Continuing to Make Sense of the Relationship Between Street Culture and Resistance to the State

• In Event: Roundtable: New Research on the Role of Street Culture and Crime

Abstract

Street Culture is shaped by and influences relationships with people and organizations (i.e., from families to states) both on the street and people/organizations who are not. Some, but not all, street culture includes acts of defiance or resistance to authority (i.e., experts, law enforcement, government at all levels, states, etc.). Many of these acts of defiance/resistance include overt behavior like street protests and vandalism. Some of these are legal, while others are not. Other street-level responses to state crime may consist of the purposeful use and display of signs, signals, and signification (embedded in fashion, body modification, and illegal public art – graffiti and street art). This chapter outlines the above argument and illustrates with examples where this process occurs in a global context.

Author

• Jeffrey Ian Ross, University of Baltimore