Street Gangs in Europe

Organized Crime and Street Gangs in Spain

Leanid Kazyrytski, from the University of Girona, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Crime and Society,” under the title “Organized Crime and Street Gangs in Spain”. Here is the abstract: This poster based on research carried out in Catalonia (Spain) with regard to street gangs. This presentation aims to provide an overview about street gangs and organized crime, stressing their differences in nature and their lack of commonalities from a criminological perspective. Street gangs, in contrast to criminal organizations 1) are juveniles, 2) do not have sophisticated structures, lacking of a strong core of leadership, clear role division and formal code of behaviour, 3) lack of expertise in criminal activities, 4) have no criminal orientation, 5) do not have as main purpose to get rich through crime business. Despite that organized criminal groups may not have a sophisticated organization and they may be temporary associations, the central purpose of its existence is the perpetration of crime. By contrast, criminal activities are only a small part of the whole range of street gangs' activities.

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Further Reading

• “Organized Crime and Street Gangs in Spain”, by Leanid Kazyrytski (Proceedings)