Wins award for best academic article
WVU economics professor asserts new theory on gangs and violence
West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics professor Russell Sobel has received the 2009 Georgescu-Roegen Prize for the best academic article published in the Southern Economic Journal.
Sobel’s article was chosen among submissions from all fields of economic research and from economists around the world.
In the article, “Youth Gangs as Pseudo-Governments: Implications for Violent Crime,” he contends that when governments fail to defend the rights of individuals from violence, gangs of youths form as protective agencies.
“An analogy to consider is the fact that most 40-year-old men aren’t in gangs except for in one place, prison,” said Sobel. “In prison there is a lot of violence and crime. Gangs form and prisoners join them for protection.”
He said breaking up these gangs leads to more violence. “In a society without law and order, individuals are under constant threat of being victims of aggression and crime,” he said. “Gangs form to provide this protection. Yes, they use violence to enforce rules and retaliate, just like a government does in the criminal justice system, but the net effect of gangs is to reduce violence. Breaking up gangs does not reduce crime, it increases it. To reduce crime, governments need to do a better job protecting individual rights, particularly the rights of youths against aggression from other youths.”
Sobel has published more than 150 books and articles and has received numerous awards for teaching and researching. He has had research featured in various national publications and has appeared on several national news broadcasts for his work.
Sobel’s article was also noticed by editors at Forbes Magazine and is scheduled to be featured on forbes.com.
According to Sobel, the data (monthly statistics on gang membership and crime for Los Angeles from April 1998 to March 2004) clearly show that upward spikes in crime rates lead to later increases in gang membership, not vice versa. In other words, gangs evolve because of high preexisting violence in communities. High crime areas tend to have gangs, but this isn’t because gangs lead to more crime, rather it’s because crime leads to the formation of gangs.
Previous academic research shows that areas with high levels of violent crime also have more youth street gangs. But, traditional arguments have assumed that gangs cause violence, and make the implication that eliminating gangs will reduce crime.
Coauthored with Brian J. Osoba, a professor at Central Connecticut State University and former Ph.D. student at WVU, the article suggests that breaking up youth street gangs would have the reverse effect and would increase violent crime.
Sobel said improving law enforcement can decrease levels of gang violence because a government failing to enforce the rights of people results in gangs stepping up and filling that role.
Dr. Sobel attended the Southern Economic Association conference in November in San Antonio, Texas, to receive the award. The association is one of the oldest regional economics associations in the United States and is the eighth oldest American scholarly journal in economics.
Contact:
Dr. Russell Sobel
(304) 293-7864
rsobel2 @ wvu.edu
