Gang formation and gang identity

and at their arrival in Milan experienced forms of trauma and difficulties in integrating in the new society, creating favorable conditions for their involvement into street groups composed of individuals of the same ethnicity (Van Gemert, Peterson, and Lien 2008).

Youngsters who became involved in Latin gangs shared this similar family background, as an interview with a social educator pointed out:

Families are rather compromised, poorly structured, incapable of profound bonds. In fact, the boys do not have a relationship with the mother or father, whom they have often not seen for many years. Very often children are “abandoned” [living with] grandparents or relatives.⁸⁴

Reunification mostly occurred with the mothers, who had started a new life in the meanwhile. In some instances, this implied that youngsters would join households with the mother’s new partner and children. Being raised by grandparents in broken families—

characterized also by the lack of the father’s presence—is a background that most Latin gang members share (Feixa and Romaní 2014), as a law enforcement expert highlighted.

The respondent mentioned that based on his experience he identified two types of gang members: those who have prior history of criminal behavior and violence and those who do not have any criminal history. The social context where Latinos go living initially is unfamiliar to them because of the different country, language, culture, and because of the lack of emotional attachments (see also Van Gemert and Decker 2008). The only exception of the bond with the mother, however, was mentioned by experts as being problematic, as young Latinos would often not recognize the parents’ authority. During an interview an expert reported:

Family reunification takes place after years of distance, therefore [the relationship with the parents] lacks that emotional, authoritative and even normative aspect that is functional personal development especially during adolescence.

Early separation from parents, father absence, and multiple traumas were identified by respondents as factors associated with individuals’ desire to seek external support and affection from street groups composed by Latin American peers. One respondent, a social worker with many years of experience with troublesome juveniles and Latino gang members, reported:

84 Italics between parenthesis mine.

A common aspect [characterizing] gang members is marginalization, reason why they tend to aggregate into culturally homogeneous groups, although in recent years the aspect related with the same nationality has been more marginal. […] The group often represents the

“container” of the expectations and the emotional and care needs that the welcoming family is not able to provide.

One of the interviewees, with more than fifteen years of experience at the Juvenile Court of Milan, mentioned the fact that most Latin American adult immigrants come from the same cities (e.g. Guayaquil and Quito in Ecuador, San Salvador, Tejutla, and Chalatenango in El Salvador). This aspect is not secondary, as it favors the spread of information from adults who managed to reach a new stable life in Italy and therefore serves a positive feedback for families who are still in Latin America. As a result, young Latinos who emigrate to Europe are from the same geographic areas or cities. This aspect may have favored gang joining among individuals experiencing forms of social exclusion and therefore eager to be part of groups with similar traditions and values.

IDENTITY AND STATUS

A second theme that emerged from the interviews is the Latino immigrants’ search for identity (or sense of belonging), social status and respect. This aspect emerged from the contribution of various experts and has been often highlighted by gang literature (e.g., see Decker and Curry 2000). As a social worker stressed:

Mutual recognition of common "traditions" is one of the factors [leading youths] to self-identification. This assumes an almost "filling" function of the gaps that the new status of immigrant inevitably produces.

As a law enforcement pointed out, gangs’ social cohesion reflects the common values shared by its members, mostly youths who struggle to integrate in the new social context in which they face several difficulties. Thus, Latino immigrants look for peers with similar characteristics and with whom hanging out in groups, not only because they share the same roots, but also because of the feeling of protection (Carlock and Lizotte 2015;

Decker and Curry 2000; Esbensen and Lynskey 2001). Further, the expert argued that protection within groups is usually provided by those immigrants with a criminal history, more prone to violence and protection from groups’ external threats. Another expert, a

social educator supervising and implementing alternative to detention measures aimed at juvenile gang members, pointed out the social dynamics of gang joining:

The search for identity and affective support finds in the gangs the place of recognition and identification. It is not possible to self-identify within the fragmented family context and at that point the gang becomes the family. This allows them to find an identity that is otherwise denied by the social context. […] Sometimes boys have lived in the gang before, but not always. Proximity to gangs occurs through imitation. I get closer to you and I hang out with you because you are more like me. I hang out with you because I am attracted by your lifestyle, I ditch school to go drinking with you. […] Among all types of intervention that we could discuss with them, including the success of the reintegration program, one call from the gang was enough to put at risk even a work of years. We are talking about an attraction, a closeness to the gang and a very strong identification that lasts for years.

The identification with similar others therefore is among the aspects that drove many young Latinos to involvement into gangs, ethnic groups with specific identity elements as a name, colors, symbols, and tattoos (Van Gemert and Decker 2008; see also Cruz 2010). What may have been the initial desire of finding a social group to hang out eventually led to juveniles and young adults to participation in violent acts and criminal offenses, a type of behavior accepted and reinforced by gangs (Thornberry et al. 1993;

Weerman et al. 2009).

USE OF DRUGS AND VIOLENCE

Research on gangs has reported the negative effect of gang membership on individuals’ deviant activities (e.g., use of drugs and alcohol) and involvement in violence and crime (e.g., see Dong, Gibson, and Krohn 2015). Expert interviews revealed that Latin gang members in Milan were involved in these types of behavior, that not only characterized life in the gang but were also among the factors associated with entrance of new individuals. As a social worker reported:

Belonging to the “Group” is “codified” through initiation rites (even with the “branding” of the individual with “ad hoc” tattoos), usually [when individuals are] between 10 and 17 years old. For the males, these rituals are typical of “machos”, characterized by violent, aggressive acts and with a strong delinquent connotation. For females, at least in some “groups”, initiation occurs through the sexual act with the “senior members” of the Gang […] [It is worth to mention also] the substance use, in particular alcohol, that almost assumes

characteristics related with cultural identification and is very often the “medium” through which the common social values are bypassed, thus allowing very violent and antisocial acts.

Violent and antisocial behavior therefore play a crucial role for many aspects of Latin immigrants’ lives within the gang. Violence serves as a recruitment tool, used in initiation rites that mark the formal affiliation of the individual into the gang, but is also a way to confront rival groups on the streets to establish and maintain group status (Van Gemert and Decker 2008). Once in the gang, violence is positively evaluated by the group and is often the preferred way to react to negative feelings as anger. Another social worker in an interview stated that:

Violence is first and foremost a tool to externalize an inner disorder. Then it becomes the bond with the other ones, because what I do, I do it with you. Third because violence, force, is mistakenly considered an element of important masculinity. […] The gang becomes the place where violence is legitimized, the place where I find myself [dealing with] my instances of anger through aggressive behavior, always through imitation. This happens after that process tied to an affective closeness, I hang out with you because you are similar to me and I no longer feel alone.

Aspects leading to violence and criminal involvement emerged also during the interview with a former gang member, a Latin American immigrant who described how he went from having a job to participate in group offenses. The extract, translated from Spanish into English, provides insights on the individual’s path towards group crime:

I started to work here [in Milan] at the hospital as a service cleaner man. Since I had become familiar with the environment and I was doing a good job, I was shifted to maintenance work.

I used to work from 8am to 7pm, sometimes until 10pm or even 3am. I did it with emphasis [fuerza], at the end of the month it was nice. I used to earn a good salary for being 18 years old. […] Those kind of things [i.e., crimes] did not cross my mind; I had started to buy things for me [e.g. clothes] and I had good friends. Then while doing this job I met another Salvadorian and he told me to go drinking, to go drinking. So I went with him. When I arrived, I met someone all tattooed, at the beginning I did not want to say anything, I was there calm. They asked me where I was from, which part of El Salvador, and they were from the same part, [though] I did not know them. The majority was working; they had arrived few years before me. I met them and then after few months we were involved in an issue…

soon the police caught us. I did not feel sad, or happy, I did not feel anything. […] I thought I would have had problems for few months, not years. The judgment confirmed my criminal responsibility… I made my mistake.

The three themes emerged from the interviews have highlighted the factors associated with gang formation, gang joining and life in the gang. While the number of respondents is small and each interviewee provided his/her own experience, making it difficult to generalize the results, research findings are nonetheless valuable for the purpose of this study. The results provide preliminary information on social dynamics characterizing the lives of immigrants. Further research including additional informants may validate such findings and contribute to the in-depth understanding of the processes leading youth to join street groups, where violence and criminal behavior are expression of discomfort, inadequacy and seek for status and respect.