I don't care to be able to say that England has a worse crime rate than the U.S. I think given the sociological makeup, [lack of] urban planning, poorly run social services, and an overarching cultural dislike of some forms of authority, it would be surprising if any developed country had crime rates as bad as we do.
While not ultimate causes, there are some not so hidden variables:
Population density. There's some idea that it increases stress, which increases propensity to commit crimes.
Sale of contraband, particularly drugs, fuels competition for territory and customers which, in an illegal market, is primarily dealt with through violence.
Brainstorming about gang violence, it seems to me to be mostly about a culture that demands unrealistic levels of respect, and demands taking advantage of any perceived weakness. If someone disrespects a gang member, it's my understanding that they have to retaliate with violence. If they don't, or if they're seen as weak for some other reason, that's an invitation for an opposing gang to put the weak out of their misery. You can't have a stable crime-free area with factions like that running around.
While I wasn't referring specifically to gang violence in my comment about robberies, I have to say your final paragraph about showing weakness sounds an awful lot like international politics.
When I was writing that I thought of North Korea and Iran. Maybe any entity (human, gang, corporation, or leviathan [the state]), when it doesn't feel like it's an accepted part of a larger group, degenerates into displaying that sort of behavior?
I don't care to be able to say that England has a worse crime rate than the U.S. I think given the sociological makeup, [lack of] urban planning, poorly run social services, and an overarching cultural dislike of some forms of authority, it would be surprising if any developed country had crime rates as bad as we do.
While not ultimate causes, there are some not so hidden variables:
Population density. There's some idea that it increases stress, which increases propensity to commit crimes.
Sale of contraband, particularly drugs, fuels competition for territory and customers which, in an illegal market, is primarily dealt with through violence.
Brainstorming about gang violence, it seems to me to be mostly about a culture that demands unrealistic levels of respect, and demands taking advantage of any perceived weakness. If someone disrespects a gang member, it's my understanding that they have to retaliate with violence. If they don't, or if they're seen as weak for some other reason, that's an invitation for an opposing gang to put the weak out of their misery. You can't have a stable crime-free area with factions like that running around.