Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

Street criminals live in a dangerous world, but they cannot realistically rely on the criminal justice system to protect them from predation by fellow lawbreakers; they are on their own when it comes to dealing with crimes perpetrated against them and often use retaliation as a mechanism for deterring and responding to victimization. Although retaliation lies at the heart of much of the violence that plagues many inner-city neighborhoods across the United States, it has received scant attention from criminologists. As a result, the structure, process, and forms of retaliation in the real world setting of urban America remain poorly understood. Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal World, first published in 2006, explores the face of modern day retaliation from the perspective of currently active criminals who have experienced it first hand, as offenders, victims, or both. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 5 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Preface......Page 13 ONE Background and Methods......Page 15 Our Study......Page 20 Research Site......Page 22 Sample and Recruitment......Page 23 The Interviews......Page 28 Validity: External and Internal......Page 31 An Editorial Note......Page 36 TWO The Retaliatory Ethic......Page 39 Defiance and Disrespect......Page 40 Incompetent Policing......Page 43 Ineffectual Law......Page 44 Disrespect and Deterrence......Page 46 The Pedagogy of Violent Retaliation......Page 48 Counter-retaliation......Page 50 The Mechanics of Retaliation......Page 55 THREE A Typology of Criminal Retaliation......Page 59 Reflexive Retaliation......Page 61 Calculated Retaliation......Page 63 Deferred Retaliation......Page 68 Sneaky Retaliation......Page 72 Imperfect Retaliation......Page 76 Non-retaliation......Page 79 The Retaliatory Calculus in Action......Page 82 FOUR Gender and Retaliation......Page 89 Male-on-Male Retaliation......Page 90 Male-on-Female Retaliation......Page 96 Female-on-Female Retaliation......Page 100 Female-on-Male Retaliation......Page 105 Gender and Retaliation in Perspective......Page 107 FIVE Imperfect Retaliation......Page 115 Wholly Imperfect Retaliation......Page 116 Relationally Imperfect Retaliation......Page 122 Marginally Imperfect Retaliation......Page 124 Imperfect Retaliation and the Search for Justice......Page 131 SIX Retaliation in Perspective......Page 137 The Formalization of Informal Justice......Page 141 Bringing Formal Justice to the Streets......Page 143 Conclusion......Page 148 Works Cited......Page 151 Index......Page 163 The material presented by Jacobs and Wright makes law-abiding, middle-class persons realize there is an entirely different world where disgruntled criminals take revenge in ways that only Quentin Tarantino could imagine. There are few ethnographic works that can match the fascinating stories of retaliatory violence contained within "Street Justice." Street criminals live in a dangerous world, but they cannot rely on the criminal justice system to protect them from predation by fellow lawbreakers; they often use retaliation as a mechanism for deterring and responding to victimization. This explores retaliation from the perspective of those who have experienced it first hand This study examines the structure, process and forms of retaliation in contemporary urban America where street criminals employ it instead of recourse to the criminal justice system. It explores retaliation from a first hand perspective, based on interviews with currently active street criminals rather than prisoners Background And Methods -- The Retaliatory Ethic -- A Typology Of Criminal Retaliation -- Gender And Retaliation (with Christopher Mullins) -- Imperfect Retaliation -- Retaliation In Perspective. Bruce A. Jacobs, Richard Wright. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 137-148) And Index. Background and methods The retributive ethic A typology of criminal retaliation Gender and retaliation (with Christopher Mullins) Imperfect retaliation Retaliation in perspective. This 2006 book explores retaliation from the perspective of those who have experienced it first hand