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

• NCJ Number: 171580
• Author(s): L Yablonsky
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 257 pages
• Sale Source: New York University Press
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Intended primarily for sociologists, behavioral scientists, and therapists, this book considers how the American gang has evolved into its current structure, what prompts youth to participate in violent behavior, and what can be done to extract youth from the gangster world of crime and violence.

Abstract

The book is based on hundreds of the author's personal interviews with gangsters. Part 1 deals with the history and causal context of gangs, the realities of gang violence, and the dire consequences of the gang phenomenon. Part 2 analyzes various characteristics of contemporary gangs, and Part 3 presents traditional methods for preventing and controlling gang violence, including the therapeutic community approach that has proven successful in treating criminals/addicts and gangsters in prison and in the community. Part 4 reviews and analyzes notable gang theories and presents a projected plan for treating gangsters in a therapeutic community. The proposed treatment approaches are noted by the author to be the most important parts of the book. The section on treatment delineates a variety of interventions and approaches that have been effective and show promise for preventing and controlling gang violence. These include the enrichment of educational programs in the schools specially directed at gang-prone youths; family therapy; special job- training programs; special recreational and athletic facilities and programs in community centers; more vigorous outreach probation officers, with small caseloads, trained to understand gangs and resocialize at-risk youth; and the use of reformed former gangsters to direct gangsters into a positive lifestyle through therapeutic communities. A chapter on treating gangsters in a therapeutic community (TC) notes that a TC could use one of four possible organizational forms. One form is a standard community-based TC that houses and treats a variety of criminals/addicts. Another form is a special TC in the community that focuses only on the gangster problem. A third form is in a cellblock of a prison that deals with a variety of offenders, including violent gangsters. A fourth form is a special cellblock in a prison for core gangsters. Some of the treatment methods used in TCs are explained. Chapter notes and a subject index