Gangs, Crime, and Terrorism

Are terrorists like gang members? Terrorists commit crimes, primarily murder and assault. Gang members also commit crimes, including murder and assault. Gang members are more likely to commit a wider variety of crimes (Klein, 1971, 1995; Spergel, 1995). As Rosenfeld (2002, p. 1) notes, many criminologists bear only a “grudging acceptance of terrorism” as a subject of study by criminology. Gang researchers, including this author, have balked at any connection between terrorism and gang crime, because the prospect flies in the face of what we already know about gangs. In particular, there is a belief among many of us that what is most important about gangs was already said by Frederic Thrasher (1927). Research on gangs has a long academic tradition. To propose a relationship between gangs and terrorism is considered by some as an encroachment on that tradition. It turns out, however, that comparing street gangs to terrorist organizations is more promising than I had thought originally. I use the term “street gangs” as defined by Klein (1995) to refer to gangs that include both young adults and juveniles. Leaving either adults or juveniles out of the gang process distorts perceptions of gang crime. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES In “Why Criminologists Should Study Terrorism,” Rosenfeld (2002, p. 2) suggests, “It is our (criminologists') fault, our poverty of intellectual imagination prevents us from studying terrorism.” Rosenfeld argues that criminologists “blame terrorism when our theories don't fit terrorism.” He suggests that criminologists should instead blame our theories.