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When the Soviet Union collapsed, the White House announced with great fanfare that 100 FBI counterintelligence agents would be reassigned. Their new target: street gangs. Americans--filled with fear of crack-dealing gangs--cheered the decision, as did many big-city police departments. But this ...

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the White House announced with great fanfare that 100 FBI counterintelligence agents would be reassigned. Their new target: street gangs. Americans--filled with fear of crack-dealing gangs--cheered the decision, as did many big-city police departments. But this highly publicized move could be an experience in futility, suggests Malcolm Klein: for one thing, most street gangs have little to do with the drug trade. The American Street Gang provides the finest portrait of this subject ever produced--a detailed accounting, through statistics, interviews, and personal experience, of what street gangs are, how they have changed, their involvement in drug sales, and why we have not been able to stop them. Klein has been studying street gangs for more than thirty years, and he brings a sophisticated understanding of the problem to bear in this often surprising book. In contrast to the image of rigid organization and military-style leadership we see in the press, he writes, street gangs are usually loose bodies of associates, with informal and multiple leadership. Street gangs, he makes clear, are quite distinct from drug gangs--though they may share individual members. In a drug-selling operation tight discipline is required--the members are more like employees--whereas street gangs are held together by affiliation and common rivalries, with far less discipline. With statistics and revealing anecdotes, Klein offers a strong critique of the approach of many law enforcement agencies, which have demonized street gangs while ignoring the fact that they are the worst possible bodies for running disciplined criminal operations--let alone colonizing other cities. On the other hand, he shows that street gangs do spur criminal activity, and he demonstrates the shocking rise in gang homicides and the proliferation of gangs across America. Ironically, he writes, the liberal approach to gangs advocated by many (assigning a social worker to a gang, organizing non-violent gang activities) can actually increase group cohesion, which leads to still more criminal activity. And programs to erode that cohesion, Klein tells us from personal experience, can work--but they require intensive, exhausting effort. Street gangs are a real and growing problem in America--but the media and many law enforcement officials continue to dispense misleading ideas about what they are and what they do. In The American Street Gang, Malcolm Klein challenges these assumptions with startling new evidence that must be understood if we are to come to grips with this perceived crisis.

"A penetrating analysis of the many complex involvements in understanding gangs & work with gang members. Touches all bases from contextual determinants & the etiology of gangs to psychological assessment of individual, developmental, & family dynamics of gang members to creative, interventive ...

"A penetrating analysis of the many complex involvements in understanding gangs & work with gang members. Touches all bases from contextual determinants & the etiology of gangs to psychological assessment of individual, developmental, & family dynamics of gang members to creative, interventive strategies & outcome research models. A must-study for all who are interested in this frightening, escalating problem." Elaine Pinderhughes Boston College Graduate School of Social Work "This excellent book provides the most comprehensive work to date on clinical interventions with gang-involved adolescents & their families.... A must for professionals in the mental health & social service fields." Nancy Boyd-Franklin Rutgers University; author of Black Families in Therapy: A Multisystems Approach

Decade by decade, this resource offers an overview of all aspects of American teenagers' lives from 1900 to 1999, as they evolved through the century. Using a variety of sources from sociological studies to popular magazines, this work shows how teens have responded to the political events that have ...

Decade by decade, this resource offers an overview of all aspects of American teenagers' lives from 1900 to 1999, as they evolved through the century. Using a variety of sources from sociological studies to popular magazines, this work shows how teens have responded to the political events that have characterized each decade. It also describes the patterns that have affected their home, work, and school lives, patterns of dating and sex, trends in alcohol and drug use, teen tastes in books and movies, and use of slang and fashion. Seventy illustrations make the personalities, interests, and media of each decade come alive for students of history, literature, and popular culture.