Street Justice - Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld

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.Table of Content1. Background and methods; 2. The retributive ethic; 3. A typology of criminal retaliation; 4. Gender and retaliation (with Christopher Mullins); 5. Imperfect retaliation; 6. Retaliation in perspective.Review Quote'Street Justice is an absorbing new study of retaliation amongst criminal communities.' David Bowes, Thames Valley Police Research OfficerReview Quote'This book on retaliation in the criminal underworld is very innovative in the way that it incorporates lived experiences from active offenders and criminals. … an engaging addition to criminology, and, in particular, for those interested in the areas of victimology and cultural criminology. For me, it specifically feeds into the increasing research with a 'gang gaze'. I welcome more controversial studies of this type, which are not overly policy driven yet advance understanding in the field.' SociologyBiographical NoteBruce Jacobs is the author of two previous books, Dealing Crack and Robbing Drug Dealers, as well as the author or co-author of approximately 20 journal articles and book chapters. He is also the editor of Investigating Deviance and the recipient of competitive grant funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Richard Wright is the co-author of four previous books, including Armed Robbers in Action and Burglars on the Job, which won the 1994–5 Outstanding Scholarship in Crime and Delinquency Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. He is also the co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Fieldwork and author or co-author of approximately 50 journal articles and book chapters. He has been the recipient of competitive grant awards from the National Institute of Justice, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, National Consortium on Violence Research, Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Icelandic Research Council.This 2006 book explores retaliation from the perspective of those who have experienced it first hand.