Book Review: Gangs: An introduction

• Author: James F. Albrecht
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717710994
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

The diversity across chapters requires effort from the reader to find the conceptual similarities,

but it also makes the book enjoyable. Most chapters are excellent and all have something to offer.

The book serves as a magnificent primer and captures the spirit of what is going on in qualitative

criminology. It is a rare criminological page-turner. The first and last parts are relevant for guidance

on methodology and identifying strengths and shortcomings and will be useful to future writers.

Several authors grapple with the shortcomings of the approach and let us in on their concerns. We

follow suit. An approach centered on homonuntius, much like one centered on homoeconomicus,is

too broad and assumptive for tests of the foundation. This collection yields only early cave paintings

of what narrative criminology offers the future for studying communication and crime as technique

improves. What will the core contentions or common findings of those who study the narratives of

crime be? Are there general narratives and how will these be identified when depictions can be fluid

and shift even in a single speakers’ account? Are narratives of crime (or other stigmatized behavior)

functionally different from other narratives drawn from other aspects of life? Will interest in

semiotics, linguistics, and intricate passage-by-passage analysis of metaphors, plots, and pauses

be deemed increasingly important for understanding crime? Will narrative analysis move toward

the comfortable realms of postmodern English professors, those of text-scanning computer pro-

grammers, or contain wide stylistic variation? It may be only when these questions are answered that

narrative criminology matu res beyond its base assumptions a nd provides the rich tapestrie s of

understanding a perspective and methodology centered on language promises.

The most convincing analyses in this collection handle the place of culture carefully. They look

across groups, cultures, or time to show variation in form or function of narratives. Where culture is

thought significant, then demonstrating cultural variation or differences in the symbolic center of

the group is important. Analysts should identify with independent measures or observations how

shifts in grand, shared structure and discourses across time or place shape constituents’ narratives

affecting crime.

Investigators are part of the text in this style of research and that is true here. They interpret their

own effect on interviews and also put a great deal of energy into interpreting textual nuance. The

analyst’s voice is not cautiously utilized nor are researchers reluctant to read beyond literal text or to

insert themselves as lettered persons. Investigators are not analytically shy about revealing what they

think based on wide reading and deep consideration, sometimes taking the risk that textual inter-

pretations might seem foreign to study participants. One contributor points out that the elevated

analysis runs the risk of being overly attentive to words and stories at the cost of fitting into public

criminology, or worse, of understanding reality (here meaning, the objective antecedents of crime).

This risk is offset by richness evocative of interpretive ethnography, historicism, and psychoanalytic

interpretation. These chapters add humanity obscured in correlations of risk factors, box-checked

surveys, and other parts of nonnarrative criminology.

Sanders, B. (2017).

Gangs: An introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 376 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-19-994859-8.

Reviewed by: James F. Albrecht, Pace University, New York, NY, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567717710994

Bill Sanders has written an interesting textbook, Gangs: An Introduction, that provides a thorough

outline of critical issues related to gangs, particularly those located in the United States. The book

consists of 13 chapters, each addressing a unique aspect of this challenging issue, and is specifically

226 International Criminal Justice Review 27(3)