During Russia’s transition to capitalism, criminal gangs transformed into organised crime groups with tight links to the state. Stereotypes of gangs as purely criminal businesses or substitutes for state power held fast, doing little to aid efforts towards gang prevention and rehabilitation.
Research by Prof. Svetlana Stephenson challenges these stereotypes, showing instead that gangs need to be analysed as context-specific organisations that develop cultural forms of solidarity, territoriality and gender.
Prof. Stephenson’s 2015 book Gangs of Russia: from the Streets to the Corridors of Power (published in Russian in 2017 as Zhisn’ po poniatiiam. Ulichnye gruppirovki v Rossii) and ongoing research has influenced the policies and practice of civil society groups and state organisations in Russia: most prominently a leading Russian NGO, the Public Centre for Judicial and Legal Reform.
This research has informed debates within Russia, not least through citations and responses to Prof. Stephenson’s work by figures including political analyst Maria Snegovaya and contemporary artist Anton Zimerman.
Prof. Stephenson’s appearances at UK literary festivals and on BBC radio, meanwhile, have helped to transform Western understandings of Russian organised crime and encouraged a more nuanced debate of how gangs have evolved globally.
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