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

Robert McLean, Ross Deuchar, Simon Harding, James Densley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)
141 Downloads (Pure)

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.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberazy015
JournalBritish Journal of Criminology
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Sept 2018

Keywords

  • street gangs
  • neighbourhoods
  • territoriality
  • organized crime
  • Scotland

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