NCJ Number
181071
Journal
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume: 567 Issue: Special Issue Dated: January 2000 Pages: 42-53
Editor(s)
Alan W. Heston
Date Published
2000
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Based on 10 years of ethnographic field work in Hispanic communities in northern Illinois, this article discusses violence and vengeance among mostly young people and gang members.
Abstract
Four key points are made by the author. First, violence and vengeance represent attempts to establish order over escalating disorder. Vengeance often relies on a conviction regarding some higher moral order. Second, vengeance can operate as a kind of counter-ideology when values and beliefs of a legally based society seem hypocritical or unreliable. Third, when vengeance is considered as an ideology, the power of language to create a sense of what is real is acknowledged. Ideological language always hides something from view, and vengeance hides pain, fear, and other vulnerabilities that lie at the root of violence. Fourth, in acknowledging these roots, the possibility of another ideology begins to take shape, that ideology being trust. 11 references and 5 notes