Understanding modern terror and insurgency through the lens of street gangs: ISIS as a case study
| Published date | 18 September 2017 |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
| Pages | 192-207 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-07-2016-0014 |
| Author | Matthew Valasik,Matthew Phillips |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology |
Understanding modern terror and
insurgency through the lens of street
gangs: ISIS as a case study
Matthew Valasik and Matthew Phillips
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to use nearly a century’s worth of gang research to inform us about
modern terrorist groups, specifically the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Design/methodology/approach –A case study approach is employed, comparing and contrasting the
competing theoretical frameworks of gangs and terrorist organisations to understand group structure,
demographics, patterns of behaviour (e.g. territoriality, strategic, and instrumental violence), goals, and
membership patterns of ISIS.
Findings –The qualitative differences of ISIS make them more comparable to street gangs than other
terrorist groups.
Practical implications –ISIS, while being qualitatively different from other terrorist groups, actually has
many similarities with street gangs allowing for the adaptation of effective gang prevention, intervention, and
suppression strategies. This paper highlights how the expansive literature on street gangs is able to inform
practical interventions to directly target ISIS and deradicalise potential recruits. By introducing a gang-terror
nexus on the crime-terror continuum, this paper provides a useful perspective on the decentralised but
dynamic nature of modern era insurgencies. This paper urges similar case studies of terrorist organisations to
determine the extent to which they conform to street gang characteristics.
Originality/value –Terrorist groups are often comparedto street gangs, yet it has not been until the last few
years that gang researchers (Curry, 2011; Decker and Pyrooz, 2011, 2015a, b) have begun to compare and
contrast these two deviant group archetypes. The goal of this paper is to use nearly a hundred years of gang
research to better equip scholars and practitioners with a broader understanding of terrorism and insurgency
in the era of globalisation by presenting a case study of ISIS using a street gang perspective.
Keywords Community safety, Terrorism, Crime-terror continuum, Insurgency, Street gangs,
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
The media, law enforcement, and elected officials cultivate myths about street gangs and routinely
compare and refer to them as being no different than terrorist groups. This rhetoric has even seeped
into legislation with wide-reaching gang enhancement laws entitled Street Terrorism and Prevention
(STEP) Acts (Bjerregaard, 2003). Yet, in the criminological literature, the research investigating the
archetypes of these two deviant groups remains scant (Curry, 2011; Decker and Pyrooz, 2011,
2015a, b; Sullivan, 2006; Vishnevetsky, 2009). Gang scholars, arguably some of the better equipped
researchers to provide policy makers and law enforcement guidance on dealing with such errant
groups, have predominantly excluded terrorist organisations from gang studies. For instance,
Klein (1995, p. 21) argues that terrorist groups are qualitatively different and “don’t fit easily into a
category that includes street gangs”due to their concentration on cultural or political shared interests
which are narrow when compared to the “cafeteria-style”criminal offending of street gangs (p. 68).
More recently, Curry (2011) investigates the relationship between gangs and terrorist groups,
finding that similarities do exist. Such features include the composition of these groups being
Received 30 July 2016
Revised 27 March 2017
3 May 2017
Accepted 6 May 2017
Matthew Valasik is an Assistant
Professor at the Department of
Sociology, Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, USA.
Matthew Phillips is an Assistant
Professor at the Department of
Criminal Justice and
Criminology, University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte,
North Carolina, USA.
PAGE192
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VOL. 3 NO. 3 2017, pp.192-207, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841 DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-07-2016-0014
principally male, commonly using violence as a tool to maintain a group’s status, dominance
over competitors, and intimidate locals, and members in either group participating in collective
behaviours and maintaining a degree of solidarity. Conversely, scholars contend that these
similarities between street gangs and terrorist groups are cursory and espouse that the
ideological and operational aspects of terrorist organisations actually make them a very distinct
entity (Curry et al., 2014; Klein, 1995; Zhang, 2007). Those studies that have compared terrorist
organisations to other criminal groups have mostly focussed on the linkages between organised
crime groups and terrorist organisations (e.g. Makarenko, 2004; Hutchinson and O’Malley, 2007;
Sullivan, 2006; Zhang, 2007). Yet, this literature has failed to thoroughly incorporate or consider
how street gangs compare to terrorist groups.
Arguably the most ap propriated defin ition of a modern stree t gang, appearing reg ularly in
publications and b eing widely adopte d by scholars, is the Eur ogang definitio n (Maxson and
Esbensen, 2016). The Eurogang definition identifies a street gang as “any durable,
street-oriented youth group whose involvement in illegal activity is part of their group
identity”(Weerman et al., 2009). Despite the proliferation and increased usage of the
Eurogang definiti on, many gang schola rs continue to disa gree over a uniform de finition of
what constitutes a street gang (see Curry, 2015; Katz and Jackson-Jacobs, 2004;
Papachristos, 2005a; Sullivan, 2005). Papachristos (2005a) argues that a street gang does
not have some measureable or observable difference from other groups, but is a gang because
the members belong ing to it and the individuals outsid e of it socialise, believe, feel, a nd act as if
the gang is a distinct social group. As Densley (2013) points out, street gangs are more dynamic
and amorphous than traditionally discussed. Furthermore, street gangs define themselves
through their deeds and actions, not just because they are given a label by academics or
criminal justice actors (Papachristos, 2005a).
This definition advanced by Papachristos (2005a) could easily extend to modern day terrorist
groups like the Islamic State (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS))[1]. For instance, even though
the “fundamental structure will always be that of a terrorist organization”ISIS is “something
qualitatively more significant than a terrorist organization”(Lister, 2015, p. 51). “It is best to think
of the Islamic State as an amalgam, bringing together the characteristics of many different types
of actors –some legitimate, some downright evil –but with no single label doing the job”
(Byman, 2015a, p. 1). It has thus evolved from an archetypal terrorist group to an organisation
whose nature makes it almost impossible to clearly label what ISIS is: terrorist, insurgent,
cult, state, social service provider, or revolutionary state sponsor of terror (Atwan, 2015;
Byman, 2015a; Cronin, 2015; Densley, 2014; Gerges, 2016; Warrick, 2015).
The extant criminological literature that does investigate the relationship between street
gangs and terroris t groups has limited its f ocus on comparing the se two archetypes in
generalities (Curry, 2011; Decker and Pyrooz, 2011, 2015a, b). Vishnevetsky’s(2009)
comparison of youth terr orist gangs in Chech nya is the first to inte rtwine both the str eet gang
and terrorist lite ratures, this paper builds on this appro ach to develop a more nuanced picture
of a particular terr orist group. The curr ent study mobilise s these studies, pro viding a unique
contribution to the literature through a case study approach[2], extending nearly a century’s
worth of scholars hip on street gangs to b etter understan d the preeminent mod ern terrorist
group, ISIS. Decker and Pyrooz (2011, p. 161) attest that “developing fixed images of groups,
their activities, structures, and processes will likely lead to errors in assessing their
danger”. Undertaking Decker and Pyrooz (2011, 2015a) call for more comparative research to
develop greater conceptual clarity this study investigates the distinct features of ISIS and how
they compare to street gangs.
This paper first outlines the crime-terror continuum, specifically relating it to ISIS. Building on that
literature, an argument is put forward to develop a gang-terror continuum to better understand
modern insurgencies, such as ISIS. Then, the emergence of ISIS is briefly discussed. Next,
characteristics such as group structure, demographics, criminality, use of technology, and goals
are used as a heuristic device to better understand the context of ISIS. The discussion section
follows, comparing ISIS to our detailed knowledge of street gangs. The paper concludes by
addressing how our knowledge of gang studies can better guide scholars, law enforcement, and
the military on issues related to counter-terrorism.
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