Definition
Gangs are prominent in the larger cities and urban areas in the United States, in prisons and jails while many branches of the original gang are present in small towns and suburbs. American gangs originated in New York City and Chicago and the surrounding areas. The gangs competed with one another for various reasons, such as during the prohibition era for control of illegal drinks, and would often beat or even murder an opposing gang member for attempting to sell or distribute illegal liquor on their "turf". This resulted in retaliation and eventually a "war" between the opposing gangs. In current usage, it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen. In the United Kingdom, the word is still often used in this sense, but it later underwent pejoration. The word gang often carries a negative connotation; however, within a gang which defines itself in opposition to mainstream norms, members may adopt the phrase as a statement of identity or defiance.
The word "gang" derives from the past participle of Old English gan, meaning "to go". It is cognate with Old Norse gangr, meaning "journey."
Read more about this topic: Street Gangs
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)
“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The very definition of the real becomes: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction.... The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)