Can anyone help me find some research on how to write/portray gangs? I'm writing a contemporary YA romance where the male lead's family is part of a gang, but I don't know much about gangs or how they work or how to research them. Any details/info/advice is appreciated.
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." - W.H. Auden
It depends on what you're referring to by 'gangs'.
In the pop culture representation, there's the rather cliche and old family ones. It differs by country and region of origin, as well as the city it exists in.
I know a bit about certain things and I can tell you where to find the rest of the information, but if you want specific portrayal, could you be more specific about a few details?
Like where is this located? Do you have a well known gang in mind? Or are you planning to create one out of the air with certain similarities? Country/region/heritage?
In this case I do mean a family gang. The main character's MC is of Italian origin so I'm guessing I'd model it after the Mafia or mob bosses or something. The city, Verona, is a fictional one modeled after large urban American cities in the North like New York and has a heavy Italian population. It doesn't necessarily have to be model after the Mafia. I honestly don't know what type of gang to base this one off of or anything about how they function so any information you can tell me, specific or general or both, would be really helpful and appreciated.
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." - W.H. Auden
This is a true crime show that centres around all types of cases the FBI has done, which includes:
- breaking up white supremacist terrorist organizations - the Mafia - drug rings/gangs - corruption
And a host more, such as state-line-crossing murders/jailbreaks, kidnappings, bank robberies, and a whole bunch of other things.
I'd also suggest looking up RICO, which was a set of laws designed specifically to take down organized crime in all forms. This law was tailor made for that purpose, and will break down how and why gangs operate.
The short of it is: organized crime leaders are insulated from the general day to day crime of the organization. If you go after people who performed the crime only, you'll never take down the actual group. Meanwhile, if you make ordering of or knowledge of the illegal activity+ directly benefiting from it a crime, then you can actually charge the leader of the gang.
RICO is used to charge both mafia and urban drug gangs (+ terrorist organizations+ corrupt organizations), so their structure is very very very similar. You don't need to have an Italian population to have organized crime— all you need is a disenfranchised group that finds an illegal way to make money and hide their crimes.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
Gender:
Points: 3342
Reviews: 108