A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectively, in illegal, and possibly violent, behavior.
The Chelsea Headhunters are a notorious English football hooligan firm linked to the London football club Chelsea.
Happy slapping was a fad originating in the United Kingdom around 2005, in which one or more people attack a victim for the purpose of recording the assault. Though the term usually refers to relatively minor acts of violence such as hitting or slapping the victim, more serious crimes such as the manslaughter of a retired care worker, and sexual assault have been classified as "happy slapping" by the BBC.
A mara is a form of gang originating in the United States, which spread to Central American countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Salakau, which means 369 in Hokkien, also known as "Sah Lak Kau", is a street gang or secret society based in Singapore. The numbers 3, 6 and 9 add up to 18, which was the name of an older gang; the number signified the 18 arhats of Shaolin Monastery. As one of the oldest and most prominent gangs in the country, they are known to take part in many illicit activities such as narcotics, extortion, prostitution and white-collar crime — and many of their members have been in and out of prison for violent attacks and rioting. They have a renowned gang chant sung in Hokkien that is usually accompanied by techno beats. It was reproduced for Royston Tan's teenage gangster flick 15, albeit with direct references to the gang edited out.
The 2007 Casablanca bombings refer to a series of suicide bombings in March and April 2007 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Approximately 1.4 million people in the United States were part of gangs as of 2011, and more than 33,000 gangs were active in the country. These include national street gangs, local street gangs, prison gangs, motorcycle clubs, and ethnic and organized crime gangs.
Crime in Brazil involves an elevated incidence of violent and non-violent crimes. Brazil possesses high rates of violent crimes, such as murders and robberies. Brazil's homicide rate was 27.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants according to the UNODC, placing Brazil in the top 20 countries by intentional homicide rate. In international crime rankings however, Brazil is generally not considered amongst the top 20 most dangerous countries in the world but top 50 with many homicides being between gangs and not affecting the general populace and no large scale wars. Brazil is the country with the highest number of intentional homicides in the world, with 57,358 in 2018, or possibly second to Nigeria which lacks accurate data but was estimated at 64,201 in 2016. In recent years, the homicide rate in Brazil has begun to decline. The homicide rate was 20.64 per 100,000 in 2020 with 43,879 killings, similar to 2019, but down from 30.67 per 100,000 in 2017.
Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area. Over time, the gang grew into a more traditional criminal organization. MS-13 has a long time rivalry with the 18th Street gang.
Crime in Honduras has become a growing matter of concern for the Honduran population in recent years. Honduras has experienced alarmingly high levels of violence and criminal activity, with homicide rates reaching a peak in 2012, averaging 20 homicides per day. Corruption, extortion, coercion, and drug smuggling also run rampant throughout Honduran society, preventing the nation from building trustworthy authorities like police, and severely limiting economic, social, or political progress. The situation has prompted international organizations and governments to offer assistance in combating crime in Honduras.
Rates of crime in Guatemala are very high. An average of 101 murders per week were reported in 2018. The countries with the highest crime and violence rates in Central America are El Salvador and Honduras. In the 1990s Guatemala had four cities feature in Latin America's top ten cities by murder rate: Escuintla, Izabal (127), Santa Rosa Cuilapa (111) and Guatemala City (101). According to New Yorker magazine, in 2009, "fewer civilians were reported killed in the war zone of Iraq than were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death in Guatemala," and 97% of homicides "remain unsolved." Much of the violent nature of Guatemalan society stems back to a 36-year-long civil war However, not only has violence maintained its presence in the post-war context of the country following the Guatemalan Civil War, but it has extended to broader social and economic forms of violence.
The Moroccan protests are a series of demonstrations across Morocco which occurred from 20 February 2011 to the fall of 2012. They were inspired by other protests in the region. The protests were organized by the 20 February Movement.
Barrio Azteca, or Los Aztecas, is a Mexican-American street and prison gang originally based in El Paso, Texas, USA and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The gang was formed in the Coffield Unit, located near Tennessee Colony, Texas by Jose "Raulio" Rivera, a prisoner from El Paso, in the early 1980s. It expanded into a transnational criminal organization that traded mainly across the US-Mexico border. Currently one of the most violent gangs in the United States, they are said to have over 3,000 members across the country in locations such as New Mexico, Texas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania as well as at least 5,000 members in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
As of 2011, there are an estimated 25,000 gang members at large in El Salvador; another 43,500 are in prison. The best-known gangs, called maras in colloquial Salvadoran Spanish, are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and their rivals 18th Street; maras are hunted by death squads, including Sombra Negra. Newer rivals include the rising mara, The Rebels 13. Criminal youth gangs dominate life in El Salvador; an estimation of at least 60,000 young people belong to gangs. It is one of the three countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America, along with neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, which are all afflicted with high levels of violence.
Hay Mohammadi or Hay Mohammedi is a neighbourhood in eastern Casablanca, in the Aïn Sebaâ - Hay Mohammadi district of the Casablanca-Settat region of Morocco. As of 2004 it had 156,501 inhabitants.
Crime in Venezuela is widespread, with violent crimes such as murder and kidnapping increasing annually. In 2014, the United Nations attributed crime to the poor political and economic environment in the country—which, at the time, had the second highest murder rate in the world. Rates of crime rapidly began to increase during the presidency of Hugo Chávez due to the institutional instability of his Bolivarian government, underfunding of police resources, and severe inequality. Chávez's government sought a cultural hegemony by promoting class conflict and social fragmentation, which in turn encouraged "criminal gangs to kill, kidnap, rob and extort". Upon Chávez's death in 2013, Venezuela was ranked the most insecure nation in the world by Gallup.
Juggalo gangs are a group using the name and associated imagery from Juggalo culture, dedicated fans of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records artist. As a result, Juggalos have been classified as a criminal street gang by government and law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Gang Intelligence Center, and the states of Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, and Utah. Juggalo gang sets have been documented by law enforcement in at least 21 states, including those that do not recognize Juggalos as a gang at the state level.
La Mano Dura is a set of tough-on-crime policies put in place by the Salvadoran government in response to the problem of gang violence. These policies were put in place in response to popular calls for the government to do something about the problem of rampant crime, and have enjoyed consistent popular support. They have come under criticism, however, for the continued high levels of violence in El Salvador and human rights concerns.
Jailbirds is an American reality television series about female inmates at the Sacramento County Jail, California, which premiered on Netflix in 2019. It documents the lives of female inmates of Sacramento County Jail in California, which has just under 2,400 inmates. The show aired a single season with six episodes in 2019, revealing to the audience various prisoners dealing with the reality of "their life being turned upside down" in jail as expressed by executive producer Drachkovitch when questioned on the prison environment. The production focused on aspects of prison life including violence, isolation and newfound relationships.
