Publications / Reports / 2009 / 2009:008 Ungdomsgjenger
Ungdomsgjenger
ISBN print: 978-82-7763-300-8
ISBN internet: 978-82-7763-299-5
Pages: 95
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Youth gangs – a state of the art
This report is written for the Ministry of Justice and the Police and gives an overview over current international research on youth groups and street gangs, with a particular focus on research from Scandinavia and Norway. One of the report’s main objectives has been to examine why and how some young people join gangs, and the effects of various preventive actions and intervention programs.
Much of the research on gangs in Norway takes the form of applied research and evaluations of intervention programs. Many of these reports give valuable insight into why and how youth may join or leave a gang. The reports also contribute with knowledge about some of the challenges that the preventive actions and intervention programs face. However, there is a lack of theoretical and to some extent empirical contributions in this type of research.
Our review shows that there is a need for a broader academic approach to youth gangs, exploring similarities and differences between different types of troubled youth groups and communities, including street gangs, and youth involved in organized crime. With some notable exceptions there has been little focus on gender in the research on youth gangs. Future research within this field should increasingly address the life situations of marginalized young men, their agency, construction of masculinity, and their use of Internet, movies, music and other cultural expressions in their identity construction.