GANGBANGERS

Many people in America think that gang violence is concentrated in the inner cities of New York, Los Angeles and other large metropolitan areas. That is not true, says Loren W. Christensen, a veteran Portland, Oregon, gang enforcement officer. After completing Skinhead Street Gangs, Christensen went back to see what's happening with gangs, and what he found is frightening. .

His research shows that gangs are everywhere and they are here to stay in the big cities and small towns, in the suburbs and rural areas, on both coasts and in the heartland. No matter how many government dollars are given to feel-good organizations to reach out and interface with them, gangs and gangbangers keep increasing like cockroaches in a shabby tenement.

He also found that gangs are equal opportunity destroyers. Their members - and their victims - are white, black, Hispanic and Asian. His most disturbing discover, however, was that gangs are nastier than ever. Ten years ago gangbangers fought with fists, clubs and pistols. Now they have incredible firepower, they have lots of it, and they don't think twice about using it.

In Gangbangers, Christensen lets gang members (one was arrested for assisting in a bank robbery a few weeks after being interviewed for this book, and has since been sentenced to 35 years), former gang members, parole and probation officers, gang outreach workers, juvenile detention workers, police detectives and street cops tell you in their own words how gangbangers think, why they are so violent, who they target and what (if anything) can be done to curb the growth of gangs in America.

Here are some of the chapters in Gangbangers-

Introduction
Gangs in General
Black Gangs
Hispanic Gangs
Skinheads and Other White Gangs
Southeast Asian Gangs
Fast and Fiction about Youth Gangs
Conclusion; Now What?
Glossary of Gang Terms

From the Introduction: If this book frightens you, don't feel alone. Although I worked with gangs for several years as a police officer, what I learned while working on this project scared the hell out of me. Gangbangers are angrier now, they hate more, they're less hesitant to use firepower, they're less intimidated by the police and of going to prison, and many of them have mentally accepted the probability of their early, violent death.
- Loren W. Christensen

Gangbangers, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, softcover, photos, 185 pages ISBN 1-58160-047-X,

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