Gangs in New York City

and the East Coast

The politics of rebellion and revolution have always been strong in New York City. Many New York City gangs today see themselves as part of this political tradition.

New York City Gangs.

Getting Paid: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City by Mercer L. Sullivan

The best contemporary book looking at neighborhood variation and gangs. Written before the crack era, the information economy, and the declines in crime.

1989. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York by Eric C. Schneider

A book which puts the postwar cycles of gang activity in New York in context. One of a growing number of new studies outside traditional criminological theory. Despite a welcome emphasis on masculinity, a very male-centered analysis.

1999. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

The Girls in the Gang by Anne Campbell

Female gangs in 1970s New York City in a classic peice of field research.

1984 . Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd.

Racketville, Slumtown, Haulberg by Irving A. Spergel

Spergel's early work was an application of Cloward and Ohlin's theory. It is even more important today to understand how neighborhood conditions influence gang behavior.

1964. Chicago: University of Chicago.

The Violent Gang. by Lewis Yablonsky

Yablonsky's description of gangs in the fifties and early sixties has provided the theoretical basis for those who see gangs as irrational, hyper-violent, and disorganized.

1966. New York: The MacMillian Company

The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury.

Not in Thrasher's league, but an invaluable historical account.

1939 New York: Alfred A. Knopf

Black Mafia by Francis Ianni.

The importance of the illicit economy was central in this book. Change in ethncity in poor neighborhoods also meant changes in the production of illegal goods and services.

1975 . New York: Simon & Shuster.

Growing Up Poor by William Kornblum and Terry Williams

A classic, sympathetic treatment of the problems of growing up poor in New York. An early treatment of hustling and the drug business as well. What I liked was the writing project that Kornblum and Williams organized for the kids in the study.

1985. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.

Taking Care of Business: The Economics of Crime by Heroin Abusers by Bruce D. Johnson, Paul J. Goldstein, Edward Preble, James Schmeidler, Douglas S. Lispton, Barry Spunt, and Thomas Miller

An often forgotten classic. Paul Goldstein of UIC was among the NDRI ethnographers who looked carefully at how active heroin users had to be to make a living and how much money they made.

1985. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath & Company.

Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas

One of the best portrayals ever of life on the streets and the Puerto Rican experience.

1967 New York: Vintage Books.

The Cocaine Kids. by Terry Williams. The Crackhouse by Terry Williams

On the spot ethnography of the beginning of the crack epidemic in New York. Clear and compelling reading.

1989 Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.1992 New York: Penguin.

Dual City: Restructuring New York, edted by John Hull Mollenkopf and Manuel Castells

This early editged volume lays a framework for understanding the political economy of New York. The introduction and conclusion are prescient and groundbreaking.

1991. New York: Russell Sage.

Baltimore and Boston Gangs.

Baltimore:

The Corner: A Year in the Life of An Inner-City Neighborhood by David T. Simon.

This is first rate journalism. It looks at the drug-using street corner world in Baltimore. The young men described by Simon are a bit different than the gang members of much delinqeuncy gang research.

1997 . New York: Broadway Books.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon and Edward Burns 1991

This is the book the TV series is based on and is one of the best cop book ever written. Its descriptions of the extent of drug and gang involvement with homicide supports Paul Goldstein's and my research findings.

1991. New York. Ivy Books.

Boston:

Ain't No Makin' It: Leveled Aspirations in a Low- Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod.

Looks at white and African American peer groups in the Boston area.

1987 Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children and Their American Dreams by Carl Husemoller Nightengale

1993. New York: Basic Books.

Street Corner Society by William Foote Whyte

Whyte's classic ethnography finds networks and organization, where others found disorganization. Whyte's careful documentation of street corner and illicit networks is must reading for gang researchers today.

1943 Chicago: University of Chicago