Pseudo-Scientific Rationalizations for Police Racism in the Criminology of “Street Gangs”

Abstract: For almost four decades, there has been much talk in the press and political arenas in Montreal about a scourge of “street gangs” allegedly made up of Black youths and other youths of color and fueling crime and insecurity in an otherwise peaceable city. The article critically examines the criminological literature on “street gangs” that arose during a period of escalating racial tensions and White anxieties about Black immigration in the 1980s. Findings reveal the “gang” literature is replete with conceptual and methodological deficiencies. Although criminologists have never produced any conclusive evidence of street gangs, they have fitted their methods and findings to suit racial ideologies of delinquency. The article shows concretely how positivist criminology lends a veneer of scientific legitimacy to police racism.