The Organizational Career of Gang Statistics
The Politics of Policing Gangs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2276972 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Albert J Meehan (0000-0003-0357-1522, Oakland University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 337-370 |
| Publication date | 2000-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1533-8525.2000.tb00082.x |
| OpenAlex | W1990054639 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 29 |
| References cited | 48 |
This article examines the way in which the construction of a “gang” problem and the resulting “gang statistics” in a particular community, referred to as Bigcity, are related to the local political context and the police accommodation of political interests. In particular, the political accountability of the police impacts on police recordkeeping practices and the statistics regarding “gangs” that those records generate. The organizational career of gang statistics, from the citizen's call to the police response and subsequent recordwork, is examined in order to demonstrate how the recordkeeping practices of the police bureaucracy facilitate the social construction of the “gang” problem. Field research data, including calls to the police, ride-along observations, and interviews, illustrate how the politicization of the “gang” problem impacts on police recordkeeping and the social construction of “gang statistics.” Given that the current concern about the nationwide growth of gangs is based on such statistics and that gang suppression efforts call for enhancing and sharing gang databases, the role of police practices in shaping gang statistics is an important issue
Accountability · Bureaucracy · Community policing · Context (archaeology) · Crime statistics · Criminology · Geography · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions
Constructionist Social Problems Theory
Trends in police research
The Social Construction of Meaning
The Duality of Mobilisation—Following the Rise and Fall of an Alibi‐Story on its Way to Court 1
The Social Construction of the American Street Gang
Race and place
Valuable Lives to Save’ vs. ‘Babysitting These People While They Try to Kill Themselves’
Trends in police research
Policing as self‐audited practice
Police innovation paradigm in the United States and Japan
Gold standard strategic plans
Cannibalism and Gang Involvement in the Cinematic Lives of Asian Gangsters
Corruption, impunity and mistrust
Police use of discretion in response to domestic violence
Evaluative Categories of Action and Identity in Non-Evaluative Human Studies Research
Problems Establishing Identity/Residency in a City Neighborhood during a Black/White Police–Citizen Encounter
Subcultures, Deviant
Subcultures, Deviant
The Study of Deviant Subcultures as a Longstanding and Evolving Site of Intersecting Membership Categorizations
Negotiated Measures
One gang dies, another gains? The network dynamics of criminal group persistence
On procedural discoursivation - or how local utterances are turned into binding facts
Competitive Violence and the Micro-Politics of the Fight Label
Ethnomethodology of written discourse
Demarginalizing Symbolic Interactionism
Reflections on 'Two Concepts of Rules
Working between two worlds
Senseless' violence
Where You From
Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction
The Microfoundations of macrosociology
Islands in the Street
Studies in ethnomethodology
Studies in Social Interaction
The Youth Gang Problem
Images of Issues
The American Street Gang
Policing the Ghetto Underclass
Policing the Ghetto Underclass
Technological Dramas and the Police
Measurement problems in official and survey crime rates
A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics
Police Work
Internal Police Records and the Control of Juveniles
Constructing Social Problems
Social Theory and Social Structure
On Record
Getting the Crime Rate Down
A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation
Poverty, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime
The Interaction Order Sui Generis
On 'Labeling' in Actual Interaction
Getting Rid of Troublemakers
Deviance on Record
Case Processing and Interorganizational Knowledge
Language, Interaction, and Social Problems
Uniform Crime Reports as Organizational Outcomes
How Parole Officers Use Records
I Don't Prevent Crime, I Prevent Calls
Record-Keeping Practices in the Policing of Juveniles
On the Macrofoundations of Microsociology
The Social Construction of Documentary Reality1
On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology
| Unique citing works | 29 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,12 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2024 (25) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |