Customer Reviews

Suburban Gangs: The Affluent Rebels

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This is a terrible book. It tries to argue that there is a growing suburban gang problem in the USA. To support this claim, it spends most of its time detailing European gangs (football hooligans in UK and racist & anarchistic skinheads in Eastern Europe). However, Korem fails to tie these groups to any American "gangs." Additionally, the "suburban gangs" in America he does find aren't really gangs. Korem argues these "suburban gangs" are caused by a breakdown in the traditional American family (divorce, abuse or dysfunctional parents). Not surprisingly children in this situation are more prone to act out. But, they are not in gangs. They group together with other kids and get deeply involved into Heavy Metal or Punk music or the occult. Sometimes they do drugs or runaway. But, the vast majority of them are just going through a phase and move on within a few years. Korem's attempt to make this a growing national crisis is meritless. He has no hard data to support his claims and uses journalistic accounts and illustrative stories to cover for the absence of any stastical support. Do not buy this book. There are numerous other gang books that are better written, better researched and focus on actual gang problems.

IFP has a web site with more info on the book. The address is www.ifpinc.com