Gangs: A Guide to Understanding Street Gangs - 5th Edition (Professional Development (LawTech Publishing))

Some of the information is vintage. It doesn't all apply to today's crime networks. I'm sure younger folks would laugh at the definitions of gang slang the author painstakingly categorized.But the great things about this book are that it gives an overall history of the origins of many gangs, which is so important for the clueless to know. It describes the value systems of many gangs. We all have a personal value system. Some of us have that imparted to us by parents, others by our religious beliefs, others have a value system gained from education, or being in service organizations, or from joining the military. Some even create their own value system primarily by watching what their functional, healthy peers do, think and say. This book will teach you about the gangs' value systems.If you're angry about drug and human trafficking, if you're mad about graffiti, if you're angry about gangs running rampant in the prison system, read this book. It will help you understand. No matter how you think the problem should be solved, no matter what political party you support, first, comprehend the problem.

This book really needs to be updated. The content is hard to follow and the author didn't include an index, just a poorly organized contents section. Good luck trying to find a specific gang to study, they're not listed! I think this book has a lot of good information in it, it just really needs a revamp and more focus on other ethnic gangs.

Book arrived quickily, would not recommend this book for college students, great high school resource. Grammatical errors throughout.

My husband had to buy this for a class

This book is poorly written. There are grammatical errors beyond any I have ever encountered in a professionally published work. Much of this book is excerpts from other works which is fine except they are not woven together in any sort of logical order. Also much of the material is dated. For example references to cellular phone cloning was discussed extensively yet digital cell phones have been around for a decadenor so making the continual references to the topic boring. If the finished product was as good as the writer's CV it would have been much more enjoyable. In fairness I learned a few things but I was hoping for much more.

If you ever wanted a a fancy three letter acronym behind your name, then go wherever this bozo went--cause they are obviously handing them out on a whim. And if you ever want to get published, just take Jack's manuscript from "The Shining" and this "LawTech Publishing" will apparently publish it, and won't even both to EDIT IT!!!This is BY FAR the WORST, most poorly organized, most repetitive, worst spelled, most poorly edited, most unscholarly text I have ever read, period. If this author wants to publish a book in english, well, he ought to learn the rules of grammar first.You will read this book with a constant headache, as you have to reread passages over and over just to try and make sense from them. You will have a constant sense of deja vu as he repeats the same tired phrases OVER AND OVER, in random places. You will crawl away after punishing yourself by reading a chapter, feeling that although you were victorious, it just wasn't worth it... The fact that this is a required text for any class is OBSCENE, and it is the only reason that even a single copy of it has been sold.

I have worked gangs for 22 of my law enforcement career and have been with the Tennessee Gang Investigators Association since its inception. We have had Al at 3 of our conferences and the audience loves him. I have used this book in teaching and just for my own education. People who say it is not a good book and gripe about grammatical errors obviously don’t work gangs.

Nothing different than the consensus. I feel like this guy got his doctorate from a Cracker Jack box... because he's a crackpot, get it? But also because whatever university gave him that piece of paper clearly never make him take an English writing class. It's a painfully frustrating read. Terribly written book by an equally inconsistent and illogical teacher.Clarification: I find the subject matter really fascinating, and obviously Valdez has some really great insight in this issue, but he really shouldn't be allowed to write in any official capacity.