In North America — Canada, the USA and Mexico — there is a requirement for a universal definition for the term gang. The word usage for gang often signifies a predisposed notion about youth and street gangs as the area of serious discussion. Yet, gang activity exists within corporations and various agencies that form the superstructure of a society, which I define as elite gangs due to their social status.
Defining street and elite gangs
The universal agreement about gangs, however, is that a gang consists of three or more individuals and involves a hierarchy with a ring leader(s). The leader(s) initiate a course of action that aligns with an existing collective ideology within a culture.
Street gangs usually involve a small group of adults orchestrating criminal activity through their youth members who are minors. Elite gangs are composed of a collective adult membership, many who are professionals in various areas of the superstructure, which includes government. These professional entities can also demonstrate organized criminal agendas invoking various forms of violence against members of the public within a demographic.
All gang members extend various forms of violence through a network of willing — and at times unwilling/unknowing — participants to create a chain reaction.
Various forms of violence
Sociology identifies various forms of violence in gang-related activity, such as physical and sexual violence. Psychological and emotional violence incorporates the sadistic strategy of vocalized threats and manipulation with the distinct intent to instill fear and high stress responses into targeted individuals. By doing so, the gang activity aims to activate a feeling of worthlessness, ridicule and humiliation into the individual(s) through formal and informal control measures based on bias.
The psychological intention behind blatant bias and unjustified attacks from a gang is to control the targeted individual’s behavior and diminish their capacity for popularity. It also intends to spark unjustified informal control through labelling the targeted individual(s) inaccurately to skew public perception. The agenda involves greatly incapacitating the victim’s social capital, which is a form of currency through connections with people. Social capital is crucial for a thriving existence.
An additional tactic incorporated by attackers is an attempt to ensure deprivation and neglect are experienced by the victim(s). This includes attempts to make it extremely difficult or impossible for the targeted individual(s) to receive the resources they require, making them suffer because of it. In a healthy society using critical thinking, the gang-activity is identified as cruel, abnormal and unusual in punishment by healthy external witnesses who demonstrate a universal high moral compass, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds.
The central motivator for gangs is economic motivation, which results in economic violence. At times, economic violence is subtle and sneaky, such as denying individuals financial supports through enforcing financial restrictions. This makes it impossible for the victim(s) to meet their basic human needs and basic survival requirements, which include housing, mobility, food and economic opportunities.
Economic violence also includes control techniques, such as financial exhaustion through a legal system, unjust financial seizures of property or setting a targeted person up for financial failure and victimization. These malicious strategies continually create cash restrictions for the victim and impact important human rights, such as hiring a lawyer of their choosing to defend them.
Both street and elite gang-activity also involve symbolic violence. The symbolism attached to the acts committed by the organized gang intends to dominate and destroy the targeted individual(s). The motive is to enforce upon the victim the bullying cultural structure and ideologies of the gang. The purpose is to condition the victim(s) to internalize the external narrative and successfully oppress them.
All gangs practice collective violence. Elite gang members organize and actively participate in various forms of violence while in careers and privileged positions that allow them access to powerful social capital networks in society. As social capital is a type of non-monetary currency that is valuable, it involves a personal connection between people with various resources.
Gangs target selected individual(s) for a reason, which includes opportunistic situations. They want to make examples of their targeted victim(s) to send a message, which is why they thrive on creating drama for trauma with an audience. The escalation from elite gangs sends an intended symbolic message to everyone witnessing the results of the violence, which is then internalized by the witnesses also.
The resulting consequences for victim(s) eventually leads to deadly violent acts, either through a direct homicide, the targeted individual’s suicide or through the victim developing a critical illness due to the extensive stress. With regard to suicide, the violent offenders often avoid the consequences of criminal charges. The gang’s goal and purpose always leads to an attempt to achieve ideological agendas through a finalized physical violent act.
The Mode of Operation for gangs
Research from the federal Ministry of Justice outlines the Mode of Operation (MO) for street gangs, which is applicable to elite gangs in corporations and various professional agencies. The root of gangs is based on ideological goals developed and embraced by gang members. The gang members often demonstrate a tendency towards political or religious agendas through violent activities aiming to achieve the realization of the ideology.
Elite gang activity involves the direct use of intimidation that often weaponizes the legal arena. Within the gang hierarchy, the leader(s) initiating the controlling activity are not necessarily members of the legal professions. Instead, the leader(s) may be from outside the professional structure, but motivated to network with socially aligned individuals sharing the same ideologies within the system to achieve a collective cultural agenda. The goal for the alignment is to promote and protect a collective ideology inside and out.
For instance, a group of like-minded professionals within the field of law create connections with members in the healthcare field, various protective services and educational institutions. This form of social capital is required for a collective goal of equality that stabilizes and maintains a healthy society where everyone has equal rights. However, in a toxic and biased (sub)culture, it is dangerous.
The reality is the targeted individual(s) is a perceived threat as a competitor challenging the gang’s ideology. The gang members believe the challenger must be weakened and eliminated through various forms of violence.
Much like street gangs are associated with criminal activity due to their symbolic clothing and gang colours, the same association applies for professionals who wear a suit, uniform or lab coat. The manner of attire triggers members of the public with an association to either safety and equality or injustice, violence, oppression and bias. Visual association is powerful and based on individual experiences and interactions with a representative of the organization, whether on the street or in the office. It works both ways.
In the past, elite gangs enjoyed immunity to accountability due to either the lack of evidence, victim exhaustion or a tight network ensuring no consequence resulted in many cases. However, governments are also bound to the members of their collective group with administrative laws existing when violations occur.
Every Friday, Sheila Wanite Bautz addresses various Sociological issues in laymen’s terms. Sheila has dual Honour BAs with Majors in Sociology and English through the University of Saskatchewan. In Sociology, she specialized in Indigenous history, law, addictions and criminology.
