International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 77

The "Criminal Gang," a French Ectoplasm?
expressing the unshakeable bond with the
group. This serves to affirm the prestige of
their gang, and they are ready to defend it at
any moment.
This visibility is also found in “gangsta
rap,” an expression of gang psychology,
which usually consists of little more than
hate, racism, and sexism. “Gangsta rap” is a
message of incitation diffused to the masses
by a consenting or complicit media, written
in a crude, insulting, vulgar language
that impregnates a broad public with this
subculture of drugs, violence, and hatred.
There is no lack of examples. Here is one:
J’aime voir des CRS morts,
J’aime les pin-pon, suivis d’explosions et
des pompiers
Un jour j’te souris
Un jour j’te crève
J’perds mon temps à m’dire qu’j’finirai bien
par leur tirer d’ssus . . .
[I like to see a riot squad cop dead,
I like the sirens, then explosions and fire
One day I smile at ya
Next day I make a hole in ya
Waste my time in tellin’ myself I’m’a end
up shootin’ ‘em down . . .] 4
�����������������������������������������pressed
by the American term gangbanging,
which covers practices that are identical
in France and elsewhere, in particular
in the United States. “Gangbanging” is a
concept that defines everyday life in a gang.
It is the term that brings together the elements
that constitute the “criminal career”
of agang member.
In the words of a Los Angeles gangbanger,
“ ‘banging ain’t no part time thang,
it’s full time, it’s a career” 5 It consists in
hanging out in the street, generally starting
very young, and doing “business” (this
is what illegal “transactions” are called in
French); in always being on the lookout for
any opportunity for misdeeds, for there is
no criminality specific to gangs. It is a continual
grasping of opportunities, and we
know obviously that drugs play a central
role, above all with the arrival en masse of
cocaine in France, the lowering of its price,
and its distribution by gangs. It is this that
explains to a large extent the normalization
of the use of the Kalashnikov: to fight
against other gangs so as to protect markets
and develop new ones, or to ensure that
one is “respected.”
This culture brings about the form
of gang organization. As we have already
noted, we often hear it said in France that
gangs are not organized—and above all,
“not like in the United States.” This is untrue;
it is a rejection of reality: the organization
of these criminal groups is wholly
similar in form and in its fundamental logic.
How can tons of drugs circulate and be
distributed without any form of organization?
This organization, which rests upon
personal bonds, from individual to individual,
is arranged like a galaxy; 6 it is not a
matter of a vertical hierarchy in the form of
a pyramid, the only model that we know in
our societies.
The gravitation of the elements of
this galaxy around the center, and the cohesion
of the whole entity, stem from the
4
Excerpt from “Mafia K’1 Fry” Gangsta rap band, “Violence/délinquance.”
5
According to Tray Ball, a member of the “Eight-Tray Crips,” cited in Sanyika Shakur, Monster: The Autobiography
of an LA Gang Member (New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993), 107.
6
A galaxy is a set of stars, dust, and interstellar gas turning around a center, whose cohesion is ensured by the
forces of gravitational attraction, and forms a well-defined entity.
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