Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence

by Scott H. Decker , Barrik van Winkle

• ISBN13: 9780521565660
• ISBN10: 0521565669
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This study is based on three years of field work with ninety-nine active gang members and twenty-four family members. The book describes the attractiveness of gangs, the process of joining, their chaotic and loose organization, and their members' predominant activities--mostly hanging out, drinking, and using drugs--and their rather slapdash involvement in major property crime and drug traffic. Extensive interviews with family members provide groundbreaking insights into the gang members' lives, and the story is told largely in the gang members' own words.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. 'Are you claiming?': methods of study

3. 'I'm down with the Bloods, what's up cuz?': individual issues

4. 'We ain't no worldwide thing or nothing': group membership issues

5. 'Where you hanging?': minor crime and gang members

6. 'I love to bang': serious crime by gang members

7. Gang members and social institutions

8. Gang members and their families

9. Responding to gangs: theory and policy

References.