This is the compelling story of Barrios Unidos, the Santa Cruz-based organization founded to prevent gang violence amongst inner-city ethnic youth. An evolving grass-roots organization that grew out of the Mexican-American civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Barrios Unidos harnessed the power of culture and spirituality to rescue at-risk young people, provide avenues to quell gang warfare, and offer a promising model for building healthy and vibrant multicultural communities. Co-founder Daniel ñNaneî Alejandrez spent his childhood following the crops from state to state with his family. His earliest recollection of ñhomeî was a tent in a labor camp. Later, he was drafted in to the Army and sent to Vietnam. ñFlying bullets, cries of anguish and being surrounded by death have a way of giving fuel to epiphany. This war made as little sense to me as the war raging on the streets of the barrios back home.î He decided that when he returned home, he would dedicate himself to peace. Nane AlejandrezÍs story of personal transformation, from heroin-addicted gang banger to social activist and youth advocate, is closely tied to that of Barrios Unidos. Through interviews, written testimonies, and documents, Frank de Jesus Acosta re-constructs the development of Barrios Unidos„or literally, united neighborhoods„from its early influences and guiding principles to its larger connection to the on-going struggle to achieve civil rights in America. Today, Barrios Unidos chapters exist in several cities around the country, including San Francisco; Venice-Los Angeles; Salinas; San Diego; Washington, DC; Yakima; San Antonio; Phoenix; and Chicago. With a foreword by Luis Rodriguez, former gang member and author of La Vida Loca: Always Running, the book also includes historical photos and commentaries by leading civil rights activists Harry Belafonte, Dolores Huerta, Tom Hayden, Manuel Pastor, and Constance Rice. Mandatory reading for anyone interested in peace and social justice, The History of Barrios Unidos gives voice to contemporary inter-generational leaders of color and will lead to the continuation of necessary public dialogue about racism, poverty, and violence.

Within the Mexican American barrios of Los Angeles, gang activity, including crime and violent acts, has grown and flourished. In the past, community leaders and law enforcement officials have approached the problem, not as something that needs to be understood, but only as something to be gotten rid of. Rejecting that approach, James D. Vigil asserts that only by understanding the complex factors that give birth and persistence to gangs can gang violence be ended. Drawing on many years of experience in the barrios as a youth worker, high school teacher, and researcher, Vigil identifies the elements from which gangs spring: isolation from the dominant culture, poverty, family stress and crowded households, peer pressure, and the adolescent struggle for self-identity. Using interviews with actual gang members, he reveals how the gang often functions as parent, school, and law enforcement in the absence of other role models in the gang members' lives. And he accounts for the longevity of gangs, sometimes over decades, by showing how they offer barrio youth a sense of identity and belonging nowhere else available.

An examination of the changes and continuities among three generations of barrio gangs.

Gringo Justice is a comprehensive analysis and interpretation of the experiences of the Chicano people with the legal and judicial system in the United States. Beginning in 1848 and working to the present, a theory of Gringo justice is developed and applied to specific areas—displacement from the land, vigilantes and social bandits, the border, the police, gangs, and prisons. A basic issue addressed is how the image of Chicanos as bandits or criminals has persisted in various forms.

This revised and expanded Third Edition of the internationally acclaimed Criminological Perspectives is the most comprehensive reader available in the field. Wide-ranging and global in scope and coverage, Criminological Perspectives will enable you to critically engage with the various concepts and theoretical positions that you'll encounter throughout your studies. In addition to essays that have had a seminal influence on the development of criminology, new articles have been included to cover topics of contemporary criminological significance, including: - surveillance - digitized crime - terrorism and political violence - environmental crime - human trafficking - techno-social networks - narco-crime - global inequalities The 56 articles are organised thematically, complete with introductions that place them in context and to illustrate the approaches taken by different schools of criminological thought. Criminological Perspectives will prove an indispensible resource, whether you're studying criminology, criminal justice studies, socio-legal studies, penology, security studies, surveillance studies, or sociology.