Dutch crips run dry in liquid society

Crips and Bloods were reported in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, especially in the city of The Hague. A study based on police and justice files described young immigrant males that copied the American gangs introduced to them via films and popular music. Now, two decades later, there are still Crips in Dutch cities, but the heydays are over.
Adding recent ethnographic research in The Hague and Amsterdam to the older research, this chapter presents a longitudinal picture of Crips in the Netherlands. The process of desistance is described by looking at a few core members in both cities, while paying attention to youth culture in a changing context.