Policing Gangs in America

Policing Gangs in America describes the assumptions, issues, problems, and events that characterize, shape, and define the police response to gangs in America today. The focus of this 2006 book is on the gang unit officers themselves and the environment in which they work. A discussion of research, statistical facts, theory, and policy with regard to gangs, gang members, and gang activity is used as a backdrop. The book is broadly focused on describing how gang units respond to community gang problems, and answers such questions as: why do police agencies organize their responses to gangs in certain ways? Who are the people who elect to police gangs? How do they make sense of gang members – individuals who spark fear in most citizens? What are their jobs really like? What characterizes their working environment? How do their responses to the gang problem fit with other policing strategies, such as community policing?

Author Biography

Dr Charles Katz received his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is currently an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Arizona State University. Dr. Katz has co-authored or co-edited two previous books and has been published in several scholarly journals such as Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and Crime and Delinquency. Dr Katz has conducted research in over 20 police agencies across the United States as well as several state and federal agencies. Dr Vincent Webb received his Ph.D. in sociology from the State University of Iowa. He served as chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha for over 20 years and as chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Arizona State University for seven years. In 2005 he joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as Director of the Center for the Study of Crime, Delinquency and Corrections. Dr Webb has published in a variety of criminology and criminal justice journals including Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and Criminology. He is the coauthor/coeditor of three other books on criminal justice topics. He served as the Principal Investigator for the Joint Commission on Criminal Justice and Criminology Education and Standards. He is a former President of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. He has presented research papers at numerous conference both in the United States and in several other countries, and he has served as a consultant on several national research projects evaluating criminal justice policies and practices.