NCJ Number
173291
Date Published
1995
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Data from Milwaukee are used to examine the persistence of gangs in deindustrialized urban areas and to challenge the applicability of the tenets of social disorganization theory to the understanding of gangs.
Abstract
The analysis focuses on the demographic, social, and economic changes and suggests that the resulting loss of opportunities to mature out of delinquent activity explains the persistence of gangs in some urban areas. The discussion notes that gangs in Milwaukee are situated in historical circumstances that have both similarities and differences from previous times. Milwaukee offers a good example of urban demographic changes in the United States over the last 60 years. Its ethnic working class is rapidly moving to the suburbs, leaving the decaying central city to blacks and Hispanics. A majority of black children in Milwaukee now live in poverty. Milwaukee's ethnic gangs of the 1980s have some similarities to the immigrant gangs of the past, because gangs have always formed from powerless minorities. However, the immigrant gangs of the past had a role in their communities' political life. In contrast, the intensity of the experience of racism and the demonstrated lack of political influence of black middle-class leaders has contributed to the deep sense of frustration and antagonism of black youth. Thus, today's black gangs in Milwaukee are alienated even from their own communities. Figure, notes, and 35 references