The Purpose of the Journey

Why in the world would anyone in his right mind hop into an unmarked police gang unit car at midnight and drive into the middle of gang territory in East Los Angeles? Or go into a prison and be locked in a room with a convicted gang member or death row inmate with no guard in sight? To learn.

I've read and heard a great deal about street gangs over the past decade. It's been like the crescendo of an orchestra, building steadily over the years as the problem itself has spread and worsened. In order to understand the gang phenomenon more completely, however, I knew I also had to walk right into the middle of it. So, I asked for a sabbatical from the university which employs me and started my "personal journey into the world of street gangs."

I wanted to learn about street gangs and I wanted to be able to teach about the gang phenomenon. I also wanted to participate in the on-going conversation about what we can do to reduce the formation of gangs and the number of people joining them. To that extent, while nearly two-thirds of Into the Abyss is a descriptive and explanatory study of street gangs, fully one-third is devoted to exploring solutions to the gang phenomenon. The Table of Contents at the top of each webpage in Into the Abyss provides easy navigation to the listed topics directly, without have to read through the entire book.

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© 2002 Michael K. Carlie
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author and copyright holder - Michael K. Carlie.