The History of Street Gangs
For those of you who believe that gang activity is a modern-day phenomenon, guess again
According to a report just released by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (U.S. Department of Justice), gangs have been around for centuries.
Long before the Crips, the Bloods, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mexican Mafia and MS13 started fighting each other and the police here in America, England had its own street gang problem. In the 1600s, London was “terrorized by a series of organized gangs calling themselves the Mims, Hectors, Bugles, Dead Boys … who found amusement in breaking windows, [and] demolishing taverns, [and they] also fought pitched battles among themselves dressed with colored ribbons to distinguish the different factions” (Pearson, 1983, p. 188).
Sounds a lot like today’s gangs, doesn’t it?
To read the U.S. DOJ’s history of street gangs, click here.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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