For decades, gangs have been emerging across the globe, disrupting citizen security, the rule of law, health and education, and local economies. The Caribbean, like many other regions, has a significant gang problem. Unfortunately, however, there has been limited academic attention given to the issue. Gangs in the Caribbean is intended fill this gap by providing sound research conducted by leading Caribbean criminologists that encourages thoughtful and data driven discussions between researchers and policymakers. The book is broken into two sections. Section one focuses on the scope and nature of the Caribbean gang problem. It not only provides a cutting edge description of the Caribbean’s gang problem but it also details differences between organized crime groups and street gangs, and how these differences impact the types of problems that communities face.

Section two focuses on policies and programmes that have been designed and implemented to respond to Caribbean gangs, as well as what we have learned about them in terms of their effectiveness and unintended consequences. In doing so Gangs in the Caribbean provides researchers, policymakers, and students with a foundation of knowledge on a core issue confronting the Caribbean and provides these readers with a clear road map for responding to gangs in the future.