Acknowledgements
1. Governance Institutions and the Prison Community
Men's Central Jail
2. The Convict Code
Death Row
3. The Rise of Prison Gangs
My Brother's Keeper
4. Governance in the Society of Captives
Background Check
5. The Internal Organization of Prison Gangs
MacArthur Park
6. How Prison Gangs Govern the Outside
Puppet
7. What Works?
References
David Skarbek is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London.
"This is a remarkable study of a 'natural experiment' in the
evolution of government. Put a couple of thousand men, not of the
nicest kind, into close confinement with limited communication
facilities and little government, and see what happens. What
happens is government, based largely on ethnic gangs, with
hierarchy, rules, and sometimes written constitutions. The basic
problem to be solved is the management of the market for drugs, and
solving that leads to
genuine institutions. A great read." --Thomas Schelling, Nobel
Laureate in Economics (2005)
"David Skarbek has written a wonderful book. It is a gripping
account of prison gangs, pointing to a wholesale re-thinking of the
management of American prisons. But it is far more than this: if
you care at all about ethnic politics, violence, and the emergence
of social order, organizational theory and the problems of
collective action-in short, if you have any interest at all in how
societies govern themselves-you have to read this book." --Philip
Keefer,
Lead Economist, Development Research Group, The World Bank
"David Skarbek's The Social Order of the Underworld can be read
with great profit on each of three levels: it is an engrossing
ethnography of American prison life; it is a penetrating economic
analysis of the organization of the drug trade; and it offers an
innovative theory of how an effective governing institution can
originate in the wild and exert legitimate domination over its
subjects. This book is a stunning achievement that makes me proud
to be
a social scientist." --David D. Laitin, Watkins Professor of
Political Science, Stanford University
"Meticulously researched and convincingly argued. Skarbek's book is
an outstanding addition to our understanding of self-governance,
its ubiquity, and effectiveness." --Peter T. Leeson, George Mason
University, and author of The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics
of Pirates
"Skarbek's study of California prison gangs offers delightfully
fresh perspective on the relationship between underworld's informal
institutions. He argues that gangs evolved as substitutes for
another set of informal rules, i.e., systems of criminal codes. The
rules constantly evolve to lower transaction costs and often
stabilize interactions and reduce chaotic violence unrelated to
business enforcement. This is a first rate and novel take on the
structure of
organized criminal enterprises." --Marek Kaminski, University of
California, Irvine, and author of Games Prisoners Play
"Drawing on economic theory, David Skarbek shows how social order
can emerge in the most unlikely circumstances. In the nasty and
brutish world of American prisons, gangs have emerged to govern the
penal system, settle dispute and regulate the market for drugs.
This is a story about the ingenuity of gang members and of
institutional failure. The Social Order of the Underworld straddles
all the social sciences to give us a masterly account of the
human
condition in the most harrowing circumstances. Add a vivid
narrative style and the total absence of jargon, and you have in
your hand a terrific book." --Federico Varese, Professor of
Criminology, Oxford
University
"Skarbek shows how gangs have spread through the prison system in
the United States. He argues, convincingly, that gangs offer
protection and governance in places where established institutions
fail, and that it makes sense for prisoners to join them. Mr.
Skarbek's analysis confounds the assumption that prisons are
stuffed with violent, racist thugs who act irrationally. The very
logic of gangs' existence may be the key to constraining them.
Reduce demand for
their services, he argues, by locking up fewer people and making
prisons safer, and their appeal would diminish." --The
Economist
"This is a thoughtful book that contains much of value, not least
in the ways it surveys a mass of data and illustrates its central
theme: how gangs operate as alternative governmental bodies within
the American penal system. Skarbek uses a wide range of
sources...to build up a nuanced and detailed picture of elements of
the history, and much of the current organizational strategy of
America's prison gangs. The Social Order of the Underworld is
thought-provoking and challenging." --Tim Newburn, The London
School of Economics and Political Science
"A fascinating new book..." --Matt Ridley, The Times
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