TY - JOUR A1 - Windle, James AU - Briggs, Daniel  T1 - Going solo: The social organisation of drug dealing within a London street gang Y1 - 2015 SN - 1367-6261 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11268/4420 AB - This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang members/ex-gang members suggested that the gang is a loose social network with little recognisable formal organisation. Although individual gang members sell drugs, the gang should not be viewed as a drug dealing organisation. Rather it is a composition of individual drug dealers who cooperate out of mutual self-interest. Therefore, some gang members are best described as independent entrepreneurs while others are subcontractors looking to ‘go solo’. The seven practitioners, however, tended to describe a more hierarchically structured gang, with formal recruitment processes. This divergence of perspective highlights an important consideration for policy and research. KW - Gangs KW - Co-offending KW - Illicit entrepreneurs KW - Drug dealing KW - Crime KW - Drogas - Tráfico KW - Crimen organizado KW - Crimen KW - Tráfico de estupefacientes LA - eng ER -