The Insane Chicago Way is the untold story of a daring plan by Chicago gangs in the 1990s to create a Spanish Mafia—and why it failed. John M. Hagedorn traces how Chicago Latino gang leaders, following in Al Capone’s footsteps, built a sophisticated organization dedicated to organizing crime and reducing violence. His lively stories of extensive cross-neighborhood gang organization, tales of police/gang corruption, and discovery of covert gang connections to Chicago’s Mafia challenge conventional wisdom and offer lessons for the control of violence today. The book centers on the secret history of Spanish Growth &amp; Development (SGD)—an organization of Latino gangs founded in 1989 and modeled on the Mafia’s nationwide Commission. It also tells a story within a story of the criminal exploits of the C-Note$, the “minor league” team of the Chicago’s Mafia (called the “Outfit”), which influenced the direction of SGD. Hagedorn’s tale is based on three years of interviews with an Outfit soldier as well as access to SGD’s constitution and other secret documents, which he supplements with interviews of key SGD leaders, court records, and newspaper accounts. The result is a stunning, heretofore unknown history of the grand ambitions of Chicago gang leaders that ultimately led to SGD’s shocking collapse in a pool of blood on the steps of a gang-organized peace conference. The Insane Chicago Way is a compelling history of the lives and deaths of Chicago gang leaders. At the same time it is a sociological tour de force that warns of the dangers of organized crime while arguing that today’s relative disorganization of gangs presents opportunities for intervention and reductions in violence.

The Insane Chicago Way: The Daring Plan by Chicago Gangs to Create a Spanish Mafia

History

Hagedorn, John M.

Americas

University of Chicago Press

When People and Folks first appeared, William Julius Wilson  called it "the most insightful book ever written on inner-city gangs" and  "required reading for anyone seeking an understanding of gang activity in  our large urban centers."  It was also praised by Ron Huff as "a  vicarious journey into the underbelly of a rustbelt city, the breeding  ground of gangs-Underclass America." This gritty and poignant portrait of  gang members has become a major contribution to the academic literature.  The first edition of People and Folks broke new ground,  influencing a  generation of researchers. This expanded edition also offers provocative  new insights into race and class, challenging accepted theories with  fresh data from one of the most extensive studies ever undertaken of  street gangs in a single city.  In particular, Hagedorn questions  prevailing  assumptions about gang violence, drug use, and the cultural  differences between the inner-city "underclass" and the suburban middle  classes. Unlike many other gang studies, he explores the nature of   gender for both male and female gangs members and examines the  differences between male and female gangs.  Another important aspect of People and Folks  is its contribution to  social science methodology. Hagedorn shows why an accurate picture of  street gangs is  impossible without going directly to the gangs. People  and Folks  is a model of "collaborative research" with present and former  gang members. An influential new view of gangs emerges from the voices of  the gang members themselves, who meet the questions posed by criminology  with unexpected, harsh and often moving answers.  What are the reasons for the increase-and recent decrease-in violence and  drug use? Do gang youth hold deviant or mainstream values? Have two  decades of deindustrialization given birth to a new set of destructive,  violent values among the truly disadvantaged.  Or are gang members more  like "us" than they are different? Are underclass neighborhoods  "disorganized," or differently organized, with new illicit jobs taking  the place of the lost industry? How are the female gangs different from  male gangs, and what do the differences tell us about how to address  violence and drug abuse?  Hagedorn answers these questions by going to the gang members themselves,  with their voices rising above the mass of new data. With its complex and  nuanced picture of gang members and concrete short-term responses for  social policy, the new edition of People and Folks may prove as  provocative as the first.

People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City

Politics & Social Sciences

Macon, Perry

Sociology

Lake View Pr

Pages are clean and binding is tight.

People and Folks: Gangs, Crime, and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City

Forsaking Our Children is the story of what happens when an activist sociologist-and former welfare rights organizer-is hired to reform a child welfare system. Written for social workers and activists as well as for academics and policy makers, this book combines often gut-wrenching personal stories and a compelling narrative of a hard-fought reform struggle with a critical history of child welfare. Despite today's adverse conditions, Hagedorn argues against defeatism, proposing a concrete and attainable blueprint for reform of the U.S. child welfare system. 
How and why our child welfare system fails children and their families are central questions of this book. Chilling stories of these failures are combined with a new theoretical perspective which shows how welfare bureaucracies adapted to changing political conditions, substituting punitive interventions for the delivery of needed services. Hagedorn critically examines the history of public welfare from the 19th century through the New Deal, the Anti-Poverty Programs of the sixties, and the "discover" of child abuse in the seventies. The logical conclusion of this history is the current emphasis on removing children from their families and the creation of a new system of orphanages. Applying lessons learned from restructuring modern businesses to the reform of welfare bureaucracies, Hagedorn argues that genuine reform does not involve either massive cutbacks or infusion of new funds. 
The lessons Hagedorn draws from the Milwaukee reform experience apply more broadly to the educational, welfare and criminal justice bureaucracies which play a major role in regulating the poor.

Forsaking Our Children: Bureaucracy and Reform in the Child Welfare System

Social Sciences

Gangs on Trial: Challenging Stereotypes and Demonization in the Courts (Studies in Transgression)

John Hagedorn, who has long been an expert witness in gang-related court cases, claims that what transpires in the trials of gang members is a far cry from what we would consider justice. In Gangs on Trial, he recounts his decades of experience to show how stereotypes are used against gang members on trial and why that is harmful. Hagedorn uses real-life stories to explain how implicit bias often replaces evidence and how the demonization of gang members undermines fairness. Moreover, a "them and us" mentality leads to snap judgments that ignore the complexity of gang life in America.Gangs on Trial dispels myths about gangs and recommends tactics for lawyers, mitigation specialists, and expert witnesses as well as offering insights for jurors. Hagedorn describes how minds are subconsciously "primed" when a defendant is identified as a gang member, and discusses the "backfire effect," which occurs when jurors hear arguments that run counter to their beliefs. He also reveals how attributional errors, prejudice, and racism impact sentences of nonwhite defendants.Hagedorn argues that dehumanization is the psychological foundation of mass incarceration. Gangs on Trial advocates for practical sentencing reforms and humanizing justice.

Self-Help

Haney, Craig

Relationships

Temple University Press

Review\n“Gangs on Trial is a great read—part memoir, part case study, and a full plea for the reform of our criminal legal system. Hagedorn takes readers on a journey of social psychology to disabuse the stereotypical threat and the often-misapplied label of ‘gang related.’ His book is essential reading for those involved in or concerned about criminal ‘justice.’ He provides thoughtfully told stories of heartbreak, redemption, and perseverance with attention paid to the racism and racial dynamics that are ever-present in the legal system. Finally, and most importantly, Hagedorn reminds us that compassion is integral to humanity and that we are all more than the worst thing we have ever done." 
—Randolph Stone, retired Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago and former public defender\nJohn Hagedorn, who has long been an expert witness in gang-related court cases, claims that what transpires in the trials of gang members is a far cry from what we would consider justice. In Gangs on Trial, he recounts his decades of experience to show how stereotypes are used against gang members on trial and why that is harmful. Hagedorn uses real-life stories to explain how implicit bias often replaces evidence and how the demonization of gang members undermines fairness. Moreover, a “them and us” mentality leads to snap judgments that ignore the complexity of gang life in America. 
Gangs on Trial dispels myths about gangs and recommends tactics for lawyers, mitigation specialists, and expert witnesses as well as offering insights for jurors. Hagedorn describes how minds are subconsciously “primed” when a defendant is identified as a gang member, and discusses the “backfire effect,” which occurs when jurors hear arguments that run counter to their beliefs. He also reveals how attributional errors, prejudice, and racism impact sentences of nonwhite defendants. 
Hagedorn argues that dehumanization is the psychological foundation of mass incarceration. Gangs on Trial advocates for practical sentencing reforms and humanizing justice.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hagedorn, John M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hagedorn, John M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hagedorn, John M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Insane Chicago Way: The Daring Plan by Chicago Gangs to Create a Spanish Mafia

People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City

People and Folks: Gangs, Crime, and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City

Forsaking Our Children: Bureaucracy and Reform in the Child Welfare System

Gangs on Trial: Challenging Stereotypes and Demonization in the Courts (Studies in Transgression)

Gangs on Trial: Challenging Stereotypes and Demonization in the Courts (Studies in Transgression)