The study focuses on community-based territorial groups in poor areas of Kingston and Spanish Town, Jamaica known as area gangs. These gangs have their roots in the political patronage and political violence that characterised Jamaican electoral politics in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, but they have increasingly become involved in criminal activity. Child and youth involvement in corner gangs, less organised and smaller armed groupings often involved in street crime, is also investigated.

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