Chinese Subculture and Criminality: Non-traditional Crime Groups in America

The President’s Commission on Organized Crime predicted that Asian crime groups would be the United States’ foremost organized crime problem by the 1990s. There are few comprehensive studies on the nature and scope of these groups. Ko-lin Chin warns that our limited law enforcement resources will be ineffective without a precise understanding of the norms, values, structure, criminal patterns, and interrelationships of these groups. His study takes a major step toward this effort. A sociological investigation of Triads, tongs, and street gangs, Chin’s volume explores the where, how, and why of these groups as well as the connection between Triad subculture and criminality.

Chinese Subculture and Criminality is a thoroughly researched study of Asian criminality and its manifestations in America’s ethnic communities. Ko-lin Chin describes both the history and activities of Chinese secret societies, and how these societies degenerated into crime groups. He analyzes the symbiotic relationship of Chinese communities and tongs; and details the history of the gangs’ development in San Franscisco, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, and New York City. The causative and intervening factors leading to the rise of these gangs is explored as well as their nature and activities. Personal and group characteristics help explain why these gangs persist. Comparisons are made with other ethnic gangs. The volume predicts the future direction of Chinese organized crime. It concludes with a discussion of ethnic succession and the role of Chinese gangs in the heroin trade.