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E-book
Author Flores, Edward

Title God's gangs : barrio ministry, masculinity, and gang recovery / Edward Orozco Flores
Published New York : New York University Press, [2013]
©2014

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 230 pages) : illustrations
Contents The Latino Crime Threat : A Century of Race, Marginality, and Public Policy in Los Angeles -- Into the Underclass or Out of the Barrio? : Immigrant Integration in Latino Los Angeles -- Recovery from Gang Life : Two Models of Faith and Reintegration -- Reformed Barrio Masculinity : Eight Cases of Recovery from Gang Life -- Masculinity and the Podium : Discourse in Gang Recovery -- From Shaved to Saved : Embodied Gang Recovery
Summary Los Angeles is the epicenter of the American gang problem. Rituals and customs from Los Angeles' eastside gangs, including hand signals, graffiti, and clothing styles, have spread to small towns and big cities alike. Many see the problem with gangs as related to urban marginality - for a Latino immigrant population struggling with poverty and social integration, gangs offer a close-knit community. Yet, as the author argues in this book, gang members can be successfully redirected out of gangs through efforts that change the context in which they find themselves, as well as their notions of what it means to be a man. The author illuminates how Latino men recover from gang life through involvement in urban, faith-based organizations. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with Homeboy Industries, a Jesuit-founded non-profit that is one of the largest gang intervention programs in the country, and with Victory Outreach, a Pentecostal ministry with over 600 chapters, the author demonstrates that organizations such as these facilitate recovery from gang life by enabling gang members to reinvent themselves as family men and as members of their community. The book offers a window into the process of redefining masculinity. As the author convincingly shows, gang members are not trapped in a cycle of poverty and marginality. With the help of urban ministries, such men construct a reformed barrio masculinity to distance themselves from gang life. -- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-224) and index
Notes Text in English
Print version record
Subject Hispanic American men -- California -- Los Angeles -- Social conditions
Church and social problems -- California -- Los Angeles
Church work with Hispanic Americans -- California -- Los Angeles
Ex-gang members -- Services for -- California -- Los Angeles
Ex-gang members -- Rehabilitation -- California -- Los Angeles
Hispanic American gangs -- California -- Los Angeles
RELIGION -- Christian Life -- Social Issues.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- General.
Church and social problems
Church work with Hispanic Americans
Hispanic American gangs
California -- Los Angeles
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781479818129
1479818127