This book uses a multi-methods study of incarcerated youths to examine the pathways to gang involvement, the drug distribution system and hierarchy within gangs, levels of traumatic stress and depression among gang-involved youths, and other mechanisms of control and retention within the system of gangs.Based on a study of young inmates in Norway, with international backgrounds including Africa, Pakistan, Middle East and Western Europe, the findings explained in this book are broadly applicable. It aims to create a picture of the entire system of gang membership, while revealing a research framework that could be applied to other studies. Gang members were found in high levels to be suffering from depression and traumatic stress, and were often heavily indebted (financially and otherwise) to persons in the outside world. Owing money, violence and other threats, all make it difficult to leave the system, despite the pains they suffer within it. In order understand young peoples' life within the system, and its hold on them, and in order to reduce its continuation and growth, this important analysis helps researchers and policy makers, particularly those interested in juvenile justice, youth gangs, and drug trafficking understand its logic and identify its weak points and possible ways out. "

This book is the third publication from the Eurogang Network, a cross-national collaboration of researchers (from both North America and Europe) devoted to comparative and multi-national research on youth gangs. It provides a unique insight into the influence of migration on local gang formation and development, paying particular attention to the importance of ethnicity. The book also explores the challenges that migration and ethnicity pose for responding effectively to the growth of such gangs, particularly in areas where public discourse on such issues is restricted. Chapters in the book are concerned to address both situations where there have been longstanding problems with street gangs as well as areas where such issues have just started to emerge. A variety of different research traditions and approaches are represented, including ethnographic methods, self-report surveys and interviews, official records data and victim interviews. It will be essential reading for anybody interested in the phenomenon of street and youth gangs.

This book is the third publication from the Eurogang Network, a cross-national collaboration of researchers (from both North America and Europe) devoted to comparative and multi-national research on youth gangs. It provides a unique insight into the influence of migration on local gang formation and development, paying particular attention to the importance of ethnicity. The book also explores the challenges that migration and ethnicity pose for responding effectively to the growth of such gangs, particularly in areas where public discourse on such issues is restricted. Chapters in the book are concerned to address both situations where there have been longstanding problems with street gangs as well as areas where such issues have just started to emerge. A variety of different research traditions and approaches are represented, including ethnographic methods, self-report surveys and interviews, official records data and victim interviews. It will be essential reading for anybody interested in the phenomenon of street and youth gangs.

This book uses a multi-methods study of incarcerated youths to examine the pathways to gang involvement, the drug distribution system and hierarchy within gangs, levels of traumatic stress and depression among gang-involved youths, and other mechanisms of control and retention within the system of gangs. Based on a study of young inmates in Norway, with international backgrounds including Africa, Pakistan, Middle East and Western Europe, the findings explained in this book are broadly applicable. It aims to create a picture of the entire system of gang membership, while revealing a research framework that could be applied to other studies. Gang members were found in high levels to be suffering from depression and traumatic stress, and were often heavily indebted (financially and otherwise) to persons in the outside world. Owing money, violence and other threats, all make it difficult to leave the system, despite the pains they suffer within it. In order understand young peoples' life within the system, and its hold on them, and in order to reduce its continuation and growth, this important analysis helps researchers and policy makers, particularly those interested in juvenile justice, youth gangs, and drug trafficking understand its logic and identify its weak points and possible ways out.