THE PROBLEM: Santa Ana was plagued by the problem of street cruising. On Sunday evenings, up to 1,000 carloads of cruisers descended on a major thoroughfare to gather and socialize. The problem was exacerbated by use of drugs and alcohol and violent conflicts between rival street gangs. This problem resulted in serious adverse impact on neighborhoods and the police department's ability to deliv...

In this note, we introduce two distinct incentive mechanisms that support dynamic intra-group cooperation in the context of prisoner’s dilemma payoffs. The first mechanism involves a reward structure—a carrot—that supports both triadic and tripartite group relations. The second mechanism involves a punishment structure—a stick—that supports tripartite group relations. We also discuss how these ...

Studies of criminal behavior have demonstrated both that there is a career component to criminality and that key turning points in the life course can have large and potentially long-term impacts on criminal involvement (Sampson and Laub 1993). For inner-city youth, the decision to join a gang is considered to be one of the most important decisions. Sociologists and criminologists both cite the...

The murder rate in Port of Spain, Trinidad, rose dramatically around the turn millennium, driven overwhelmingly by young men gangs city’s poor neighborhoods. literature frequently suggests a causal relationship between gang violence and rising transnational drug flows through Trinidad during this period. However, is only part complex picture misses crucial mediating effect evolving male identit...