NCJ Number
147309
Journal
McGill Journal of Education Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1980) Pages: 149-162
Date Published
1980
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines the manifestations of gang theory where the major factors include the impact of a wave of young urban immigrants from Hong Kong on expatriate Chinese communities of rural antecedents, and the linguistic frustration that bars the entry of these young immigrants into the English-speaking urban society of their ambitions.
Abstract
Over the past 10 years, Chinatowns in the major urban centers of North America have ceased to be islands of law and order and have instead become places in which robbery, assault, prostitution, extortion, gambling, drug trafficking and murder are occurring with increasing frequency. The crimes are largely the work of gangs of immigrant Chinese youth who view themselves as the new young warrior class of Chinatown. This article looks briefly at the history of Chinese youth in North America and then investigates the characteristics and processes of four Chinese youth gangs operating in the Chinatown region of Vancouver during the period 1975-1978. The study attempts to answer three main questions: (1) What are the group characteristics of these Chinese youths? (2) What are the group processes operating in these gangs? and (3) To what extent can the functions and characteristics of these gangs be explained in terms of current sociological theories of gang delinquency? 1 figure, references