Book Description
Hood Rat (n.): A woman of questionable repute, one who has been known to "get around" in the 'hood. Yoshi is young, fine, and larcenous.She lives her life playing on men's hearts as well as their pockets.She learns the hard way that all that glitters isn't gold.Billy, a former high school basketball star, is at the end of her rope with the opposite sex.To her, all men are dogs, so she secretly seeks comfort in the arms of women, until she meets a man who makes her reevaluate her feelings.Reese is an around-the-way chick, trying to keep up with the Joneses.There's a revolving door on her bedroom as she tries to find the love she always felt was missing.Her promiscuity leaves her pregnant from a one-night stand and Reese is faced with the task of breaking an age-old cycle, passed down from mother to daughter in her family, and standing on her own.Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids, by three men, and riding the system all the way to the bank.To her, work is a dirty word; between the multiple checks she gets from the government, and the games she plays with men, she's living the life of a ghetto superstar.The game soon turns ugly when one of her "sponsors" snaps and decides to get some payback. Harlem has never seen four friends as scandalous as these.The neighborhood will never be the same again.
Customer Reviews:
FEMME' CARTEL.......2007-09-10
I HAVE TO ADMIT THIS BOOK STARTED OFF KINDA SLOW BUT IT GOT SO GOOD I READ IT IN 2 READINGS. I GOTTA READ ANOTHER K'WAN NOVEL. HE DID HIS THING ON THIS ONE!!!!!
WOW.......2007-08-13
I loved every minute of this book! K'wan is powerful with that pen! These girls were truly Hood Rat.
HoodRat.......2007-08-05
The book kept you reading intil you finished wanting to know what happens next and how it was going to end. Some books give away the ending or you kinda figure out whats going to happen but with this you would have never expected the ending
Sorry I didn't like it.......2007-07-24
Okay, please don't hate me for this. But for some reason I was not feeling this book at all. It had a great message, I just couldn't get into it. Sorry!
k'WAN IS OFF DA CHAIN.......2007-07-13
i LOVED IT!!! IT REALLY WAS A GREAT BOOK I MEAN SHEEET IT DESERVES MORE DEN 5 STARS!!!!! aND DA ENDING WAS BANGIN! iT REALLY GOES TO SHOW HOW SUM AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN LOWER THEIR SELVES AND ARE RECOGNIZED AS HOOD RATS!!!
Book Description
James Daniel Nelson first hit the streets as a teenager in 1992. He joined a clutch of runaways and misfits who camped out together in a squat under a Portland bridge. Within a few months the group-they called themselves a "family"-was arrested for a string of violent murders.
While Nelson sat in prison, the society he had helped form grew into a national phenomenon. Street families spread to every city from New York to San Francisco, and to many small towns in between, bringing violence with them. In 2003, almost eleven years after his original murder, Nelson, now called "Thantos", got out of prison, returned to Portland, created a new street family, and killed once more. Twelve family members were arrested along with him.
Rene Denfeld spent over a decade following the evolution of street family culture. She discovered that, contrary to popular belief, the majority of these teenagers hail from loving middle-class homes. Yet they have left those homes to form insular communities with cultish hierarchies, codes of behavior, languages, quasi-religions, and harsh rules. She reveals the extremes to which desperate teenagers will go in their search for a sense of community, and builds a persuasive and troubling case that street families have grown among us into a dark reversal of the American ideal.
Customer Reviews:
Dangerously inacurate .......2007-10-06
Having many years experience working with youth on the streets I have yet to come across ONE who has chosen a life of homelessness. While Denfeld writes of one horrifying situation she unfortunately connects this violence to all street youth. However, this is dangerously wrong, and paints a demonizing picture of youth who are surviving on the streets against all odds. There is already a stigma regarding homeless youth, and I fear Denfeld is perpetuating a damaging myth that these youth are from loving homes and choosing a life of homelessness...All she is doing is harming an already vulnerable population, and swaying the public from supporting their own children. Most of the youth I work with on the streets are there because their life at home was shockingly abusive, and the streets were safer. They are survivors in every sense of the word, they are nonviolent, often working, intelligent and engaging individuals who daily fight against a society who finds it easier to judge them than to realize the alarming rate of family trauma that is forcing children to leave their homes to search for safety on the streets. As a society we need to come together to allow these children to reach their amazing potential, not blame them for having been born to unsafe families. Yes, the story Denfeld wrote of is tragic, but it is so far from what happens on the street she was wrong to imply this violence as the norm. The streets are not fun, simply surviving day to day is no life, it is not a glamorous existence, it is often frightening, frustrating and painful. Anyone who asserts that youth chose a life on the streets is sadly misinformed, and I believe choosing to remain ignorant because they are simply not strong enough to realize how many thousands of children have been thrown in this country.
Lost teenagers, living under the bridge........2007-05-28
Portland, Oregon and street kids.....gone wrong. The sadness of what can occur when parents do not accept the reasonability of parenthood and think more of themselves..... and our youth end up under the bridge,gone astray. Following the "parents" of the street, all the while longing for a home life. Reality at its best. A great in site to today's street kids.
Brave and Honest.......2007-04-02
Denfeld is brave and honest in bringing to light a sad truth that none of us want to believe, nor except, about any of the kid's on the streets of Portland , or anywhere in America. She is clear that it is not all that go down this dark road,that many are truly homeless, with no other choice, and makes the point that the organizations that are there to help, need to have more knowlege of the culture. Chilling, brutal, yet hopeful, because it gave information about how to be aware and get on the road to solve this problem.
An excellent, disturbing and profound look at violent street families.......2007-03-28
As a Portland native, I highly recommend this book. It is written from an investigative reporter view with info from all sides involved: homeless youth in Portland, the kids and adults inside the street family that the book deals with, the historical and present day violence within street families, the loving family of Jessica the murder victim as well as Jessica herself, the police officers and detectives involved in the grisly investigation and how some of the social service agencies in downtown Portland turned a blind eye to some serious issues. It also provides a great overview and history of street youth and street family culture and how wide spread and connected it really is. This book challenges us to really look at what is going with some of the young teens and adults that live on the streets in violent street families and why we as a society have chosen to ignore the violence and murder. It is grim and disturbing but honest and thought provoking, something many journalists and authors have forgotten how to do, but Denfeld has not.
All God's Children.......2007-03-28
She really hit the nail on the head. Very informative without being overly sensational.
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive review of all the critical elements relevant to the growing phenomenon of gang life. It is designed to provide the necessary background material of gangs so that readers gain a clear idea of the cultural and structural components of gang activity.
This book provides an examination of the history of gangs, socio-psychological aspects of individual and group behavior, the major theories and socio-economic reasons as to why gangs exist, descriptions of all types of gangs, as well as law enforcement techniques.
For those in law enforcement and criminal justice careers as well as the sociology field.
Book Description
UNDERSTANDING STREET GANGS offers a unique and pioneering approach to the street and prison gang dilemma and provides both local and national perspective. This popular book is used by colleges, universities, and academies, and also for advanced officer training throughout the country. The authors are leading authorities on gang activities. No other book offers such insight or understanding into this escalating threat. It covers causative factors, family structure and profiles, socioeconomic pressures, and drugs. It also defines gangs, membership, structure and organization, communication, and measurements of gang violence, offers perspective on gang activity, and suggests possible solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Informative, slightly out of date.......2006-02-13
This book was great for research purposes. Understanding gangs and their signs was pretty much on point. The only complaint would be that it's from the 80's. Lot of the gang MO is still true but there is a section about "Stoner" Gangs, which are 80's metal heads. Basically if you wear a band shirt, jeans and sneakers you fit the dress of a Stoner gang. Their graffiti is band names like Rush and Twisted Sister (this should tell you the age of the book) and "Satanic" things. Also that car clubs are gangs but they don't have a certain style of dress or have graffiti. If you want a good laugh you can read it but for research or academic purposes skip over those sections.
The information on all the other gangs is good. The book talks about their dress, their graffiti, their gang signs, etc. Even on the booking and how they keep gang profiles on each member, showing the documents that they use as well. Good for research or a quick good laugh in some areas.
Good practical knowledge for training cops.......2003-12-01
I bought this book probably in '87 at Long Beach Uniform. It had good information at the time of publication concering the gangs in the greater LA area at the time. Gang associations, graffiti, turf, activity, and turfs are covered. Crimes known to be done by certain gangs are covered, heredity of the latino gangs, tattos, etc. are both covered and photos shown.
Seems like a good informational book with little narrative about what society should do about them. I was surprised I am the first reviewer of the book. I had thought a policeman or trainee would have long ago reviewed this book.
Book Description
"This book is a major contribution to understanding Chicano gangs, and the multiple marginality framework will prove helpful in understanding other Chicano subcultures in very different contexts."
—American Anthropologist
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.
Customer Reviews:
compassionate and astute insights into "la vida loca".......2000-03-27
Barrio Gangs is an excellent exploration of the reasons young people gravitate toward street gangs, as well as an accurate, empathic view of the day-to-day reality these young people face. It has enhanced my understanding of the "at risk" children with whom I work, and I recommend it frequently to others in the field of counseling. It is scholarly, yet reflects the author's clear committment to the need to understand these youngsters. A fine source for all those interested in the culture of streetgangs. (I believe that many of the insights the author shares with regard to Latino streetgangs are also applicable to streetgangs of different ethnicities.)
Book Description
"This is an ambitious and significant project—to map the ethnic diversity and gang subcultures of a major metropolis.... The book will almost certainly find a large audience. It makes the gang experience accessible to college students [and others] who might easily dismiss these people as only objects of fear and beneath notice as struggling human beings. The life histories are vivid."
—Joan W. Moore, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
With nearly 1,000 gangs and 200,000 gang members, Los Angeles holds the dubious distinction of being the youth gang capital of the United States. The process of street socialization that leads to gang membership now cuts across all ethnic groups, as evidenced by the growing numbers of gangs among recent immigrants from Asia and Latin America.
This cross-cultural study of Los Angeles gangs identifies the social and economic factors that lead to gang membership and underscores their commonality across four ethnic groups—Chicano, African American, Vietnamese, and Salvadorian. James Diego Vigil begins at the community level, examining how destabilizing forces and marginalizing changes have disrupted the normal structures of parenting, schooling, and policing, thereby compelling many youths to grow up on the streets. He then turns to gang members' life stories to show how societal forces play out in individual lives. His findings provide a wealth of comparative data for scholars, policymakers, and law enforcement personnel seeking to respond to the complex problems associated with gangs.
Book Description
From Los Angeles and New York to Chicago and Miami, street gangs are regarded as one of the most intractable crime problems facing our cities, and a vast array of resources is being deployed to combat them. This book chronicles the astounding self-transformation of one of the most feared gangs in the United States into a social movement acting on behalf of the dispossessed, renouncing violence and the underground economy, and requiring school attendance for membership.
What caused the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation of New York City to make this remarkable transformation? And why has it not happened to other gangs elsewhere? David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios were given unprecedented access to new and never-before-published material by and about the Latin Kings and Queens, including the group's handbook, letters written by members, poems, rap songs, and prayers. In addition, they interviewed more than one hundred gang members, including such leaders as King Tone and King Hector. Featuring numerous photographs by award-winning photojournalist Steve Hart, the book explains the symbolic significance for the gang of hand gestures, attire, rituals, and rites of passage. Based on their inside information, the authors craft a unique portrait of the lives of the gang members and a ground-breaking study of their evolution.
Customer Reviews:
Important addition to the literature on street organizations.......2004-04-03
Few books are currently available on street organizations (commonly referred to by sociologists, anthropologists and criminologists as "gangs") that present both an insider perspective and outsider analysis, and place these social formations into the context of both the contemporary and historical variables that cause their formation, and direct their transformation into radical political organizations.
Without romanticizing the negative elements of the gang phenomena, this study offers a counter-perspective to the criminological canon, and challenges the theoretical assumptions proffered in all but a few standard texts on gang-behavior.
A must read for those interested in the underclass debates, Latino/a youth culture, and grass roots social movements.
Book Description
In this book, Bill Valentine, author of Gang Intelligence Manual, shares the latest intelligence on the predominant street and prison gangs and other disruptive groups, with particular emphasis on their identifying tattoos. Supplementing the text are scores of detailed illustrations by Correctional Officer Robert Schober that replicate some of the most common tattoos worn by members of each of the groups discussed. This groundbreaking work makes a substantial amount of previously classified information available to the general public for the first time. In addition to presenting the latest intel on white, black, Hispanic and Asian gangs, it also includes new information on groups such as the White Afrikaner Resistance Movement and the Russian Mafia, which add to the mounting challenge faced by those laboring to hold the line against the menace posed by gangs, hate groups and organized crime.
Customer Reviews:
book review.......2007-09-27
I have found the book to be quite useful. The information is not up to the second, but it is a great starting point and reference.
It was shipped promptly and arrived in excellent condition.
Excellent Reference Material.......2007-07-16
This is an amazing reference book if you're a tattooist. I know the slant of the book comes from law enforcement background, but if you're a tattooist this book is great for a little history lesson in gang tattoos as well as explaining some of the symbols that are commonly used. A fascinating read and an amazing window into prison life.
Highly Disappointed.......2007-05-27
The concept behind this book is good enough, but unfortunately, not only is the writing mediocre, but the drawings are subpar and the drive of the book seems to be towards informing frightened people who want to know who, of the people around them, are "gang members" or "dangerous." What's unfortunate is that, for example, dragons and tigers are outlined as "gang" tattoos for Asians with dangerous lifestyles, which, while that is relevant, it is problematic because it is not pointed out that not *all* Asians with those as tattoos are dangerous. I imagine that anyone who is reading this to "identify gangbangers on the street" around them, aside from, say, security guards or similar individuals, will give into fear and judge those around them with tattoos because of what they read in this book. But as I said. The writing has errors in it, such as the constant misspellings of Teotihuacán, and gems like saying that Asians get tattoos of dragons and tigers because those animals are native to Asia. (Tigers, maybe. Dragons? Better wording is in order.)
In sum, I have read much better books on the topic and not only because they contained better data, but because they were written and/or illustrated more professionally.
Tattoos & Street Gangs.......2007-05-14
The quality of the information on current tattoos was excellent, and worth the investment. You can't tell the street gang players without knowing their tattoos; this book will give you what you need to not only get started...it will become a 'go to' book in your library.
Excellent.......2007-03-28
The info in this book is a must read for all parents with pre-teens and teens. You won't be disappointed.
Customer Reviews:
street gangs.......2004-05-13
i want to know who wrote this book and the publisher,copy right company and every information i can find about this book.
criminal justice professor.......2001-07-02
This is a great book! Al Valdez has done an excellent job of summarizes the existing gang information avaliable. It is an easy to read book, that is valuable to law enforcers, educators, students, or interested citizens
Detective Valdez has also included gangs that are generally not covered in other similar books. He writes about occult gangs, and militias.
I highly recommend this to anyone intersted in learning more about gangs in the U.S.
This is a very useful resource.......2001-02-26
This book gives all the information you need to know for a quick and thorough understanding of gangs. I have been fortunate to meet Al Valdez and he knows his stuff! Whether you are a cop, like me, or a parent, like me, this is a book you need. His unique insight and writing ability give you practical information and advice from the real world.
If I had to choose one book on gangs this is it!.......2000-11-15
Outstanding!! I have read several text on gangs in my 18 years of law enforcement experience, this one is the best one yet. The book is not only informative but easy to follow and entertaining as well. Mr. Valdez covers the history and main identifiers of basically every major gang in this country. If you know nothing about gangs, this is an excellent book for a beginner. If you thank you know all there is to know about gangs, read this book and learn how much more there is to know.
NEW EDITION AVAILABLE.......2000-09-03
3rd edition out September 2000, over 200 photos
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