Street vs. “mafia” gang pursuit: The social racism of contemporary criminal justice gang policy

Abstract

Absent from the vast literature on gangs are the dynamics of racial and class centers policies of criminal justice gang punishment and pursuit. Scholars involves in gang research presume the objectivity of street gang policies today. The bias of the nation’s gang policies appears unjustified given the failure of social policy and the high priorities which law enforcement agencies and the courts have organized, rich, typically white, syndicate criminal gangs. In the absence of any credible basis for this dichotomy of gang policy today, we present and argument for “social racism†as the principle framework guiding this nation’s criminal justice gang policies.