Chapter 1: Introduction
Section 1: Gang Definition
Chapter 2: "Gang Ain’t In My Dictionary": Utilizing Insider Perspectives to Develop a Critical Gang Definition
Jennifer M. Ortiz
Chapter 3: Demystifying Alt-Right Gangs: Are White Power Groups Cut from the Same Cloth as Conventional Gangs?
Matthew Valasik & Shannon Reid
Chapter 4: [Folk]tales of different peoples¹: Transgressing gang definitions and historical ties
Brian Cabral & Sarah Bruno
Section 2: Critical Reflections on Gang Studies
Chapter 5: Towards a Decolonial Imaginary to Reexamine and Redefine Mainstream Definitions of ‘Gangs’ and ‘Gang Members’ in America
Amy Andrea Martinez
Chapter 6: MS-13, Gang Studies, and Crimes of the Powerful
Kenneth Sebastian Leon & Maya Barack
Chapter 7: Evolution of the Folk Devil: Deconstructing Claims about Hybrid Gangs
Christian Bolden & Renee Lamphere
Section 3: Intersectional Gang Studies
Chapter 8: Gang as a Proxy for Race: How the Criminal Justice System uses ‘gang’ to reinforce oppression in minority communities
Jennifer M. Ortiz
Chapter 9: "I wanted to be the first Mexican Mafia female member:" An Intersectional Criminological Analysis of Chicana Gang Members in California
Marisa D. Salinas & Xuan Santos
Chapter 10: LGBTQ Gang Members’ Intersectional Identities and Experiences
Vanessa Panfil
Biography
Jennifer M. Ortiz is an associate professor at The College of New Jersey. Dr. Ortiz earned her PhD in criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her research interests center on structural violence within the criminal justice system, with a focus on prison gangs and reentry post-incarceration. Ortiz’s most recent scholarship has been published in The Prison Journal, Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research and Criminal Justice Review. Ortiz currently serves as an executive board member for Mission Behind Bars and Beyond, a Kentucky-based non-profit reentry organization and as Division Chair for the Division of Convict Criminology of the American Society of Criminology.
