Mahan, Sue (ed.)
with Katherine O'Neil
Thousand Oaks: Sage publications, 1998
257 p.
Subject, Methods, Database:
An anthology contains sections from journalistic and academic books on non-traditional organized crime.
Content:
Marshall B. Clinard, in a chapter from Corporate Corruption, discusses the Union Carbide plant incident in Bhopal, India. Wilbur R. Miller, in a chapter from Revenuers and Moonshiners, describes the life of Appalachian moonshiners in the late 19th Century. Ko-lin Chin, in a chapter from Chinatown Gangs, examines membership and structure of Chinese youth gangs in New York. David Kaplan and Alec Dubro, in a chapter from Yakuza, assess the activities of Japanese criminals in the United States. Maria Jimena Duzan, in a chapter from Death Beat, portrays professional killers in the slums of Medellin, Columbia. Alex Kotlowitz, in a chapter from There Are No Children Here, traces the careers of gang members in a housing project in Chicago. Daniel R. Wolf, in a chapter from The Rebels, analyzes the role of women in outlaw-motorcycle gangs. William Kleinknecht, in a chapter from The New Ethnic Mobs, describes Russian emigre crime networks in the U.S. R. Theodore Davidson, in a chapter from Chicano Prisoners, examines the history and structure of the Chicano prison gang formerly called "Baby Mafia". Frank Browning and John Gerassi, in a chapter from The American Way of Crime, recount the history of pirates during colonial times. Sue Mahan provides comments and concluding remarks.
Assessment:
A somewhat arbitrary selection of material that was taken out ouf context and does not quite fit together with regard to the diversity of topics, methodologies and theoretical frames of reference.
Overall evaluation:
A compilation of more or less informative text fragments which do not gain anything from being assembled in one volume.
© Klaus von Lampe, all rights reserved.