RT Article
T1 “I don’t bang: I’m just a Blood”: Situating gang identities in their proper place
JF Theoretical criminology
VO 25
IS 1
SP 107
OP 126
A1 Lopez-Aguado, Patrick
A2 Walker, Michael Lawrence
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1750947307
AB In this article we offer a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the relationship between gang identification, place, and identity saliency. In our interviews with current and former street gang members, participants consistently described gangs as neighborhood-based entities, but also couched these local identities within much broader Crip or Blood affiliations. These amount to multiple, simultaneously claimed identities. However, we show that not all identities are equal—that as a social geographic area increases, identities become more diffuse and less salient, territorial, or “gang-like”, resulting instead in expansive, symbolic “umbrella identities” that cover several distinct places and gangs. These umbrella identities proved quite fluid, such that Crip and Blood affiliations had little relationship to one’s gang identity and even produced some gangs with mixed Blood and Crip memberships.
K1 Criminalization
K1 US street gangs
K1 Identity
K1 Neighborhood
K1 Place
K1 Social Geography
K1 Social groups
K1 Street culture
K1 Territoriality
DO 10.1177/1362480619854152