NCJ Number
128074
Journal
Future Choices Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1990) Pages: 31-39
Date Published
1990
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The experience of the Jesse White Tumbling Team in Chicago shows how one organization successfully matches and transforms the appeals and functions of gangs for disenfranchised youth through a structure that remarkably parallels the defining features of gangs.
Abstract
Since 1959, Jesse White has supported an attractive, organized alternative to the gangs for almost 1,100 youth in the Cabrini-Green housing project. The organization's success also challenges claims about the inevitability of gang membership and involvement in destructive activities for minority youth from disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. The research literature shows that gangs provide identity and belonging and give a sense of discipline, power, and safety typically unavailable in their schools, communities, and families. They often provide financial benefits as well. The Jesse White Tumbling Team is similar to gangs in its structure and discipline, its use of uniforms to signify membership, its provision of material rewards through efforts in job placement and college scholarships, and its provision of group identity and security. By emphasizing the positive aspects and interests of youth, it provides the peer approval, community status, group cohesiveness, and support necessary to direct the members' social behavior in a positive way. Reference notes