Criminal Crews, Codes, and Contexts: Differences and Similarities across the Code of the Street, Convict Code, Street Gangs, and Prison Gangs

• NCJ Number: 255261
• Journal: Deviant Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 10 Dated: 2017 Pages: 1197-1222
• Author(s): Meghan M. Mitchell; Chantal Fahmy; David C. Pyrooz; Scott H. Decker
• Date Published: 2017
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-MU-CX-0111
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: Gangs on the Street, Gangs in Prison: Their Nature, Interrelationship, Control, and Re-Entry

Annotation

This study used 16 characterizations of crews, codes, and contexts to determine whether offender subcultures (code of the street, convict code, street and prison gangs) converge, complement, or are independent of one another.

Abstract

The study found extensive overlap across offender subcultures with "belief" subcultures in street and prison settings mirroring the "group" subcultures in those respective settings. Findings generate a call for comparative research on the convergences and divergences across subcultures on the street and in prisons, with an emphasis on the impact that importation, deprivation, and exportation have on policy and programming importation for both the street and prison settings. (publisher abstract modified)