gangster
Gangsters earn their living through criminal acts such as theft and robbery , drug and arms trafficking , extortion and corruption .
The word comes from American English and emphasizes the belonging of the petty criminal or criminal to a street gang or the like.
etymology
The term gangster originally comes from English and essentially describes people acting in a gang .
The gangster - whether as an individual or in a gang - is by no means to be equated with persons of organized crime . For this purpose, the term mobster exists in English and in the narrower sense refers to people who belong to a mafia , Cosa Nostra or the American Cosa Nostra .
For the classic single perpetrator - e.g. B. for a drug dealer or pickpocket - the term “hustler” (“ crook ”, “swindler” etc.) is also used in English .
Adaptations
A slight modification of the term since the financial crisis from 2007 spoke of "banksters" in order to subordinate frivolous and irresponsible handling of Bankers (Engl. For " banker criminally denouncing") with other people's money than in principle.
In numerous gangster films - a film genre of crime films - gangsters are portrayed both positively and negatively. In addition to describing illegal activities, some films also deal with the social and / or psychological careers of the gangsters. The classic films of the genre peaked in the 1930s and established the myth of a life as a gangster.
The seemingly free and self-determined way of life of these outlaws and bandits still exudes a certain fascination , comparable to the idealization of some robbers , which is expressed in various cultural areas. So treated z. For example, gangsta rap is a cliché about the violence-oriented living environment of a US gangster - in the sense of “member of a (youth) gang”.
In certain computer games , the player takes on the role of a gangster or gang boss and tries alone or with the help of his gang members, starting from small beginnings and in constant disputes with rival gangs, the police and the FBI, to become the ruler of a city. Ongoing illegal activity and a significant amount of fictional violence in the midst of an otherwise civil setting are characteristic of gangster video games. Examples are the strategy games Gangsters: Organized Crime (1998), Mob Rule (1999), Gangsters 2 (2001), Gangland (2004), Crime Life: Gang Wars (2005), Omerta - City of Gangsters (2013) and Empire of Sin (2020), the action games Grand Theft Auto (1997 ff.), Saints Row (2006 ff.), Mafia (2002) and Mafia II (2010) and the role-playing game Downtown Mafia (2018).
