NCJ Number
147802
Date Published
1964
Length
441 pages
Annotation
The phenomenon of small town gangs was studied in one such town (pseudonym: Freeport) in the midwest.
Abstract
Interviews were conducted among 20 members of four gangs and their cohorts. All of the gangs had formed and disbanded between 1958 and 1962. Similarities and differences between them and metropolitan gangs were noted. Racial and massive conflicts were not nearly as prominent as in cities; indeed, Freeport's gangs showed greater interracial tolerance than did its adult citizens. Like their city counterparts, the small town gang members showed intense emotional investment in the gang as well as various mischievous or delinquent practices which preceded their involvement in gangs, and increased while they were gang members. After the gangs broke up, all these activities, with the exceptions of drinking and sex, decreased. Most of the gang members valued education but were dropouts, yet attributed their dropping out to other dropouts, not gangs. The author faults Freeport's social workers for not effectively dealing with gangs. Bibliography, interview outline, 5 figures