Book Review: Force & marriage: The criminalisation of forced marriage in Dutch, English, and international criminal law

• Author: Thomas D. Lancaster
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567715579102
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

a timeless quality and are not dated. It is not totally clear whether the book is the result of an inde-

pendent research project or whether the book presents the accumulation of experience and knowl-

edge from the author’s almost 30 years of living and working in Lambeth.

Generalizability being hard to assess also has to do with Harding’s approach to existing gang

research. The author places himself firmly within one corner of the research field and offers harsh

words on other parts of the field. This is a pity as some of the issues raised in the Eurogang research

network are most relevant to Harding’s study. Especially, it seems that the study would have bene-

fited from the Eurogang focus on acquiring a totality of data rather than focusing on the gangs that

are the most in focus of practitioners and media. For instance, Harding states that White people are

underrepresented in gangs in Lambeth. As the method of gathering data and of assessing gang mem-

bership are not presented, a reader familiar with U.S. self-report studies is left to wonder whether this

is a result of the facts of the field or of the method used.

The summary and analysis of previous gang research have had a somewhat acerbic taste and

some surprising information. For instance, the author interprets Aldridge & Medina’s report from

Research City (2008) as stating that gangs do not exist in general—rather than as stating results for

the city in question. Harding also chooses to sidestep the issue of how to define a gang, referring to

the revised Miller’s (1992) definition but without further operationalization, for instance, of mem-

bership, structure, or leadership. This becomes confusing, when the author later quotes ‘‘indepen-

dent operators’’ as well as ‘‘gang members’’.

Throughout the book, Black gang members are referred to as ‘‘West African’’ or ‘‘African

Caribbean,’’ even if the author made it clear that respondents culturally identify with being

British and that their parents’ origin does not seem to have much influence o n gang life.

The Street Casino has been awarded the 2014 Frederick Milton Thrasher award for Superior

Gang Research. The prize was awarded by a nonprofit independent agency called the National

Gang Crime Research Center, which should not be confused with the National Gang Center

(United States).

The Street Casino provides an interesting account of gang crime in Lambeth, which is useful for

practitioners who would like to find words for their own experience. This reviewer may use

excerpts for teaching purposes at the undergraduate level but also sees obstacles to using the book

as a whole, especially due to the lack of transparency in the methodology used and the somewhat

biased resume of previous gang research. The book could be useful at the graduate level to illus-

trate different areas of gang research and also provide inspiration for students and researchers

when formulating research questions and hypotheses.

Overall, The Street Casino presents itself as an initial theoretical framework based on

extensive field experience, which still remains to be tested on a totality of data and with an open,

inquisitive mind.

Haener, Iris (2014).

Force & marriage: The criminalisation of forced marriage in Dutch, English, and international criminal law. Cambridge,

UK: Intersentia. pp. xvii, 404, US$90.00 paperback, ISBN 978-1-78068-252-5.

Reviewed by: Thomas D. Lancaster, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567715579102

Asking if forced marriage should be criminalized in the Netherlands as well as internationally via

the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court (ICC), this book analyzes a fundamentally

288 International Criminal Justice Review 25(3)