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15 Crime Media Culture 3 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/cmctre15 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Crime Media Culture 2019, Vol. 15(1) 3-23 In the 'h200d': Crips and the 0TeAtos)21 O The Author(s) 2017 intersection between space and r -eusuielies Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions identity in the Netherlands DOl 10.1177/1741659017729002 journals.sagepub com/home/cmc OSAGE Robert A Roks Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands Abstract Since the early 1 990s, there have been reports in the Netherlands of groups of youngsters calling themselves Crips and Bloods. In this article, I will focus on the case of the Dutch Rollin 200 Crips from the city of The Hague, drawing on three years of fieldwork (2011-2013) in a small neighbourhood that this Dutch 'gang' claims as their 'h200d'. The history of the Rollin 200 Crips shows their deeply rooted connection to the locality, whilst the influences from global street and gang cultures simultaneously resonates in both the name of the gang and their street spatial practices. By looking at the ways these Dutch Crips engage in acts of territoriality, I want to build on Ilan's (2013: 5-7; 2015: 75) and Fraser's (2013, 2015) observations that there is a need to revisit some of the assumptions that underpin the understanding of street spatial practices and specifically the way young people understand and construct space and identity. This case study highlights the interconnection between space and identity, both in terms of how the gang identity of these Dutch Crips influences their usage of space, but also how space is used in the construction of personal identities. Keywords Ethnography, gangs, identity, space, territoriality Introduction 'I learned about the Crips from right here, from hanging around the neighbourhood. Later on, I found out that you also have Crips in Los Angeles, in the United States'. Kerim, a 20-odd years old Turkish youngster, told me this during the final stage of my three years of fieldwork. In line with Van Gemert's (1998: 48) expectations about the global dissemination of the Crip brand, for some youngsters from the Netherlands the Rollin 200 Crips are seen as a local phenomenon rather than Corresponding author: Robert A Roks, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Department of Criminology, Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam, 3000 DR, the Netherlands. Email: roks@law.eur.nl