Crips, Bloods & Skins: Are White Power Groups Cut from the Same Cloth as Conventional Gangs?

• In Event: EUROGANG Panel: Gangs Experiences, Appearances and Complexities

Abstract

The current study’s aim is to examine the relationship between the characteristics of members belonging to security threat groups (i.e., prison gangs) by comparing and contrasting these characteristics across racial/ethnic groups. The purpose of this study is not to ascertain the causal ordering of when an individual joins a security threat group, but instead to use a descriptive and comparative approach to assess the similarities/differences in the risk factors for prison gang membership across four categories of gang members: white gang members in White Power designated gangs, white gang members in other gangs that do not identify as White Power, black gang members, and Hispanic/Latino gang members. The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which the characteristics and risk-factors of security threat groups and their members resemble/ diverge from each other.

Authors

• Matthew Valasik, The University of Alabama

• Shannon E. Reid, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

• Jane C. Daquin, Sam Houston State University