Book Description

In recent years Dutch society has faced increasing crime among youngsters from different ethnic backgrounds. Moroccan youths particularly are involved in criminal activities. This book offers a colourful and insightful portrait of a criminal Moroccan gang in the Netherlands. A group of Moroccan youths, who had come To The Netherlands to join their migrant fathers, was closely observed for more than eight years. Hans WerdmÖlder describes and examines the changes and continuities in their process of marginalisation and, For some of them, The difficult return to core institutions of society. To get in touch with the Moroccan gang the author used personal and direct methods. During the research WerdmÖlder became a barkeeper in a youth home, a youth worker and a social worker. He conducted research not only in an old neighborhood of the city of Amsterdam, but also in Morocco. The combination of personal observation, interaction, and ethnographic research into the setting and lives of such a peripheral group in Dutch society makes the study perceptive and highly readable. The book forms a valuable contribution To The discussion on youth gangs, particularly of second generation immigrants, and especially in the European context.