Book Reviews : Understanding Street Gangs. Robert K. Jackson and Wesley D. McBride, Custom Publishing Company, 1985. 137 pp. soft cover

• DOI: 10.1177/088740348700200206
• Author: Joseph W. Rogers
• Date: 01 June 1987
• Published date: 01 June 1987
• Subject Matter: Articles

192

Book

Reviews

Understanding

Street

Gangs.

Robert

K.

Jackson

and

Wesley

D.

McBride,

Custom

Publishing

Company,

1985.

137

pp.

soft

cover.

If,

as

Shakespeare

once

wrote,

&dquo;there

is

nothing

either

good

or

bad,

but

thinking

makes

it

so,&dquo;

then

the

likely

response

to

this

work

will

surely

illustrate

the

aptness

of

his

insight.

Reaction

to

Understanding

Street

Gangs

will

almost

certainly

depend

on

a

combination

of

the

expectations

and

background

one

brings

to

its

reading.

Thus

a

dilemma

arises

for

this

particular

reviewer

which

involves

fairness

to

the

authors

and

their

potential

audience.

At

the

outset,

it

is

especially

important

to

note

this

book

was

written

by

&dquo;two

veteran

law

enforcement

officers

with

a

combined

experience

of

over

twenty

years

assigned

to

specialized

gang

units&dquo;

(p.

ix).

Both

are

sergeants:

Robert

Jackson

in

a

large

modern

metropolitan

police

department;

Wesley

McBride

in

a

large

progressive

sheriff’s

department.

Both

gentlemen

have

qualified

as

court

experts

on

gang

affairs,

have

lectured

extensively

on

the

topic,

and

&dquo;hold

advanced

degrees

from

recognized

universities.&dquo;

The

strengths

of

the

book

rest

on

the

rich

array

of

their

practical

experience,

the

weaknesses

on

their

omission,

almost

entirely,

of

any

reference

to

an

equally

rich

array

of

parallel

theory

and

research

literature.

This

obvious

imbalance

will

account

for

some

of

the

&dquo;polar&dquo;

reviews

the

book

is

certain

to

receive.

Perhaps

it

is

also

relevant

to

confess

my

own

somewhat

schizophrenic

reading

of

the

manuscript.

As

a

former juvenile

probation

officer

(San

Diego

County,

California),

I

found

the

book

informative,

easy

to

follow,

and

pleasantly

reminiscent

of

once-handled,

long

ago

cases.

On

the

other

hand,

as

a

contemporary

sociologist,

I found

it

interesting,

but

remained

uncertain

as

to

how

much

our

academic

understanding

of

street

gangs

is

advanced

by

it.

Simply

put,

to

my

mind

Jackson

and

McBride

did

not

build

in

enough

bridges

between

their

own

exceptional

experience

and

the

fine

works

of

others.

To

deal

with

this

ambivalence,

I

have

chosen

to

begin

with

a

few

of

the

negative

aspects,

and

to

conclude

with

several

positive

features

of

their

presentation.

The

authors

get

off

to

an

unfortunate

start

by

asserting

Understanding

Street

Gangs

is

a

pioneer

work

in

a

relatively

new

field

of

criminology

and

sociology.&dquo;

Neither

discipline

is

any

longer

&dquo;new,&dquo;

and

even

gang

study

is

readily

traceable

to

works

published

over

sixty

years

ago.

And

precisely

how

this

manuscript

pioneers

the

field

is

elusive

at

best

since

so

many

prior

pioneers

are

ignored.

Although

Bloch

and

Niederhoffer,

Cohen,

and

Miller

are

mentioned

very

briefly,

they

suffer

from

the

omission

of

their

first

names

in

the

text,

and

from

complete

omission

in

the

bibliography.

To

make

matters

worse,

some

of

the

few

mentioned

suffer

from

complete

identity

loss:

Merton

becomes

&dquo;Melton&dquo;

(p.

13), and

Bloch

becomes

&dquo;Block&dquo;

(p.

19).

As

one

who

has

been

both

guilty

of,

and

injured

by,

typographical

errors,

I

could

sympathize

here

more

easily

had

their

complete

bibliography

not

been

limited

to just

eight