"The only native American criminal class is politicians."
In fiction, gangs tend to share a few common traits:
The second and fourth points are commonly played for drama, as combined they easily
spark conflict. A common convention is to have gangs of different ethnicities compete with each other, such as
The Irish Mob vs.
The Mafia.
See
Ruthless Foreign Gangsters. In terms of
Alike and Antithetical Adversaries, these guys fall on the "homogenous" side of the scale.
The most common types of gangs are:
Other ethnic gangs are:
Black Gangsters:
The classier, more organized version of
Gang Bangers (who frequently despair at the latter and wish they'd
Stop Being Stereotypical). Compare with
The Yardies, who are British/West Indian.
East Asian and Southeast Asian gangsters:
Eastern European Gangsters:
These gangs take advantage of the
instability in the Balkans and flourished after the fall of communism. Stereotypically linked to people-smuggling, heroin, and
forced prostitution.
Greek Gangsters:
Greek Gangs seem to be the go-to Ethnic Crime Gang for antiquities smuggling and gun-running; illegal (non-casino) gambling is another favorite.
Latin American Gangsters:
Some can overlap with
The Cartel, but
The Cartel tends to be strictly based on drugs and has a physical base in South America.
Gangsters with obscure ethnicities
- The Indigenous Australian (Torres Strait Islanders) crime syndicate in The Straits smuggles drugs in one of the most naturally beautiful parts of the world (North Australia and Papua New Guinea). They also deal with Asian and Papua New Guinean criminal franchises. In this case, one of the co-founders of the indigenous crime gang is of Maltese ethnicity, however.
- A throwaway line in Leverage referring to a "New Zealand mafia" somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Even the characters are surprised.
- The second and fourth seasons of Engrenages feature North African mobs in France. The fourth season additionally has a Kurdish gangster family.
- Transhuman Space has the Maple Syndicate, which as the name suggests is Canadian.
- The Tauron Ha'la'tha from Caprica fits all four points (family-oriented with an old patriarch—the Guatrau—honor and loyalty, very organized, and all Taurons), despite including some elements of The Cartel (tattoos and rap, plus Taurons are Space Mexicans).
- In Mass Effect
- Ethnic Crime Gang seems to be the hat of the Vorcha. Pretty much all you ever get to meet seem to belong to street gangs.
- Though they usually have multi-species organizations, the Blue Skinned Space Babe race of the Asari seems to run almost all major crime in the galaxy. The asari planet Illium is officially a "special economic zone", but in reality that means it's a primary hub for everything that is illegal to sell elsewhere.
- BioWare also brought us the Carta, the dwarven mafia from Dragon Age. Much of the reason they're so prevalent is that dwarven society has a population of casteless dwarves, who are considered the lowest of the low and banned from legitimate occupations; their only choices are crime, begging, prostitution (or something close), cleaning the streets, or emigration (the last often considered a Fate Worse Than Death). Even those who emigrate often end up part of the surface Carta; these tend to smuggle lyrium to outcast ex-templars and apostate mages, among other things.
- Star Wars gives us the Hutts.
- The Breccia in Discworld are the Troll Mob. The name is something of a Genius Bonus, as breccia
is a kind of rock made from fragments of smaller rocks cemented together.
- The Orion Syndicate in Star Trek. While they have many operatives of various races, the whole thing is run by the Orions.
- In Traveller the planet Granicus is run by gangsters. There are three main syndicates, two of which consider it just business and have no particular ethnic associations. The third however is a Solomani-supremist cult.
- The Organization from the Dragaera novels is dominated by (and dominates) House Jhereg, although it also admits outcasts from other Houses and Easterners who buy their way in. Averted by the Left Hand, whose membership is mostly outcast, not Jhereg-born.
- In the Eclipse Phase setting most ethnic crime gangs with the exception of a few Triads were either wiped out entirely in the Fall or only survived as tattered remnants that eventually joined forces and became the Night Cartel.
