Youth Gangs and Black Suburbs

This study addresses a neglected topic in delinquency research: youth gangs in suburban communities. Evidence is presented to refute blanket assertions about the absence of ganging activity outside of central cities. Such assertions may stem from a failure to recognize that not all suburbs are affluent, a critical oversight in the case of the suburbanized black population. Ganging activity among black suburban youngsters in the Chicago SMSA is shown to vary sharply with the level of poverty in a community. The results support traditional social control interpretations of the etiology of youth gangs.