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Gangs in Australia appear to have become more widespread and increasingly threatening. Those who work with disengaged youth either involved gangs or criminal activities are reporting increased violence and more sophisticated recruitment methods. Les Twentyman OAM (Order of Australia Medal for services to disengaged youth 1994), has worked as a fulltime outreach worker for more than 20 years with 'street kids' and gangs in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia; Chicago, Los Angeles and Cleveland in the US; Sutton in the UK; and also in Belfast. He reports the use of cyber communication methods for the spread and copying of gang-related crime. Although gangs are typically formed along ethnic lines and often associated with particular locations, some cross ethnic and/or space boundaries. Twentyman has expressed concern that the availability and use of the internet is associated with increasing recruitment practices. It has also been suggested that street gangs are caught up in issues relating to drug dealing through more organised crime gangs. These dimensions of gang-related deviancy call for discussion and much needed research from a sociological perspective. Apart from the role of internet and other modes of communication, the roundtable discussion will include topics such as the gang-producing circumstances, issues of identity and belonging, and the role and importance of various forms of education. Twentyman will attend the 2011 ASA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas and contribute to the proposed roundtable discussion. We welcome participation by those who have conducted research in this area or are interested in doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing up in high poverty neighborhoods is associated with lower educational attainment, but few studies explain how neighborhoods contribute to poor educational outcomes. Drawing on ethnographic data and interviews with Latino male youth in Los Angeles, I propose that violence is the most salient and consequential aspect of urban neighborhoods affecting Latino male high-school non-completion. Endemic neighborhood violence leads youths, including non-gang youths, to establish social ties with gangs and crews, as these ties help assure their own physical safety and bolster the "respect" others have for them. Even for youths peripherally committed to the gang or crew, these ties create dynamics of intra-group cohesion and inter-group conflict that lead youths to skip school and fall behind academically or get expelled for fighting, which, in turn, leads to their high school non-completion. This suggests that it is peer ties and gang and crew group dynamics that mediate the relationship between violence in these neighborhoods and high school non-completion. Importantly, not all urban youth are similarly exposed to the neighborhood. Parents, particularly fathers, and school institutional structures moderate the extent to which youth spend time in the neighborhood and are exposed to urban violence by structuring their time and peers. Youth who lack these institutional buffers and are most exposed to the neighborhood context navigate urban violence alone. It is these youth who turn to male peer groups and engage in behavior that leads to high school non-completion, despite generally holding conventional outlooks towards education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines transnational practices among the 1.5- and second-generation Asian immigrants and their implications for political incorporation using the data from the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles. The study sample consists of the adults children (ages 20-40) of Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese immigrants with full information (n=1,403). There are variations in number of sustained transnational practices between and within ethnic groups, but findings generally support for the arguments of "resource-dependent transnationalism" and "reactive transnationalism." In addition, sustained transnational practices have a positive and significant effect on participatory political activities above and beyond other variables. Based on these findings, this article concludes with a discussion of theoretical and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the fertility differences between Mexican-origin generations and non-Hispanic whites using a dataset that permits isolation of a true third generation (as opposed to a third-plus generation). Using Poisson regression, we analyze the number of children ever born from the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA) survey. By the third generation, fertility levels of those of Mexican origin are not significantly different from non-Hispanic whites. Controlling for the influences of other factors, the pattern of fertility differences is consistent with a delayed incorporation theoretical perspective. We also use unique longitudinal data from IIMMLA on Mexican origin respondents' census tracts of residence to assess replenishment hypotheses about contextual effects [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists assume that interracial marriage demonstrates a blurring of racial boundaries and a lack of social closure between racial groups, particularly in terms of accepting lower stigmatized status groups. However, it is unclear to what extent the individuals in mixed-race unions are able to navigate racial boundaries in terms of black and white contexts and networks. To what extent do interracial marriages lead to a blurring of boundaries? In order to answer this question, I use interviewing methods to examine the contemporary experiences of black-white couples in the LA and Rio de Janeiro. I investigate (1) the social contexts and relations in which the relationships are embedded and (2) the constellations of these meanings around intersections of race, class, and gender. My research shows that interracial marriage can lead to boundary negotiation whose results vary depending on the race, class, and gender combination of those involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large numbers of foreign-born residents in the United States mean that many people receive at least part of their education abroad. Despite this fact, our understanding of nativity differences in the success of adults and their children is based on research that does not empirically consider variation in the benefits to schooling depending on where it is received. We use data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS) to examine: a) whether the socioeconomic and cognitive returns to education depend on whether it is received in the U.S. or abroad; and b) whether schooling location partially accounts for nativity differences in these returns. We find that the returns to schooling are generally largest for adults who receive at least some of their highest level of education in the U.S. The beneficial effects of U.S. schooling are more pronounced at higher levels of educational attainment. Schooling location accounts for a sizeable fraction of the lower socioeconomic and cognitive returns of the foreign-born, relative to natives; some meaningful differences remain, however. In addition, the higher cognitive skills of the children of foreign-born adults remain unexplained. Although we cannot distinguish among the possible pathways underlying these associations (e.g., school quality, transferability of credentials, the timing of immigration) our findings suggest the importance of considering factors related to schooling location as predictors of socioeconomic and cognitive success in the United States. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]