In this Book
- The Projects: Gang and Non-Gang Families in East Los Angeles
- Book
- 2007
- Published by: University of Texas Press
summary
The Pico Gardens housing development in East Los Angeles has a high percentage of resident families with a history of persistent poverty, gang involvement, and crime. In some families, members of three generations have belonged to gangs. Many other Pico Gardens families, however, have managed to avoid the cycle of gang involvement. In this work, Vigil adds to the tradition of poverty research and elaborates on the association of family dynamics and gang membership. The main objective of his research was to discover what factors make some families more vulnerable to gang membership, and why gang resistance was evidenced in similarly situated non-gang-involved families. Providing rich, in-depth interviews and observations, Vigil examines the wide variations in income and social capital that exist among the ostensibly poor, mostly Mexican American residents. Vigil documents how families connect and interact with social agencies in greater East Los Angeles to help chart the routines and rhythms of the lives of public housing residents. He presents family life histories to augment and provide texture to the quantitative information. By studying life in Pico Gardens, Vigil feels we can better understand how human agency interacts with structural factors to produce the reality that families living in all public housing developments must contend with daily.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
- pp. 1-19
- CHAPTER TWO: RATIONALE AND METHODS
- pp. 20-38
- CHAPTER SIX: A GANG LIFE
- pp. 94-105
- CHAPTER SEVEN: CHOLAS IN THE WORLD OF GANGS
- pp. 106-125
- REFERENCES
- pp. 213-225
Additional Information
ISBN
9780292795099
Related ISBN(s)
9780292717305
MARC Record
OCLC
184687463
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No