead youth in future street gang research.     

A qualitative study of the practices and experiences of staff in multidisciplinary child sexual exploitation partnerships in three English coastal towns

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of the practices and experiences of people working in multidisciplinary child sexual exploitation (CSE) partnerships in three coastal towns in England. The study is based on focus groups conducted with 36 practitioners from a range of professional groups, including police, social work, substance misuse, education, specialist youth workers, sexual health, and statutory and non-statutory children's services. The article begins with an overview of the three towns and the structure of their responses to CSE. It goes on to explore a range of factors, which contribute to the local issues around CSE and which affect and direct multiagency working. These include practitioner perspectives on CSE vulnerability, the discrepancy between young peoples' and practitioners' views about “exploitation”, a discussion of how CSE perpetrators initiate and develop contact with young people and the role of incentives—including drugs and alcohol—as part of CSE exploitation. We finish by drawing out some general conclusions.     

论我国黑社会性质犯罪的防范措施

近年我国黑社会组织性质犯罪呈现出蔓延和泛滥的趋势,有向黑社会犯罪演变的可能性,必须加强对黑社会性质犯罪的立法;同时,通过对洗钱罪的研究并完善,从根源上堵住黑社会犯罪。