Gangsters: 50 Years of Madness, Drugs, and Death on the Streets of America

Lewis Yablonsky

Published by New York University Press 1997

Gangsters

50 Years of Madness, Drugs, and Death on the Streets of America

Lewis Yablonsky

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814789131.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why young people participate in violent gang behavior

The effects of gang violence are witnessed every day on the streets, in the news, and on the movie screen. In all these forums, gangs of young adults are associated with drugs and violence. Yet what is it that prompts young people to participate in violent behavior? And what can be done to extract adolescents from the gangster world of crime, death, and incarceration once they have become involved?

In Gangsters: 50 Years of Madness, Drugs, and Death on the Streets of America, Lewis Yablonsky provides answers to the most baffling and crucial questions regarding gangs. Using information gathered from over forty years of experience working with gang members and based on hundreds of personal interviews, many conducted in prisons and in gang neighborhoods, Yablonsky explores the pathology of the gangsters' apparent addiction to incarceration and death.

Gangsters is divided into four parts, including a brief history of gangs, the characteristics of gangs, successful approaches for treating gangsters in prison and the community, and concluding with a review and analysis of notable behavioral and social scientific theories of gangs. While condemning their violent behavior in no uncertain terms, Yablonsky offers hope through his belief that, given a chance in an effective treatment program, youths trapped in violent behavior can change their lives in positive ways and, in turn, facilitate positive change in their communities and society at large.

Author / Editor information

Yablonsky Lewis :

Lewis Yablonsky is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Criminology at California State University-Northridge. He is the author of 15 best-selling books, including The Violent Gang, The Hippie Trip, Psychodrama

Reviews

Part memoir, part sociology, Yablonsky's story hooks readers from the start.
Yablonsky writes in an exceptionally readable idiom, frequently introducing autobiographical excerpts from his extensive files of working with gangs.
Robert Merton,Columbia University:
Gangsters is the acme volume from the master of the genre... Yablonsky's acute clinical observations during decades of field work are here nicely integrated with selected theories of contemporary gangs.

Topics

Social Sciences

Sociology

Sociology, other

Contents

Frontmatter

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Contents

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Acknowledgments

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Introduction

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Part one. Gangs: now & then

1. The current gang problem

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2. Gangs in the twentieth century

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Part two. The contemporary gang

3. Gang characteristics

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4. Black and Chicano gangs: in and out of prison

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5. Why gangs kill: the sociopath factor

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Part three. Treatment approaches

6. Some effective interventions

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7. The therapeutic community approach to gangs

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Part four. Gang theories & treatment

8. Varied theoretical viewpoints

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9. The violent gang as a near-group

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10. Joining a positive gang: a plan for treating gangsters in a therapeutic community

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Notes

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Index

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Language: English

Publisher: New York University Press

Copyright year: 1997

Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: February 1, 1997

ISBN: 9780814789131