Sudhir Venkatesh became Gang Leader for a Day. First introduced in Freakonomics, here is the full story of Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociology grad student who infiltrated one of Chicago's most notorious gangs, studying a crack-dealing gang from the insider. Subtitled A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, Venkatesh's book describes how he managed to gain entree into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment.
Initially looking for people within a notorious housing project to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty, Venkatesh never imagined that as a result of that graduate assignment he would befriend a gang leader and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there. His report is a brazen, page-turning, and fundamentally honest view into the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in what is tantamount to an urban war zone. And it's also the story of a complicated friendship between Sudhir and JT - two young and ambitious men a universe apart- Cody's Books
Bio
Sudhir Venkatesh
Sudhir Venkatesh's research is rooted in ethnographic investigation of urban neighborhoods in the United States (New York, Chicago) and Paris, France. His most recent book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Harvard University Press, 2006), an ethnographic study of illegal economies in Chicago, received the C. Wright Mills Award (2007) and a Best Book Award from Slate.com (2006). His first book, American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (2000), explored the social organization, moral universe, and history of a Chicago housing development, The Robert Taylor Homes.
His forthcoming book, Gang Leader for a Day, is a reported memoir (Penguin Press, 2008). He is also the co-editor of Youth, Globalization and the Law (Stanford University Press 2006) and Director of the Youth and Globalization Collaborative Research Network at the Social Science Research Council. He is currently completing a long-term project on sex work in New York and Chicago with the economist Steven Levitt.
Author and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh introduces the Robert Taylor housing projects of Chicago and gang leader J.T., the educated and charismatic protagonist from his new book Gang Leader For a Day.
Author and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh reads an excerpt from his new book, Gang Leader For a Day. Venkatesh describes his first exposure to violence, in which, gang leader J.T. has a confrontation with a squatter named C-Note.
Author and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh addresses the socioeconomic factors and educational deficiencies that drive children into gangs in the Robert Taylor housing projects of Chicago.
Criminal behaviour carried out by a juvenile. Young males make up the bulk of the delinquent population (about 80% in the U.S.) in all countries in which the behaviour is reported. Theories regarding delinquency's causes focus on the social and economic characteristics of the offender's family, the values communicated by the parents, and the nature of youth and criminal subcultures, including gangs. In general, both push and pull factors are involved. Most delinquents apparently do not continue criminal behaviour into their adult lives but rather adjust to societal standards. The most common punishment for delinquent offenders is probation, whereby the delinquent is given a suspended sentence and in return must live by a prescribed set of rules under the supervision of a probation officer. See alsocriminology; penology.