Policing Gangs in America

This 2006 book provides an in-depth look at the police response to gang problems.

Charles M. Katz (Author), Vincent J. Webb (Author)

9780521851107, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 2006

322 pages
23.3 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.55 kg

Policing Gangs in America describes the assumptions, issues, problems, and events that characterize, shape, and define the police response to gangs in America today. The focus of this 2006 book is on the gang unit officers themselves and the environment in which they work. A discussion of research, statistical facts, theory, and policy with regard to gangs, gang members, and gang activity is used as a backdrop. The book is broadly focused on describing how gang units respond to community gang problems, and answers such questions as: why do police agencies organize their responses to gangs in certain ways? Who are the people who elect to police gangs? How do they make sense of gang members - individuals who spark fear in most citizens? What are their jobs really like? What characterizes their working environment? How do their responses to the gang problem fit with other policing strategies, such as community policing?

1. Studying the police response to gangs
2. Setting and methods
3. Historical analysis of gangs and gang control
4. Scope and nature of the current gang problem
5. Form, function, and management of the police gang unit
6. The gang unit officer
7. On the job
8. Policing gangs in a time of community policing
9. Conclusion and implications
References.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV]