Youth Gangs in Literature

Youth Gangs in Literature PDF Author: Claudia Durst Johnson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031306167X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Gang culture is one of the most volatile issues to have impacted young people throughout history and around the world. By focusing on the fictional representation of youth gangs, this work presents a unique perspective on an all-too-real phenomenon and its many manifestations. Organized chronologically and topically, the volume begins with a powerful essay tracing the origins and developments of youth gangs, from the early days of the Wild West to immigration gangs in 19th- and 20th-century America and the Twenty chapters, each introduced with a primary document, fully explore the different types of gangs, identifying their time, place, struggles, and demographic character. Included are the early gangs of New York City, prison gangs, Asian gangs, school gangs, African American gangs, and girl gangs. Each chapter analyzes one or more works of fiction in terms of its thematic message and the light it sheds on the nature of the depicted gang situation. The examined fiction will be of special interest to students and educators, and includes works often found on assigned reading lists, such as The Chocolate War, The Outsiders, and Lord of the Flies. Popular works, such as Gangs of New York, provide an historical perspective on early immigrant gangs, while presenting timeless themes of identity struggles that resonate for young people everywhere. In addition to the literary works and primary documents, suggestions for additional titles and sources for further information on the topics are offered.

Youth Gangs in Literature

Youth Gangs in Literature PDF Author: Claudia Durst Johnson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031306167X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Gang culture is one of the most volatile issues to have impacted young people throughout history and around the world. By focusing on the fictional representation of youth gangs, this work presents a unique perspective on an all-too-real phenomenon and its many manifestations. Organized chronologically and topically, the volume begins with a powerful essay tracing the origins and developments of youth gangs, from the early days of the Wild West to immigration gangs in 19th- and 20th-century America and the Twenty chapters, each introduced with a primary document, fully explore the different types of gangs, identifying their time, place, struggles, and demographic character. Included are the early gangs of New York City, prison gangs, Asian gangs, school gangs, African American gangs, and girl gangs. Each chapter analyzes one or more works of fiction in terms of its thematic message and the light it sheds on the nature of the depicted gang situation. The examined fiction will be of special interest to students and educators, and includes works often found on assigned reading lists, such as The Chocolate War, The Outsiders, and Lord of the Flies. Popular works, such as Gangs of New York, provide an historical perspective on early immigrant gangs, while presenting timeless themes of identity struggles that resonate for young people everywhere. In addition to the literary works and primary documents, suggestions for additional titles and sources for further information on the topics are offered.

YOUTH GANGS

YOUTH GANGS PDF Author: Robert J. Franzese
Publisher: Charles C Thomas Publisher
ISBN: 0398091072
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
In the quarter century since the first edition of this book, scholarship on gangs in general, and especially youth gangs, has grown exponentially. This massive expansion of the literature on youth gangs, especially in the past decade, warranted this expanded and updated fourth edition. The first chapter has an expanded discussion of definitional issues, plus recent data from the National Youth Gang Survey, material on the evolving economic nature of gangs, and gang use of internet and social media. The second chapter continues by examining gang violence and drug involvement, and the extent to which they are intercorrelated, with new material on victimization of gang members and gang involvement in drug use and sales. Chapter 3 focuses on racial and ethnic decadences in gangs and the important role of race and ethnicity on gang membership and gang behavior in the U.S. The fourth chapter examines female gangs and gang membership and the changes that have taken place in the nature and extent of female gang membership over time. The fifth and sixth chapters place contemporary American gangs in the historical and international perspective. Chapter 5 includes a new section on youth gangs in the new millennium, and Chapter 6 has been reorganized, particularly to reflect the burgeoning research on European and other international gangs since the turn of the millennium. Chapter 7 has been expanded to include recent developments in the actual and potential application of biosocial, psychological, and life course developmental theories to gangs. Chapter 8 provides a comprehensive, multilevel theory of gangs with updates including new propositions, and new evidence for both the new and old propositions, based on more recent work in theory development and theory testing for gangs. The ninth and tenth chapters’ revisions focus on legislative and justice system efforts to deter gang crime and membership. Chapter 10 also focuses on intervention and assistance programs outside the justice system, including discussion of the Gang Resistance Education and Training program. The final chapter concludes by considering the future of youth gangs in the U.S. and elsewhere in light of historical and cross-national evidence, theory, and experience with gang interventions and programs, considering more recent developments in those areas, and whether they justify any change and for what would be expected of the future of youth gangs.

Studying Youth Gangs

Studying Youth Gangs PDF Author: James F. Short
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759109391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Provides an introduction to the study of gangs how we define them, what we know and not know about gangs. This title offers both a domestic and international view of processes of delinquency and gang formation and identity. It is suitable for criminal justice, sociology and social work, parole practitioners, and public defenders.

The History of Street Gangs in the United States

The History of Street Gangs in the United States PDF Author: James C. Howell
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498511333
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This book is an historical account of the emergence of youth gangs and the transformation of these into street gangs in the United States. The author traces the emergence of these gangs in the four major geographical regions over the span of two centuries, from the early 1800s to 2012. The author’s authoritative analysis explains gang emergence and expansion from play groups to heavily armed street gangs responsible for a large proportion of urban crimes, including drive-by shootings that often kill innocent bystanders. Nationwide, street gangs now account for 1 in 6 homicides each year, and for 1 in 4 in very large cities. In recent years, the number of gangs, gang members, and gang homicides increased, even though the U.S. has seen a sharp drop in violent and property crimes over the past decade. The author’s historical analysis reveals the key contributing factors to transformation of youth gangs, including social disorganization that occurred following large-scale immigration early in American history and urban policies that pushed minorities to inner city areas and public housing projects. This analysis includes the influence of prison gangs on street gangs. The first generation of prison gangs emerged spontaneously in response to dangers inside prisons. The second generation was for many years extensions of street gangs that grew enormously during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in large urban areas in which public housing projects have served as incubators for street gangs. The third generation of prison gangs is extremely active in street-level criminal enterprises in varied forms, often highly structured and well managed organizations that are actively involved in drug trafficking. In recent years, returning inmates are a predominant influence on local gang violence. Now, prison gangs and street gangs often work together in street-level criminal enterprises. This book identifies the most promising ways that gang violence can be reduced. The best long-term approach is a combination of gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies and programs. Targeted suppression of gang violence is imperative. Street-workers that serve as violence interrupters can break the cycle of contagious gang violence.

Youth Gangs in American Society

Youth Gangs in American Society PDF Author: Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Cengage Learning
ISBN: 9781133049562
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This comprehensive and widely respected survey of the literature on gangs and gang activities in America includes theoretical perspectives on why gangs exist, gang typologies, descriptions of gang activities, and various intervention strategies for dealing with gangs. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Youth Street Gangs

Youth Street Gangs PDF Author: David C. Brotherton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135005958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Gangs have been heavily pathologized in the last several decades. In comparison to the pioneering Chicago School's work on gangs in the 1920s we have moved away from a humanistic appraisal of and sensitivity toward the phenomenon and have allowed the gang to become a highly plastic folk devil outside of history. This pathologization of the gang has particularly negative consequences for democracy in an age of punishment, cruelty and coercive social control. This is the central thesis of David Brotherton’s new and highly contentious book on street gangs. Drawing on a wealth of highly acclaimed original research, Brotherton explores the socially layered practices of street gangs, including community movements, cultural projects and sites of social resistance. The book also critically reviews gang theory and the geographical trajectories of streets gangs from New York and Puerto Rico to Europe, the Caribbean and South America, as well as state-sponsored reactions and the enabling role of orthodox criminology. In opposition to the dominant gang discourses, Brotherton proposes the development of a critical studies approach to gangs and concludes by making a plea for researchers to engage the gang reflexively, paying attention to the contradictory agency of the gang and what gang members actually tell us. The book is essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of juvenile delinquency, youth studies, deviance, gang studies and cultural criminology.

Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings

Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings PDF Author: Eric C. Schneider
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691223300
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
They called themselves "Vampires," "Dragons," and "Egyptian Kings." They were divided by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood boundaries, but united by common styles, slang, and codes of honor. They fought--and sometimes killed--to protect and expand their territories. In postwar New York, youth gangs were a colorful and controversial part of the urban landscape, made famous by West Side Story and infamous by the media. This is the first historical study to explore fully the culture of these gangs. Eric Schneider takes us into a world of switchblades and slums, zoot suits and bebop music to explain why youth gangs emerged, how they evolved, and why young men found membership and the violence it involved so attractive. Schneider begins by describing how postwar urban renewal, slum clearances, and ethnic migration pitted African-American, Puerto Rican, and Euro-American youths against each other in battles to dominate changing neighborhoods. But he argues that young men ultimately joined gangs less because of ethnicity than because membership and gang violence offered rare opportunities for adolescents alienated from school, work, or the family to win prestige, power, adulation from girls, and a masculine identity. In the course of the book, Schneider paints a rich and detailed portrait of everyday life in gangs, drawing on personal interviews with former members to re-create for us their language, music, clothing, and social mores. We learn what it meant to be a "down bopper" or a "jive stud," to "fish" with a beautiful "deb" to the sounds of the Jesters, and to wear gang sweaters, wildly colored zoot suits, or the "Ivy League look." He outlines the unwritten rules of gang behavior, the paths members followed to adulthood, and the effects of gang intervention programs, while also providing detailed analyses of such notorious gang-related crimes as the murders committed by the "Capeman," Salvador Agron. Schneider focuses on the years from 1940 to 1975, but takes us up to the present in his conclusion, showing how youth gangs are no longer social organizations but economic units tied to the underground economy. Written with a profound understanding of adolescent culture and the street life of New York, this is a powerful work of history and a compelling story for a general audience.

Youth Gangs in International Perspective

Youth Gangs in International Perspective PDF Author: Finn-Aage Esbensen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461416582
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
As a steady source of juvenile delinquents and an incubator for future adult offenders, the youth gang has long been a focus of attention, from their origins and prevalence to intervention and prevention strategies. But while delinquent youth form gangs worldwide, youth gang research has generally focused on the U.S. Youth Gangs in International Perspective provides a needed corrective by offering significant studies from across Europe, as well as Trinidad-Tobago and Israel. The book spans the diversity of the field in the cultural and scholarly traditions represented and methods used, analyzing not only the social processes under which gangs operate and cohere, but also the evolution of the research base, starting with the Eurogang Program’s definition of the term youth gang. Cross-national and gender issues are discussed, as are measurement concerns and the possibility that the American conception of the youth gang is impeding European understanding of these groups. Among the topics covered: Gang dynamics through the lens of social identity theory. Defining gangs in youth correctional settings. Gang gender composition and youth delinquency. From Stockholm: a holistic approach to gang intervention. Gang membership as a turning point in the life course. The impact of globalization, immigration, and social process on neo-Nazi youth gangs. Filling a critical gap in the literature, Youth Gangs in International Perspective will find a wide audience among criminologists, policymakers specializing in youth crime, and researchers and graduate students in criminology, political science, and youth studies.

Youth in Crisis?

Youth in Crisis? PDF Author: Barry Goldson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136833293
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Few issues attract greater concern and censure than those that surround youth 'gangs'. Comprising a series of essays from leading national and international researchers, this book subjects such claims to rigorous critical scrutiny. It provides a challenging and authoritative account of complex questions pertaining to urban youth identities, crime and social order.

The Bandana Republic

The Bandana Republic PDF Author: Louis Reyes Rivera
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458780988
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Urban youth gangs and street associations are viewed more often than not as training grounds for thugs and felons. Left out are their members' emotional sensitivities, their political consciousness, their individual and collective capacities to assess the social conditions that gave rise to the need for such associations. Not included in the popular dialogue on gangs is the creative impulse that has continued to manifest in popular culture - from the birth of the Blues to Rag Time and Swing, to BeBop, Doo Wop and Hip Hop. From the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to the Black Panther Party, Brown Berets, Young Lords and Brownstone Rangers to the height of the Civil Rights Movement to our current Hip Hop culture, urban gang rhetoric and its symbolisms have informed almost every major social movement of this century. They have also played a role in protecting neighborhoods, initiating food and clothing drives and in taking on housing-related issues such as gentrification. The Bandana Republic, A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and Their Affiliates, edited by Louis Reyes Rivera and Bruce George with a foreword by Jim Brown focuses on creative literature written by adolescents from such contemporary gangs as by Chaplains, Bishops, Sportsmen, Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Black Spades, Neta, Black Gangster Disciples and others. Includes work by former gang members who have gone beyond gangbanging and into the social and cultural arenas. The anthology showcases writing by Alicia Benjamin-Samuels, Oscar Brown Jr., Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr., Commander, Comrade X, Layding Kaliba, Dead Prez, Ruby Dee, Shaggy Flores, Erica Ford, The Last Poets, Jesus Papoleto Melendez, Akua Njeri, Willie Perdomo, T. Rodgers, Luis J. Rodriguez, Leila Steinberg, Kublai Toure, Ted Wilson, Malik Yoba, and many more - all of whom have either come from urban gangs or were closely affiliated with street-based organizations. Like many adolescents, they initially attached themselves to the available rough-n-tumble street role models, becoming active gang members and adopting ''the ways of the street.'' Inside of this framework, and in spite of the stereotypical conventional wisdom concerning street gangs, they were also reared into the creative aspirations of their respective communities. Not just dancing and styling, but reading and studying, learning to develop the gall to give voice to the voice.