The hoods crime and punishment in Belfast - Hamill, Heather (Princeton University Press, 2011)
Includes bibliographical references and index
West Belfast -- The hoods -- Search for status -- Signaling games -- Loyalists
A distinctive feature of the conflict in Northern Ireland over the past forty years has been the way Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries have policed their own communities. This has mainly involved the violent punishment of petty criminals involved in joyriding and other types of antisocial behavior. Between 1973 and 2007, more than 5,000 nonmilitary shootings and assaults were attributed to paramilitaries punishing their own people. But despite the risk of severe punishment, young petty offenders--known locally as "hoods"--Continue to offend, creating a puzzle for the rational theory of cr