经济学人308:这片儿我说了算 Turf Wars-英语课

时间：2019-02-24 作者：英语课 分类：经济学人综合

英语课

　　THEY are, typically, young Hispanic or black males; but the victims of gang killings 1 are no more likely to be involved in drugs or other crimes than their non-gang slain 2 counterparts. According to a new study by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which looked at five cities with high numbers of gang murders between the years 2003 and 2008, drug trading or usage and other criminal activity ranged from zero to 25% of all gang-related killings. Less than 1% of gang homicides were drug-related in two of the cities; Long Beach and Los Angeles, in California. And in three of the cities less than 3% of gang homicides took place during a crime.

　　一提起黑帮分子，人们就会想到西班牙或非洲裔小伙子。而惨遭黑帮杀戮的受害者，他们既不大可能于毒品和其它犯罪有关，也与帮会没有太多瓜葛。从2003年到2008年，疾病控制及预防中心（简称CDC）对黑帮谋杀案件发生最频繁的五个城市进行了调查。结果显示，在所有与帮会有关的谋杀案件中，吸毒、贩毒和其它犯罪活动在这五个城市中所占比例不一，在0到25%之间徘徊。其中，加州的长岛和洛杉矶，只有不到1%的帮会谋杀于毒品有关。而在其中的三座城市里，与犯罪有关的帮会谋杀要少于3%。
　　That the great majority of gang homicides involve a firearm and took place in public suggests that inter-gang conflict and retaliation 3 (perhaps territory disputes, personal beefs or just defending reputations) as the main causes of killings. Newark, New Jersey 4, however is an exception. The proportion of drug-related gang homicides there was significantly greater than with those not reckoned to be gang-related (20% compared with 5.5%). Newark’s police director, Samuel DeMaio, points out that in his city drug dealers 5 do belong to gangs, and drug money is more important than gang affiliation 6. He has seen rival gangs work together to organise 7 drug corridors.
　　大量的帮会谋杀中都使用了枪械，并发生在公共场合，这说明帮会内部争斗和恩怨情仇（比如地盘纠纷，个人恩怨或只是为了维护名声）成了帮会杀戮的主要原因。但在纽瓦克和新泽西则例外。在这两个城市涉嫌毒品的谋杀案件里，有20%与帮会有关，而认定与帮会无关的比例只为5.5%。纽瓦克警察总长，Samuel DeMaio指出，城市中毒贩有帮派背景，贩毒收入要远比入会缴纳要重要的多。没有永远的敌人，只有永恒的利益。他甚者了解到有相互敌对的帮派联手，保证贩毒通道的通畅。
　　America is estimated to have over 33,000 gangs, with approximately 1.4m members; the great bulk of these are in cities. The CDC report confirms previous findings that murders are (rather unsurprisingly) male-dominated, and gang-related ones even more so. In Los Angeles males account for 95% of gang murder victims. A significant proportion of gang killings are also of ethnic 8 minorities, and of young; 60% of gang homicides were 15-24 years old, compared with less than 30% among non-gang victims. Deterring 9 adolescents and young adults from joining gangs seems like the best way of keeping them alive.
　　据估计，美国有三万三千多个帮派组织，总共有大约一百四十万黑帮分子。其中他们中的绝大部分分散在城市的角落中。疾病控制及预防中心所公布的报告与之前的调查结果相一致。杀人犯中以男性为绝大多数（毫无意外），而与帮会案件有关的犯罪者男性比例更高。在洛杉矶，帮会谋杀的对象中95%为男性。另外，在帮会谋杀中，年轻人和少数种族人群所占比重极高。参与帮会谋杀的罪犯中，年龄在15至24岁之间比例为60%，与之形成鲜明对比的是与帮派无关的受害者中，这一年龄段的比例不到30%。阻止懵懂无知的青少年和血气方刚的小伙子陷入帮会的泥潭似乎成了挽回他们宝贵生命的制胜法宝。