NCJ Number
177108
Date Published
1997
Length
463 pages
Annotation
This is a sourcebook of suggested tactics, strategies, profiles, and explanations to assist police in combating Asian and Asian-American criminal activities and improving a variety of police relationships with the various Asian-American communities.
Abstract
At various levels of complexity, the book contains crime- relevant descriptions of Asian ideas, including Chinese criminal "networking" and Vietnamese "village mentality" as well as cross- cultural aspects of interviewing, interrogation, intelligence, records, trials, name-identification, codes, Triads, and Tongs, gangs, personal relations, funerals, family, food, colors, number, holidays, calendars, and general social behavior with police. Street-relevant cultural knowledge for gang specialists, detectives, and intelligence analysts is provide in overviews about Asian religions, legal systems, medicine, and languages and scripts. Also included is an explanation of why differences between cultures are important for them. To help in cross- cultural understanding, there are substantial ethnic profiles and comparisons among American, Chinese, and Vietnamese world views or "mindsets." Also, the need for the preservation of hard-won, street-wise strategies police already possess, but which are usually ignored and seldom preserved, is considered. Finally, suggestions are offered for the expansion and coordination of additional sources and topics in planning cross-cultural, in- service training programs to meet the challenge of increasing cultural diversity in North America and the expanding internationalization of organized crime. 252 notes, a subject index, a glossary, and appended supplementary information on Asian cultural concepts