NCJ Number
146801
Journal
Sociological Quarterly Volume: 15 Dated: (Winter 1974) Pages: 3-19
Date Published
1974
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper surveys the changes in gangs in Chicago and other areas, with emphasis on the role of sociological processes at both the micro and macro levels.
Abstract
The late 1960's saw the emergence of a few major gangs whose political and economic activities attracted much attention. More recently, gangs apparently similar to those of the 1950's have become newsworthy again in several major cities. Research conducted in Chicago and elsewhere during the late 1950s and early 1960's suggests that delinquent gangs were rather innocent participants in the broad social trends of the times and that most gang members were relatively unaffected by the ideological currents associated with them. The primary effect on gangs was indirect, by changing the perceptions and attitudes of others toward gangs, and their behavior in relation to them. Gang life for most members of most gangs, individually and collectively, appears to have changed little in recent years. The prospects for channeling the energies of gangs into socially constructive programs seem bleak, because of the operation of group processes as well as the limited experiences and social abilities of most gang members. Basic structural limitations on opportunities for the poor and the powerless to achieve economic and political power provide the framework within which these processes operate today as in the past. Footnotes and 45 references (Author abstract modified)