Although a well-known phenomenon in the U.S., street gangs and other violent and criminal groups_including racist groups_exist also in European cities and countries, and are of increasing concern in global law enforcement. The eminent contributors to this volume present valuable new data on European youth gangs, describing important characteristics of these groups, and their similarities and differences to American gangs. Their findings from the Eurogang Research Program compare European and American gang interventions, and highlight the impact of immigration and ethnicity, urbanization, national influences, and local neighborhood circumstances on gang development in several European countries. It is an important resource on crime, delinquency and youth development for criminologists, sociologists, youth workers, policy makers, local governments, and law enforcement professionals.

Contributions by: Francesca Angelini (University of Genoa, Italy), Paul Bradshaw (Scottish Children's Reporter, Scotland), Yngve Carlsson, Norway), St Louis), Finn Esbensen, Mark S. Fleisher, Case Western Reserve University), Uberto Gatti, Hans-Juergen Kerner (Institute of Criminology, University of Tuebingen, Germany), MalcolmW Klein, Inger-Lise Lien, Gilberto Marengo (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti, Natalia Melchiorre, Kerstin Reich (University of Tuebingen, Alexander Salagaev, Russia), Marcello Sasso, Alexander Shashkin, Russian Academy of Sciences), Irina Sherbakova, Elias Touryanskiy, Frank van Gemert, The Netherlands), Elmar G. M. Weitekamp (Law and Society Institu