Distinguishing Gangs, OrganizedCrime, and TerrorismCarter F. Smith & Jeffrey P. Rush,Austin Peay State University

Southern Criminal Justice Association 2011

STREET GANGS

• Gang members vary in age. • Some communities have had significant number of

adult gang members• NYGC researchers have shown progressive increase in

adult gang members for almost every year since 1996. • organization of gangs can be determined by levels of

membership and leadership, holding of regular meetings, existence of written rules, and involvement in or relationships with owners of legitimate businesses

• Gangs have been treated as organized crime groups by law enforcement professionals, media sources, and some government agencies

ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS

• . The business of organized crime involves the violation of numerous laws.

• The traditional evolution of traditional organized crime groups shows that almost all of them began as a street gang.

• Given this apparently natural transition from street gang to organized crime group, it seems fair to suggest that we should be able to identify where street gangs fall on a continuum

TERRORISM

• As opposed to organized crime, terrorism is political, and is considered relative to one’s political views

• Individual terrorists are often unemployed, socially alienated individuals who have dropped out of society and joined a terrorist group out of boredom or a desire to pursue a cause they regard as just or a desire to use special skills

• boundaries of the new terrorist networks are very loose, and anyone who wishes to become a terrorist can become one with Internet access

CONNECTION

• Organized crime activity, especially the levying of taxes against the drug trade and committing credit card fraud, has become a major revenue source for terrorism

• Gangs in the U.S. cultivate connections to terrorist groups and threaten the homeland security of the U.S.

• Members of each of the organization types commit fraud, theft, forgery, and violent street crime (Shelley et al., 2005). They all engage in weapons trafficking if only to further their own ability to acquire weapons (Abadinsky, 2010). Members of each have engaged in trafficking drugs and human beings, extortion, intimidation, and bribing of government representatives (Shelley et al., 2005).

Third Generation Street Gangs

• Some gangs evolve/transition through three generations (Sullivan & Bunker, 2007)• Turf gangs•Market-oriented drug gangs•Mix of political and mercenary elements

Three factors determine evolutionary potential

•Politicization• Internationalization•Sophistication

Characteristics of Street Gang Generations

Potential Third Generation Gangs:

• 18th Street• Mara Salvatrucha• Gangster Disciples• Vice Lords• Calle Treinta• Pagad• Hard Livings

• Makarenko (2004) provided a tool to distinguish the three, though stopped short of doing so.

• Relationships between organized crime and terrorism in ongoing state of evolution, represented by a continuum with organized crime on the left on one end and terrorism on the right.

• The continuum was not quite to where we need it for this analysis.

• Extended, traditional street gangs would be to the left or organized crime, with the same intervening points (alliances, operational motivation, and convergence) separating it from organized crime.

• Consistent and easily identifiable factor seen in organized crime groups and terrorist groups is criminality (Makarenko, 2004).

• Terrorist and criminal organizations take advantage of same breakdowns in authority and enforcement in troubled countries (Zaitseva, 2007).

• Linkages most obvious in situations where narcotics smuggling operations in are well-entrenched (Central and South America, Asia) where drug proceeds used to finance terrorist activities (Zaitseva, 2007).

• Organized crime leaders do not limit organizations to single forms of illegal activity, but engage in many types of crime and deal in anything that can bring the organization a profit (Zaitseva, 2007).

• Makarenko’s (2004) continuum inherently implies that focusing on criminal activity over political activity for policy development should be considered more often than it has.

Questions?