University of Chicago Press Homeboys Forever: The Lifetime Consequences of Gang Membership

What is the end of the story after a lifetime in gangs? Violence, addiction, imprisonment . . . we don’t have to look hard to see the negative consequences of gang involvement. But what does it look like to spend a life―from adolescence to adulthood―in gangs? Sociologist Avelardo Valdez and his research team have been following the lives of Mexican American men in San Antonio, Texas, over a remarkable twenty years, watching and listening as they navigate adolescent delinquency and gang involvement, advance into a life of crime, and―sometimes―attempt to break from gang life and build lives in conventional society. When gang affiliation exploded in the 1990s, adolescent street gang membership surged in the Mexican American community of Westside San Antonio. Valdez was quick to begin investigating how young men embedded in a system with little support for lasting change turned to gang violence, drug use, and other risky behaviors. The honesty of these men’s accounts draws our attention to the economic, political, and sociocultural context of impoverished communities in San Antonio. Being constantly written off as troublemakers and criminals eroded the self-respect that these young men once had. They were once lithe, active, and full of self-confidence, but after a lifetime of constant harassment and entanglements with the legal system, they now have a perpetual look of exhaustion and defeat. Encouraging readers to question who is at fault when young men become involved in gangs and other delinquent behaviors, Homeboys Forever is a humanizing account of marginalized youth who struggle to overcome the systemic inequities that have led to a lifetime of heartbreaking consequences.