What exactly makes a gang member a gang member?

In the previous post (Gang members don't belong . . .) we referenced the ongoing conversation over at the Modesto Bee.

Here's the recent thought provoking dialog update:

What exactly makes a gang member a gang member? Sounds like a lot of stereotyping going on. You could consider a bunch of Marines with USMC tattoos consider gang members when they are hanging out together right? - FigMutant

It's not at all about stereotyping -- though many gang members and their political supporters often try to play that shell game.

A concise and agreed-upon definition has yet to be found in the study of gangs, though most scholars agree that a gang is a group of two (or three) or more individuals who form a loosely organized group (or remain together as a group) with one of the primary purposes of that group being the continued commission of criminal acts. Gangs vary greatly in size, geography, criminal sophistication, modus operandi, and their impact on the community or communities. As noted earlier, there is much diversity in gang membership. All races and ethnic backgrounds are included.

Ball and Curry (1995) suggested an heuristic definition for gangs, and offered: a "spontaneous, semisecret, interstitial, integrated but mutable social system whose members share common interests and that functions with relatively little regard for legality but regulates interaction among its members and features a leadership structure with processes of organizational maintenance and membership services and adaptive mechanisms for dealing with other significant social systems in its environment" (p. 9).

More simply, a gang is a group of individuals who 1) agree to commit crime 2) on a regular bases, and 3) one of them does something to further the commission of the crime. This definition contains the essential elements needed to prove the criminal charge of conspiracy in most jurisdictions. Gangs can be seen as criminal organizations because they are, for the most part, in violation of the various conspiracy laws in our country.

So no, the organizations known as the boy scouts, the Marines, and the local police department are not gangs by definition because their primary purpose for existing is not the commission of criminal activity.

Ball, R. A. & Curry, G. D. (1995). The logic of definition in criminology: Purposes and methods for defining "gangs". Criminology, 33(2), 225.

PS -- the above is now a blog post, thanks for the inspiration :-) So here it is . . .

What do you think?