James Diego Vigil

University of California, Irvine | UCI · School of Social Ecology

To do research that really makes a difference—the authors of this book argue—social scientists need a diverse set of questions and methods, both qualitative and quantitative, in order to reflect the complexity of the world. Bringing together a consortium of voices across a variety of fields, Methods That Matter offers compelling and successful exam...

This article provides a conceptual explanation of how human developmental processes promote gangformation as well as inform a balanced anti-gang strategy. The article describes how, in ethnic minority neighborhoods, poverty and marginalization lead to "street socialization" and the institutionalization of street gang subcultures that undermine the...

This article concentrates on the educational experiences of urban and suburban Mexican American youth, from recent immigrants to those that have been in the United States for generations. The article seeks to unravel the relationship between acculturation and school success by offering a holistic and longitudinal approach of three time periods: 197...

Despite previous research, no one has traced the roots and rise of African–American street gangs in Los Angeles as it relates to the development of racially and ethnically segregated areas. This paper examines the experiences of the early African–American community and explains the cultural phenomenon that led to the formation of African–American g...

This article conceptualizes the crucial social and developmental features impacting Mexican-descent youth and adolescents in low-income communities in southern California. All youth in these neighborhoods must confront and come to grips with the many environmental, socioeconomic, racial, and cultural forces they confront. However, it is the poorest...

Building on her earlier book on three cities, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles: America's Global Cities (U. Minnesota Press, 1999), Professor Abu-Lughod goes one step further in the review here by examining the riots that have occurred in these cities. First a brief word about the author's background. Janet L. Abu-Lughod is professor emerita of s...

Adolescence is often characterized as a period of life in which a person's identity undergoes marked changes to adjust to new body appearances and societal expectations. Early life experiences, sociocultural environmental conditions, and agents of socializaton must be accounted for in assessing this new identity formation. For a small, but consider...

King Kong on 4th Street: Families and the Violence of Poverty on the Lower East Side. Jagna Wojcicka Sharff. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.258 pp.

East Los Angeles cholas are the female counterparts of the cholos, the latter the street gang members that come from marginal situations and conditions. While there has been little research on female gang members overall, the role of females in the street life is significant. Sisters, girlfriends, and other relatives share the same backgrounds as m...

The Pico Gardens housing development in East Los Angeles has a high percentage of resident families with a history of persistent poverty, gang involvement, and crime. In some families, members of three generations have belonged to gangs. Many other Pico Gardens families, however, have managed to avoid the cycle of gang involvement. In this work, Vi...

Notably lacking in the literature on Vietnamese and Cambodian youth gangs in the United States and particularly Southern California have been solutions that address the underlying causative factors of gang involvement. Relying on life histories collected over a span of fifteen years, the authors propose a multi-faceted prevention and intervention s...

What causes urban street gang violence, and how can we better understand the forces that shape this type of adolescent and youth behavior? For close to a century, social researchers have taken many different paths in attempting to unravel this complex question, especially in the context of large-scale immigrant adaptation to the city. In recent dec...

Foreword by Joan Moore Preface 1. Introduction 2. Looking at Gangs Cross-Culturally 3. Mexican Americans in the Barrios of Los Angeles 4. "I Just Wanted to Act Loco": Puppet's Story 5. Blacks in Los Angeles: From Central Avenue to South Central Los Angeles 6. "I Noticed the Problem but Never Had the Cure": Mookie's Story 7. Vietnamese in Southern C...

This book, Crime and Immigrant Youth (see record 1999-02574-000 ), addresses a very important aspect of crime, delinquency, and gangs in our society. Its focus on the immigration process as a starting point from which to discuss the unfolding of deviant youth subcultures is a useful contribution to the literature. The author makes many good points...

Incl. bibl. The relationship between streets and schools for Chicano gang youth is at the heart of this article. Vigil argues that understanding how streets and schools intersect in ways that interfere with the learning and school performance of Chicano gang youth may be the key to offering them a more positive schooling experience. Using his multi...

This book aims to provide a better understanding of Mexican American high school students and their struggles with ethnicity, Americanization, prejudice, schools, and life's purposes. In most Anglo minds, these students are characterized by exceptionally high dropout rates and poor school performance, without any explanation for this performance ot...

Initiation into Chicano barrio street gangs has developed over the years into a kind of "street baptism," functioning as a rite of passage for the initiate and a rite of solidarity for the gang. At the same time, it fulfills a pragmatic need to screen potential new members for fighting skills and courage valued by the gang as well as some of the ps...

* Foreword * Preface *1. Introduction *2. Ecological and Socioeconomic Background to Emergence of Street Gangs *3. Sociocultural Factors in the Choloization of the Mexican American Youth * Population *4. Four Life Histories-Wizard, Geronimo, Freddie, and Henry *5. The Gang Subculture as a Lifeway: Structure, Process, and Form *6. The Notorious Side...

Researchers have long assumed that gang members live in the territory they defend as their turf. Our research into two Chicano gangs in East Los Angeles show that many do not. We examine the social and cultural factors which bind gang members together and look at the way non-residents join gangs. The widespread pattern of non-resident gang membersh...

Urban adaptation among Mexican Americans resulting in the rise of youth street gangs is assessed in this article within a framework that examines the adaptation's ecological, economic, cultural, and psychological aspects. It is argued that difficulties in changing to Anglo-American patterns have been exacerbated by living and working conditions and...

To determine the effect of different environments on the acculturation of Mexican American adolescents, an investi gation was conducted of the adaptation strategies utilized by students in an urban and suburban high school. A ques tionnaire was administered to 80 subjects (39 urban, 41 suburban) to determine the degree of acculturation on a Likert-...