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"When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era" by Donovan X. Ramsey explores the impact of the crack era in the United States, particularly on Black communities. The book follows the lives of four main characters, highlighting how the different stages of the crack era affected them over time. Ramsey also provides historical and social context, discussing the origins of crack and the rise of mass incarceration. While the book may be informative for readers with little knowledge of the crack era, scholars may find it lacking in new information. [Extracted from the article]

In the United States, some prison gangs control not only inmates, but also what happens on the street. Since most gang members eventually get detained and incarcerated, prison gangs will victimize or kill any resistors in jail and prison. In this paper, I examine such a case between the California prison gang, La Eme, and the rebel Maravilla gangs of East Los Angeles. La Eme controls almost all the Latino gangs in Southern California and enforces prison and street rules that "Southsider" gangs must follow. Between 1993 and 2006, the Maravilla gangs resisted La Eme's prison co-governance and then experienced a violence and victimization perhaps unrivaled in the gang world. Through field research on the Maravilla gangs, this paper reveals how some gangs defy prison co-governance, which then makes them feel meaningful in the gang world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transparency movement has begun urging researchers to publicize their data in order to ease replication and accountability. Some ethnographers have also begun arguing that researchers should unmask, or fully disclose, field sites and participant identities in order to replicate studies, verify accounts, and monitor social phenomena over time. However, for ethnographers studying violence and crime, full transparency or unmasking can get an ethnographer harmed. Thus, I broaden the unmasking/masking discussion by arguing for partial disclosures in dangerous research. To do so, I provide examples from my previous drug market ethnography and my ongoing gang research. I then propose safer ways to disclose field sites and participants, mainly through the following: semibiographical disclosure, where the ethnographer strategically omits some data in otherwise rich biographical portraits; through partial spatial disclosures, where the ethnographer reveals the field site's general area; and through invitational disclosure, where the ethnographer invites outsiders to meet participants in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, ethnographers often presented themselves in the classic hero frame, where they appeared authoritative and calm. Recent ethnographers, though, reveal hardship and vulnerability yet prevail as "new age heroes" who overcame danger and doubt. Missing are the important methodological insights of ethnographers who experience multiple setbacks and obstacles, ones that lead to a broken ethnography, or one that never materializes or starts. Here, the ethnographer suffers, becoming dispirited and wanting to surrender or give up. This paper breaks that methodological silence, showing how difficult gang research in Los Angeles County placed me in a broken ethnography, one where I became disillusioned and questioned my abilities and resolve. In the end, the experience revealed important methodological lessons, ones that provide guidance for future ethnographers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gangs within minority communities often focuses on gang crime and violence, and gang organization. Few studies examine the non-gang member side of the equation, especially in how potential victims make sense of gang encounters. This paper reveals how young Black and Latino men interpret gang encounters, interpretations that differ because of the following: one’s ethnicity, a gang’s ethnicity, the state of interethnic gang conflict, and a space’s ethnic makeup. It will also examine the intersection of time, specifically as to how shifting neighborhood demographics change the perceptions of these young minority men. This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in both Compton and South Central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on “territorial stigmatization” analyzes how residents of stigmatized spaces negotiate their blemished reputations. It reveals their distress, despondency, and resistance as they encounter the space’s negative imagery. Building on this research, this paper introduces the concept of spatial anguish to capture the shame and embarrassment residents feel because of their stigmatized space. To do so, it uses an intersectional analysis to show how anguished residents try to deflect the stigma through reinforcing racist and sexist imageries of their neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loïc Wacquant's provocative call for a flesh and blood sociology holds promise for ethnographers willing to engage their bodies while doing research. Specifically, it allows ethnographies to experience the same bodily and emotional sensations as their study participants, which then improves their understanding of how bodily crafts inform human life. However, a 'carnal' approach may encounter three obstacles: first, mainstream researchers who are trained in traditional observational methods and writing; second, the time, effort, and thought needed to methodologically link the researcher's body to the research; and third, the fear of ethnographers wanting to avoid being labeled as 'narcissistic' and 'unscientific.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous street crime research has shown that female robbers manipulate their sexuality to secure male victims. Also, the larger ethnographic drug market literature has shown how male criminals construct masculinity through the sexual and economic manipulation of women. However, both accounts miss how male criminals manipulate the masculinity of other men to victimize them. This article fills that gap, showing how male drug robbers play on the masculinity of male dealers to bait them into a robbery. Through The Girl, a female accomplice, male drug robbers lure male dealers, believing that men demonstrate masculinity through sexual relations with women. Apart from this, male drug robbers construct their own masculinity through The Girl, who is often manipulated and exploited through sexist stereotypes and practices. This research is based on ethnographic field data collected on a group of Dominican drug robbers in a South Bronx neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an 8-week period, there were 16 shootings with three fatalities, three stabbings, and 14 additional "aggravated assaults" in the four square blocks surrounding our field site in the Puerto Rican corner of North Philadelphia. In the aftermath of the shoot-outs, the drug sellers operating on our block were forced to close down their operations by several mothers who repeatedly called the police. Drawing on the concept of moral economy (Thompson, Scott, Taussig), Mauss's interpretation of gift exchange, and a political economy critique of hyper-carceralization in the United States, we understand the high levels of US inner-city violence as operating within a moral logic framed by economic scarcity and hostile state relations. Residents seek security, self-respect, and profit in social networks that compel them to participate in solidary exchanges of assistive violence dynamized by kinship and gender obligations. A hierarchical, extractive drug economy fills the void left by deindustrialization, resulting in a dynamic of embodied primitive accumulation at the expense of addicted customers and chronically incarcerated just-in-time street sellers at high risk of assault. Nevertheless, the mobilization of violence organizing the illegal drug economy also follows ethical norms and obligations that are recognized as legitimate by many local residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]