Views from the Streets: The Transformation of Gangs and Violence on Chicago's South Side

Roberto Aspholm

Published by Columbia University Press 2019

Views from the Streets

The Transformation of Gangs and Violence on Chicago's South Side

Roberto Aspholm

In the series Studies in Transgression

https://doi.org/10.7312/asph18772

Overview
Contents

About this book

Views from the Streets explains the dramatic transformation of black street gangs on Chicago’s South Side during the early twenty-first century. Drawing on years of community work and in-depth interviews with gang members, Roberto R. Aspholm sheds new light on why gang violence persists and what might be done to address it.

Author / Editor information

Roberto R. Aspholm is assistant professor of social work at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Reviews

David Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago:
Aspholm dares to tell a complex and layered story of life in Chicago. By dismissing the commonplace deficit-based narratives on Black life in street organizations (gangs), readers are challenged to confront the residual affects of disinvestment and displacement. Instead of a 'gang problem,' Chicago has a white supremacy problem rooted in tactics of fracture, isolation, marginalization, and containment.

Andrew Papachristos, Northwestern University:
In Views from the Streets, Aspholm brings research on Chicago gangs into the twenty-first century where social media, cell phones, and an unabashed sense of individualism and democracy have brought about the demise of the city’s once monolithic corporate gangs. Aspholm's nuanced study provides a new—and much needed—theoretical lens on contemporary gang life that will set the stage for a new generation of gang scholars.

Cedric Johnson, author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics:
In this path-breaking book, Roberto R. Aspholm reminds us that our understandings of contemporary gang culture remain mired in nostalgia and urban legend. Views from the Streets provides an unprecedented look at the new social dynamics resulting from public housing demolitions, displacement, and pervasive carceral control. It is indispensable reading for anyone wishing to understand contemporary gangs and for all who hope to end urban violence.

John Hagedorn, author of A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture:
The most important book on Chicago gangs in decades, Views from the Streets vividly describes how and why African American gangs in Chicago fractured and radically transformed. In recounting this story, Roberto R. Aspholm gives voice to the anguished cries of young men trying desperately to create meaning in impossible conditions.

Robert Garot, author of Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity in School and on the Streets:
I am very excited about Views from the Streets. It addresses central questions in contemporary gang research: What’s going on in Chicago? Why have the highly touted interventions there had little effect? Why are there so many killings? It does so by offering what is deeply needed but rarely accomplished in this field: a grounded analysis providing a convincing, cogent understanding of local history and social dynamics. Moreover and most refreshingly, it appreciates rather than ironicizes and pathologizes the voices of gang members. This is the book I’ve been waiting for: a nuanced explanation that matters.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter One. The Shattering of Chicago’s Black Street Gangs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
Chapter Two. From Street Organizations to Cliques: Black Street Gangs in Chicago Today Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Chapter Three. The Anatomy of Contemporary Gang Violence in Chicago Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Chapter Four. Understanding the Persistence of Gangs and Violence in Chicago Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Chapter Five. A Critical Appraisal of Violence Prevention Failures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Conclusion. Reducing Gang Violence from the Streets Up Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
APPENDIX: NOTES ON POSITIONALITY, THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION, AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
A PARTIAL GLOSSARY OF CHICAGO GANG SLANG Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 9780231547437