<p>In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals’ working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States. This was qualitative study with four focus groups with teenage girls in three different areas in Stockholm. Areas with different social economic standards were chosen for the study to compare the girls’ answers. The result was analysed by a social psychological perspective and theoretic background. The result of this study showed that the group is important to the girls in their socialisation process and in order to create identity. There were similarities between the answers between the result of this study and research in The United States considering the girls choosing friends as they look for similarities between each other and the need of having fun. A tendency in the girls’ answers could not be seen in the matter of creating girlgangs as they do in the United States.</p>

In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals’ working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States. This was qualitative study with four focus groups with teenage girls in three different areas in Stockholm. Areas with different social economic standards were chosen for the study to compare the girls’ answers. The result was analysed by a social psychological perspective and theoretic background. The result of this study showed that the group is important to the girls in their socialisation process and in order to create identity. There were similarities between the answers between the result of this study and research in The United States considering the girls choosing friends as they look for similarities between each other and the need of having fun. A tendency in the girls’ answers could not be seen in the matter of creating girlgangs as they do in the United States.

Urban centers and smaller communities across Canada are witnessing an increase in youth gang activity. But, determining both the level and nature of youth gang involvement/activity is problematic, in part because of varied interpretations of what it means to be a gang. Many Canadians believe that a gang is a structured organization with crime as their main objective. However, youth gangs can range from associations involving a loosely organized collective of friends that come together to protect their neighborhood to that of the hardcore gangs who have political agendas and are structurally organized. It is much more difficult to determine the level and nature of youth gang activity because they are ever changing entities depending on factors such as race, socio-economic status, and community. Youth gangs become a burden to society financially, emotionally, and mentally. Costs are incurred due to vandalism and an increase in crime: while anguish and a heightened sense of fear/anxiety speak to the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects resulting from gang activities.<p> This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on how agencies in Saskatoon define youth gang activities and behaviors. The agencies involved constitute community based organizations, permanent and part-time holding residences, justice and city officials. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to maintain the original interviewees own voices from interviews to the final product. The final analysis is divided into three sections that focus on: characteristics of Saskatoon youth gangs, implications of defining, and programming. By analyzing these themes we begin to see that defining youth gangs becomes a very political issue and that agencies who work with youth have difficulty in coming to terms in creating a common definition of youth gangs for Saskatoon.

In many schools, drugs, vandalism, assaults, thefts, and violence against both students and teachers have destroyed the orderly atmosphere needed for teaching and learning. While juvenile criminal behavior, both in school and elsewhere, is caused by a large and complex set of sociological and psychological conditions, there is evidence that a better understanding of the problem of crime and violence in our schools and society can lead to a decline in students' apathy, cynicism, anger, and criminal delinquent behavior. Information presented in this dissertation may have the valuable effect of developing a basic nomenclature for lay persons and professionals, students and teachers, who share an interest in the perceived need to get crime and violence out of the schools. The appendices contain the nomenclature to which education professionals and concerned persons can refer for the practical and useful information they provide. / Graduation date: 1991

Urban centers and smaller communities across Canada are witnessing an increase in youth gang activity. But, determining both the level and nature of youth gang involvement/activity is problematic, in part because of varied interpretations of what it means to be a gang. Many Canadians believe that a gang is a structured organization with crime as their main objective. However, youth gangs can range from associations involving a loosely organized collective of friends that come together to protect their neighborhood to that of the hardcore gangs who have political agendas and are structurally organized. It is much more difficult to determine the level and nature of youth gang activity because they are ever changing entities depending on factors such as race, socio-economic status, and community. Youth gangs become a burden to society financially, emotionally, and mentally. Costs are incurred due to vandalism and an increase in crime: while anguish and a heightened sense of fear/anxiety speak to the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects resulting from gang activities.<p> This study is a qualitative analysis that focuses on how agencies in Saskatoon define youth gang activities and behaviors. The agencies involved constitute community based organizations, permanent and part-time holding residences, justice and city officials. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to maintain the original interviewees own voices from interviews to the final product. The final analysis is divided into three sections that focus on: characteristics of Saskatoon youth gangs, implications of defining, and programming. By analyzing these themes we begin to see that defining youth gangs becomes a very political issue and that agencies who work with youth have difficulty in coming to terms in creating a common definition of youth gangs for Saskatoon.

This study integrates one of the most empirically tested individual characteristics (self-control) with situational factors (risky lifestyle) in an attempt to explain the risks involved in violent victimization. Data came from a diverse sample of 3,907 middle school students who participated in the G.R.E.A.T. program during the 1993-1994 school year. Gang membership is used as a proxy variable to measure risky lifestyle. It is hypothesized that 1) gang membership will mediate the effect of self-control on violent victimization and 2) self-control and gang membership will interact to amplify the risk of violent victimization. Logistic regression was used to analyze the prevalence of violent victimization and negative binomial regression was used to analyze frequency of violent victimization. When all other extraneous factors were controlled, insufficient evidence was found to support the hypotheses of this study. A discussion of the findings, as well as theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This paper is interdisciplinary in the approach to the stories found in Str8 Up and Gangs: The Untold Stories. Drawing from the knowledge of Indigenous Studies and the study of English Literature, this paper connects discourses of health and sickness, crime and punishment, and Canada's colonial legacy to Indigenous gangs in Canada. Finally, this paper demonstrates how narrative techniques have been applied in an attempt to help intervene and prevent the growth of Indigenous gangs in Canada.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences