Legitimated Oppression Inner-City Mexican American Experiences with Police Gang Enforcement Academic Article

abstract

• This article explores the gang suppression model and how it becomes practiced in the profiling and interactions between police and inner-city Mexican Americans. I conducted this research formally over five years in two southwestern citiesDenver, Colorado, and Ogden, Utahand informally for fourteen years by the researcher's experience as an ex-gang member. I suggest that stereotyping Mexican American communities as gang infested and equating gangs as synonymous with crime allows for differential policing that no longer emphasizes criminal acts, but rather perpetual criminal people. Gang enforcement is over-inclusive and embedded with practices that create opportunities for abuse of authority.

authors

• Durán, Robert

published proceedings

• JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ETHNOGRAPHY

altmetric score

• 4.25

author list (cited authors)

• Duran, R. J.

citation count

• 48

complete list of authors

• Duran, Robert J

publication date

• April 2009

publisher

• SAGE Publications  Publisher

published in

• Journal of Contemporary Ethnography: a journal of ethnographic research  Journal

keywords

• Barrio Communities
• Gang Enforcement
• Mexican Americans

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1177/0891241607313057

start page

• 143

end page

• 168

volume

• 38

issue

• 2

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891241607313057

user-defined tag

• 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions