Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know

As this strong but flawed study of gang girls in Kansas City shows, gangs are as pervasive and dangerous in the heartland as on the coasts. Fleisher's street ethnography follows the life of a girl called Cara over several years, but 38 other ""major players"" move in and out of Cara's life, and the sheer number clouds the narrative. Gang girls are usually from lower socioeconomic backgrounds; were often abused as children, then by male gang members as young adults; and live lives shattered by drugs, assaults, unplanned pregnancies and sporadic police contact. The author hung around with gang members, listening, recording and trying to tiptoe the line between objective observer and sympathetic participant. His accomplishment as a researcher is impressive. The best street ethnographies, however, like Elliott Liebow's Tally's Corner, have been more selective in presentation of material. Tragedies are emotionally diluted for readers after the same victimization occurs to a girl seven times. Also, conversations transcribed in dialect seem forced and phonetic word spellings become intrusive at times. Fortunately, the author's skill as a researcher consistently prevails. A final chapter advances the methodology of street ethnography and places the study in a broader perspective. Fleisher, a cultural anthropologist, criminal ethnographer and former administrator in the Federal Bureau of Prisons who now teaches criminal justice sciences at Illinois State, clearly cares about his subjects. When he writes, ""What truly matters to me is the actual resolution of these problems and the material improvement of kids' lives,"" it is believable. (Oct.)