DEAD END KIDS: GANG GIRLS AND THE BOYS THEY KNOW by Mark S. Fleisher. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. $24.95 Cloth. ISBN 0-299-15880-2.

Reviewed by Jim Quinn, Department of Criminal Justice, University of North Texas. Email: QUINN@scs.cmm.unt.edu.

This in-depth examination of the groups that mainstream America has come to call "street gangs" is well-researched and entertaining. Indeed, it is the best I have seen on the topic in many years. Much of this chronicle of life in the Kansas City ghetto is told in the words and dialect of "Cara," Fleisher’s principal informant, and her companions in the "Fremont Hustlers" and the "Northeast Gangsta’s." This ethnography is much more than an examination of the female sex role in a gang context; it unravels the complex social and economic linkages that create and maintain gangs. The overall picture it paints is less exciting than that provided by the evening news, but it is a far more accurate depiction of modern American gangs than can be found in many texts. By implication it even brings into question the generalizability of some gang studies focusing on Los Angeles, New York. and Chicago. Fleisher’s narrative cogently illustrates how urban poverty, family pathology and official neglect push kids into gangs and keep them there. Survival economics make these networks essential to their members; interpersonal affection and neighborhood loyalty among gang members seem like idyllic middle class myths from the perspective provided in this book.

Fleisher quickly shows that interpersonal relations among "gang members" are extremely complex and mercenary. Troubled homes, fear, and street logic combine to lock these youths into behavior that superficially appears motivated by personal loyalties and an irrational sense of honor. In reality, however, the survival needs of these youths guide their actions.

Fleisher’s observations burst the stereotype of gangs as "surrogate families" based on interpersonal affection or acceptance; they are economic networks used by "throwaway" youths to survive. The youths who depend on them have no alternatives, though some eventually recognize that their current lives offer no hope and are likely to end badly and quickly. As many gang researchers already suspect, lethal violence is discussed by these youths much more often than it is experienced. The paranoia that is both the cause and effect of intergroup violence is significant in assuring the transient solidarity that can occasionally be glimpsed among "gang members," however.

DEAD END KIDS provides imagery of gang life that is more mundane and pathetic, but also more believable and insightful, than most books of this genre. These gangs are neither tightly knit friendship groups nor drug syndicates. They are extremely fluid networks of association and barter, the latter being informal, unspoken and even unrecognized by the actors. Trust is an unfamiliar concept to these youths; sentiment and loyalty are luxuries they cannot afford. These gangs include a few very dangerous young men who are well-known on the street and to police and color the reputation of the group. However, these men are not leaders in any sense of the term. The groups have no form or structure; even the shifting and often imaginary structures and statuses of the "near group" are absent. We learn of slang terms based on residence that denote an egocentrically defined set of "layers" of clique membership (e.g., core, regulars, occasionals). More important, we are shown why this highly egocentric way of organizing and dealing with the social world is pervasive in the modern ghetto.

Fleisher captures the subtle ways in which these groups reinforce the "thinking errors" that led their members into these networks and make them increasingly unfit for mainstream life. Many of these problems and beliefs have been described by "criminal personality" theorists but little has been said of their origins. Fleisher infers linkages between community breakdown, familial pathology and individual criminality but cannot digress from the narrative long enough to make them explicit and formal. Critical to these dynamics are the highly parochial focus and generalized paranoia of the urban poor that drive them to sacrifice the future for immediate survival.

Fleisher illustrates how community deterioration encourages family and personal pathologies, intergenerational poverty, and intracity transience. The violence and chaos of these crisis-ridden homes breed a mental set oriented to immediate threats to personal survival. Deferred gratification and similar concepts have little value in such a setting. For many of these youths, "long range planning" means determining the source of the day’s food and lodging. The "gang girls" are vital to the group because they occasionally glimpse economic stability and can then provide resources for others. This chronic desperation engenders a subculture in which emotionally based decisions are normative; on Fremont Street and "the Ave" they are sometimes even functional. These youths operate in a world of economic hopelessness and societal rejection. They are the kids we love to hate; their images fill talk shows and media exposes of crime and inner-city life. They are misunderstood by the mainstream, overcome by poverty and stereotypes, and so disoriented that they cannot fully grasp the socioeconomic realities that define even working class life. At present, they are useful to society only as fodder for the growing security and correctional industries.

Fleisher uses his observations to indict the apathy of society, police and welfare officials. His findings and recommendations are in direct juxtaposition to those advocating justice system-based remedies. At one point he explains how a drug bust intended to clean up the neighborhood, actually led to greater extremes of alienation, isolation and desperation, and hence to more crime. In chapters 13 and 14 Fleisher explains how multifaceted programs that integrate vocational and academic training with other community needs are requisite if we want to successfully address urban poverty. The content of these chapters flows naturally from the preceding material. Respect for the link between personal dignity and survival that lies at the root of these youths’ perceptions is essential to the success of both poverty and crime control programs. However, that linkage is rarely recognized, let alone honored, by agencies or policy makers.

The book’s supreme achievement is its readily understood explanation of the existential basis of gangs, violence, drug use, and thinking errors that permeate the lives of the current generation of "throwaway" youths. The characters to whom we are introduced are simultaneously or sequentially pathetic yet dangerous, endearing but hateful, stupid and insightful. Some of these kids are clearly and painfully the products of people who should never have been parents. Others are the black sheep of struggling single parents who come from impoverished and anomic backgrounds. Most are the product of familial pathologies that can be traced back several generations. Even worse, it is the most sociopathic of the men who usually impregnate the gang girls. Few pregnancies survive the gestation period in a teenage womb bombarded by daily drug use and other abuses instead of prenatal care. Those that do, however, will grow up to become the next generation of kids that no one will ever care for or about. The homes provided for the offspring of these unions can only breed sociopathy and there is little that authorities can or will do about this under current child custody laws and agency practices. The author considers turning over his information on the abuse and neglect of these children to the authorities but decides not to because he fears it would only make things worse in the long run. This is a cogent conclusion given his observations of these officials. Fleisher’s responses to this and a host of other ethical dilemmas common to qualitative research are well-documented in this ethnography.

The book is an exemplar of urban anthropology that would be a superb ancillary for ethnography, criminology or offender behavior classes. There are brief methodological asides to keep readers grounded in the requirements of anthropology and the last chapter reviews the author’s experience as a criminal ethnographer and passes on advice to future researchers. Fleisher also keeps us abreast of changes in his feelings toward his subjects without making the reader lose track of events. Personally I would have liked to see more theory used to explain the flow of events, but accept that this would not have permitted the final product to be of manageable size. I do, however, hope that Fleisher and his colleagues will someday write a follow-up that uses these data to integrate traditional gang theories with other socio-criminological insights. The material in this book begs such an integration! Unfortunately the book was poorly proofread before publication. Most chapters contain many errors missed by spell check (e.g., slug for slung, as for was). However, these errors are not sufficient to detract from this insightful and well-written book. I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. I believe it is the most important criminal ethnography published in the last decade or two. Its insights certainly apply to a far wider range of people than the title implies. If middle class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result.

Copyright 1995