The American Street Gang

"Klein is probably the best known, most persevering, and expert gang researcher practising today....Klein demonstrates in this book that he knows more about gang scholarship that anyone else in the world."--Irving Spergel, University of Chicago "[An] excellent book."--James B. Jones, American University "Handily reviews the latest thinking on gang culture and then offers a neatly summarized (and insistently argues) series of correctives....We would do well to pay attention."--Journal of American Ethnic History "What is a critic supposed to say about the most important book on gangs since Thrasher's The Gang was published seventy years ago? [This is] a celebration of the capstone book in the career of one of America's most important criminologists....This book should be read by every criminologist, not only for what it says about gangs, but for what is says about the evolution of one of the field's most important careers. Gang researchers, on the other hand, should be ready to quote from it chapter and verse."--Scott Decker, Chair of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri at St. Louis "[Klein] makes trenchant observations about academic gang research and about the formulation and implementation of gang policy....Far from a dry academic recitation...this is an interesting, provocative, and sometimes delightfully personal book....For anyone with an interest in the American gang problem, and particularly for anyone with an interest in gang policy, this book is both informative and enjoyable--and it should be taken very, very seriously."--Scott Menard, University of Colorado at Boulder, in the Criminal Justice Review "Klein is probably the best known, most perservering, and expert gang researcher practicing today....Klein demonstrates in this book that he knows more about gang scholarship than anyone else in the world."--Irving Spergel, University of Chicago "America's leading authority on delinquent gangs has given us his personal voice based on some thirty years in street gang research. He not only describes; he prescribes without pessimism or optimism. There is wholesome honesty and integrity in this remarkable, informative volume." --Marvin E. Wolfgang, Professor of Criminology and Law, University of Pennsylvania "This book represents an outstanding contribution to modern knowledge about American street gangs by the world's leading researcher on the topic. It also includes critical evaluations of methods of dealing with gangs and a courageous attempt to study gang phenomena in other countries." --David P. Farrington, Professor of Psychological Criminology, University of Cambridge "The dean of gang researchers has spoken, and he has a lot to say. No one who is concerned with gangs, with crime, with youth, or with urban life in this country (and in many others) can afford not to read this book. It is a masterpiece."--James F. Short, Jr., Professor of Sociology, Washington State University and former president, American Sociological Association