Book review: the social order of the underworld: how prison gangs govern the American penal system by David Skarbek

Newburn, Tim

(2014) Book review: the social order of the underworld: how prison gangs govern the American penal system by David Skarbek. [Online resource]

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This book challenges the widely held view that inmates in US prisons create prison gangs to promote racism and violence. On the contrary, gangs form to create order, argues David Skarbek. The Social Order of the Underworld is thought-provoking and challenging, writes Tim Newburn, and policy-makers in the UK have much to learn from Skarbek’s book.