Within the Mexican American barrios of Los Angeles, gang
activity, including crime and violent acts, has grown and
flourished. In the past, community leaders and law enforcement
officials have approached the problem, not as something that needs
to be understood, but only as something to be gotten rid of.
Rejecting that approach, James D. Vigil asserts that only by
understanding the complex factors that give birth and persistence
to gangs can gang violence be ended.
Drawing on many years of experience in the barrios as a youth
worker, high school teacher, and researcher, Vigil identifies the
elements from which gangs spring: isolation from the dominant
culture, poverty, family stress and crowded households, peer
pressure, and the adolescent struggle for self-identity. Using
interviews with actual gang members, he reveals how the gang often
functions as parent, school, and law enforcement in the absence of
other role models in the gang members' lives. And he accounts for
the longevity of gangs, sometimes over decades, by showing how they
offer barrio youth a sense of identity and belonging nowhere else
available.
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