Social Rituals of Pain: The Socio-Symbolic Meaning of Violence in Gang Initiations
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Social Rituals of Pain: The Socio-Symbolic Meaning of Violence in Gang Initiations Jeffrey Stevenson Murer 1
& Tilman Schwarze
1
Accepted: 16 October 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
Much of criminological scholarship on street gangs focuses on the deviant and delinquent aspects of gang violence. Although the research tradition acknowledges that violence is central to the life in a gang, it often labels this form of violence as an “anti-social” behaviour. This article challenges this conceptualisation of gang violence and proposes instead that gang violence is a social performance. By using the example of gang initiation rites, this article suggests that violence in such rites possesses a sociosymbolic and performative function that informs about the social status of gang members. This article draws on Jeffrey Stevenson Murer’s theory of the performative and communicative function of violence as well as on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social field, habitus and social capital in order to demonstrate that violence during gang initiation rites is an inherently social act that reinforces and strengthens the social ties and bonds among the members of a gang. The aim of this piece is to broaden scholarship on gangs towards a more critical theorisation of the performative and communicative functions of gang violence. We suggest that a stronger engagement with critical social theory on collective identity, violence and social capital can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the socio-symbolic and cultural processes that underlie gang membership. Keywords Gangs . Violence . Initiation rites . Social capital . Performativity
Introduction In the Saturday of 13 August 2011 edition of The Independent, an anonymous youth worker describes the disturbing “choices” faced by many of his clients when they are to be initiated
* Jeffrey Stevenson Murer jsm14@st–andrews.ac.uk
1
School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, Arts Faculty Building, Library Park, The Scores, St Andrews, Scotland KY16 9AX, UK
Murer and Schwarze
into a gang. In this particular instance, the youth case worker described how his client either had to attack and stab another youth on the street or eat dog faeces.1 It was salacious piece of writing, especially coming only days after the rioting in the London boroughs of Hackney, Croydon, and Tottenham. Then Prime Minister David Cameron immediately blamed the unrest on “criminal gangs”, depicting young people as outside the norms of society, who would “feel the full-force of the law”.2 Across the web, there are numerous stories of horrific gang initiation practices, some compiled into shock “top ten lists”.3 Such lists or compilations include some variations on the “choices” above—to attack a rival gang member or a random person on the street. However, one scenario, which is included in such lists, but is more often described by gang members themselves or those academics who study gangs is a variation on the notion of being “jumped-in” or “beaten-in”, where the initiate must e
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