Putting the ‘Street’ in Gang: Place and Space in the Organization of Scotland’s Drug-Selling Gangs

McLean, Robert, Deuchar, Ross, Harding, Simon and Densley, James (2018) Putting the ‘Street’ in Gang: Place and Space in the Organization of Scotland’s Drug-Selling Gangs. British Journal of Criminology. azy015. ISSN 0007-0955

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy015

Abstract

Street gangs, by definition, enjoy a special relationship with the street. Prior research shows that some communities are synonymous with gangs and that turf holds a combination of expressive and instrumental value for gang members. As gangs evolve over time and through different levels of organization, however, gangs’ relationship with the street changes. This shifting street dynamic is underexplored in prior research, thus, drawing on qualitative data from Scotland and Bourdieu’s theory of social field, the current study presents three cases of gangs at different stages of evolution and examines how levels of gang organization affect spatial relationships. As gangs accumulate sufficient street capital to evolve, we find territory is defined less physically and more relationally, with implications for gang research and practice.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: street gangs, neighbourhoods, territoriality, organized crime, Scotland
Subjects: L300 Sociology
Department: Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Social Sciences
Depositing User: Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited: 10 Sep 2018 10:33
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 12:31
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/35643

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