Gang members are exposed to unique sexual risks, yet little work has explored the influence of gang social norms. This study examines the functions and meanings of sex within gangs, with a specific focus on the ways in which sex is used to reinforce gang membership and norms, gender roles, and group cohesion. We conducted 58 semi-structured…

The introduction of mixed-income communities in public housing neighborhoods is a common revitalization strategy in metropolitan areas in North America. This study investigates student and teacher perspectives on safety in a Canadian inner city and marginalized neighborhood undergoing revitalization, alongside the redesign of a local school. The…

Youth living in violent urban neighborhoods increasingly post messages online from urban street corners. The decline of the digital divide and the proliferation of social media platforms connect youth to peer communities who may share experiences with neighborhood stress and trauma. Social media can also be used for targeted retribution when…

The relation between being out of school and participating in criminal economies is widely documented in the literature on youth delinquency. However, the complex connection between these two phenomena has not yet been fully unpacked. This paper draws from two studies that we, the authors, conducted separately to explore the role educational…

The present study evaluates adolescent gang involvement using cross-sectional survey data from 1,475 adolescents living in a disadvantaged Comuna in Medellin, Colombia. Specifically, we examine the prevalence of former and current gang membership, affiliation with gang members, and lives untouched by any gang association. Once these groups are…

The Common Core State Standards were designed to prepare all students for college and careers. Using theories of cultural capital and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study of 54 college-bound, inner-city high school seniors seeks to determine how students perceive their college readiness during the implementation of the new standards. While the…

How do young people living in high-violence contexts express a sense of democratic agency and hope, and/or frustration and hopelessness, for handling various kinds of social and political conflict problems? The management of conflict is a core challenge and purpose of democracy, severely impeded by the isolation and distrust caused by violence.…

Youth involved in illegal street activities such as drug trafficking and violence are at high risk for school failure and other negative outcomes. Research often seeks to identify what is "wrong" with them, what makes them different from "normal" youth, but relatively few studies focus on variations in how youth engage in and…

This autoethnographic study contextualizes gangland visual culture (graffiti, tattoos, public/private shrines) in order to illustrate how young African American males memorialized victims of violence between the years 1993-1997 in Beltzhoover, an inner city African American community on Pittsburgh's Southside. The author, a former resident of the…

In response to a literature that has paid limited attention to the complex representations of Cambodian students, this article investigated the ways in which Cambodian male youth were problematized in school through Discourses that presented them as apathetic students and/or gang members at one California high school. In this study, the ways in…

"Reading Girls" captures the voices and literacy experiences of a diverse group of urban adolescent girls. The author--an experienced researcher and middle school teacher--intertwines investigations of multiple literacies, technologies, race, class, gender, sexuality, and gender expression to provide a provocative look at what helps and what hurts…

Recent media attention has increased interest in behavioral, mental health, and academic correlates of involvement in bullying. Yet, there has not been much interest in investigating the co-occurrence of other health-risk behaviors, such as gang membership, weapon carrying, and substance use. The potential influence of contextual factors, such as…

In "Streetsmart Schoolsmart", two respected scholars present original research on youth gangs and school success to explain why some boys become disengaged and join gangs while others do not. Chapters vividly describe how urban boys from different ethnic backgrounds (Asian, African American, and Latino) approach schooling and identify the…

This study assessed the importance of sex, race/ethnicity, and geographic context for incidents of school-associated student homicides between July 1, 1994 and June 30, 1999, covering 5 academic years. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention School Associated Violent Deaths Study (n = 125 incidents), we compared percentages…

This report presents findings from the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey. Data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related homicides in larger cities, suburban counties, smaller cities, and rural counties are provided to accurately reflect youth gang activity in the United States. Based on survey results, it is estimated that nearly 3,550…