Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• León, Kenneth Sebastian
• Barak, Maya
• Ortiz, Jennifer M.
• Ortiz, Jennifer M

Titel

MS-13, gang studies, and crimes of the powerful

Ist Teil von

• Critical and Intersectional Gang Studies, 2023, p.84-99

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This chapter discusses some of the epistemological gaps and tensions that have conditioned major portions of gang-related literature in criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). Grounded in reflections from a multi-year study of gang members and gang-specific police units, we situate the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as a legacy of state criminality, with immediate import for understanding racialized state crime and crimes of the powerful more broadly. Themes, contradictions, and political tensions concerning migration, criminal law, and gang-related interventions are salient in the biography of Yesenia, a self-identifying gang member interviewed on two occasions between 2014 and 2016. Our prior empirical works from this project, current methodological reflections, and Yesenia's interview testimony, collectively highlight how state-corporate machinations have produced gendered, racialized, and classed subjects within the context of MS-13. We conclude by affirming the role of CCJ experts in choosing to either reproduce or contest hegemonic ideas about gangs and gang members.